03 · 13 · 12 A tribute to the silent films screened at FICM Share with twitter Share with facebook Share with mail Copy to clipboard Ma. Cristina Alemán, editora web (@mcristina) In 1916, psychologist Hugo Münsterberg wrote in defense of cinema as an art. He argued that film (which he called "the photoplay") should be distinguished from painting and theater by its own aesthetic conditions, which included silence. For Münsterberg, the limits of any art are also its strengths, so he thought the moment cinema adopted sound, it would lose precisely that which made it unique: the ability to tell stories through images. We now know that Münsterberg's fears were unfounded; the "talkies" did not become filmed theater and cinematographic language is still alive and well. However, it's worth remembering the artistic merit of those films which never required dialogues to be understood. Throughout its history (almost ten years!), FICM has screened many gems from the silent era. For example, in 2006 the festival joined forces with the UNAM's film archive (Filmoteca de la UNAM) and exhibited documentaries from Michoacán at the beginning of the 20th Century: Fiestas patrias en Morelia (1908) and Los hijos de la antigua Valladolid (1922) by the Alva brothers as well as Fiestas patrias en Zamora (1929) by Francisco García Urbizu. These documentaries were accompanied by the pianist Deborah Silberer, who has collaborated with the festival on multiple occasions. In the fifth edition of FICM, in 2007, Alejandro González Iñárritu presented Lonesome (1928) by the Hungarian director Pál Fejös. In that same edition, a selection of erotic shorts from the twenties and thirties were shown in the "Bramadero y otros cortos eróticos" program.Deborah Silberer, once again, accompanied these films with her music. At FICM 2009, Silberer played for the special program "Canes en el cine," which raised funds for an association which protects animal rights in Michoacán (AMICHA). Four silent shorts were exhibited in this context: Angora Love (1929) by Lewis R. Foster and The Lucky Dog (1921) by Jess Robbins, both starring Stanley Laurel and Oliver Hardy; A Dog's Life (1918) by Charlie Chaplin; and Rescued by Rover (1905) by Lewin Fitzhamon. Also in 2009, FICM showed an early Romanian film: Independenta României (1912) by Aristide Demetriade. Once again, Deborah Silberer was in charge of the live music. Other silent films that have been shown by FICM are El tren fantasma (1927) by Gabriel García Moreno (one of the few silent feature length Mexican films); À propos de Nice (1930) by Jean Vigo; Chang: A Drama of Wilderness (1927) and Grass: A Nation's Battle for Life (1925) by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack; Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927) by F.W. Murnau; People on Sunday (1930) by Curt Siodmak, Robert Siodmak, Edgar G. Ullmer and Fred Zinnemann; and La chute de la maison Usher (1928) by Jean Epstein. If you missed the screening of these films at FICM, don't pass up the next opportunity to see them! The Artist's success is proof that silent cinema still remains attractive for contemporary audiences. And, as Münsterberg very eloquently explained, there is a unique quality in those films which "speak in the language of pictures," a quality which must not be forgotten.
