Our sister site, The Silent Film Bookshelf , reprints original documents from the silent era. Both sites are updated with new information on the first of each month. S ilent films entertained the world until the coming of sound films in the late 1920s. They are still a wonderful source of entertainment. Many potential viewers dismiss silent features because they require more concentration than sound films.
Silent films are a distinct art form, and when properly presented, they have their own qualities.
When poor quality copies are presented with inappropriate music at the wrong speed, the results do not represent the original theatrical presentation. If you only knew silent films from excerpts in television commercials or documentaries, you might think that all silent films had jerky, contrasty images that stammer across the screen. Silent films are in distribution on video in editions of varying quality. Many seemingly adequate copies misrepresent the original film. Some of the music scores accompanying silent films greatly enhance the films, while others are detrimental.