Compare And Contrast The Sound Era And The Silent Era

The silent era in film occurred between 1895 through 1929. It had a a major impact on film history, cinematically and musically. In silent films, the dialogue was seen through muted gestures, mime, and title cards from the beginning of the film to the end. The pioneers of the silent era were directors such as, D. W. Griffith, Robert Wiene and Edwin S. Porter. These groundbreaking directors brought films like first horror movie and the first action and western movie. Due to lack of color, the silent films were either black and white or dyed by various shades and hues to signal a mood or represent a time of day. Now, we begin to enter towards the sound era and opposed to the silent era, synchronized sounds were introduced to movies. The classic movie, The Jazz Singer, which was directed by Alan Crosland, was the first feature length film to have synchronized dialogue. This was not only another major impact in film history, but it also played a major part in film technology and where film is right now.

From the silent era, I chose the movie, The Great Train Robbery, which was directed by Edwin S. Porter. It is a great example of a film that introduced new camera techniques, composite editing, and on-location shooting. As for the sound era, the movie I chose is Á bout de soufflé, also titled Breathless, which was directed by Jean-Luc Godard and was known for its visual style using its jump cuts. It also was the earliest and most influential examples of French New Wave