Silent Cinema Essay

Films initially began in silence. Filmmakers did not have the technology to synchronise sound with moving images for the first thirty years of cinema. The final introduction of synchronised sound was a change that altered the history of cinema forever. Of course, it’s impossible to discuss the arrival of synchronised sound in film without first acknowledging the era of Silent Cinema and everything that preceded it.
Since the 1880’s, inventors worked to develop movie cameras. Eadweard Muybridge’s Zoopraxiscope was perhaps one of the earliest motion picture devices. Thomas Edison, well-known as the inventor of the phonograph, also had a major part to play in the invention of cinema. “Thomas Edison was, albeit innocently, the spark that led to

Some may imagine the union of the Kinetoscope with the phonograph to be simple, but it was difficult for the two inventions to co-operate in perfect synchronization. Films remained silent for a long time, but the wonder of moving images had been enough to capture the audience’s attention during that era. Susan Hayward states “At the time there was no sense of urgency to go to the costly depths of implementing a sound system, since cinema was proving sufficiently profitable in its silent mode, France, Germany and the United States had been competing almost since the beginnings of the film industry to synchronise sound and image.” (Hayward, 2000, pg.

An actress with an unusual voice or a heavy accent, such as Greta Garbo, was given a greater allure by the lack of sound, appearing much more mysterious and enticing in silence. Garbo’s sound debut was long postponed and it was believed that this was due to her ‘unappealing’ voice. There was now a new increased pressure on actors, as they had to memorise lines of dialogue. Their performance became more static, as any movement could cause unwanted sounds to be recorded onto their microphones or could have prevented their voices being caught on