Lesson One: America's Sweetheart
I got my Movie Project underway. Unit One: Pre-1920s, which means - ugh! - SILENT FILMS! Lesson One: America's (Canada's) sweetheart, Mary Pickford.
Well, MY GOD, look at those curls. (This might not actually be so bad!)
I kick-started Lesson One with something palatable and from 2005. A PBS American Experience documentary on America's very first movie star, Mary Pickford. I went into it with absolutely no knowledge. Had pretty much no idea who she was, how the early picture industry started, what movies at the time were like. All I really knew was that people in old silent films move unnaturally fast and the story gets interrupted every now and then with little captions that sometimes do and sometimes don't translate into modern dialect.
I'm glad I started with a documentary - any good teacher can ignite your passions with their own enthusiasm, and PBS generally does a good job of making things interesting. After watching the PBS deal, I have much more interest watching Mary Pickford films, having a firm understanding of who she was and where she came from (poor, fatherless, Canadian, struggling along with her mother and younger siblings to support themselves by working with traveling theater groups). And next (and most importantly), I probably wouldn't have noticed what she brought to the screen on my own. For one, I'm unapologetically NOT a theater person. And for two, I'm from 2010 (the future!) and my point of reference skews any observation I might bring to silent film-viewing. So, I felt grateful for the filmmakers pointing out to me how she was the first to bring naturalism to her screen acting (not resorting to throwing her hands up, fainting, and the other theatrical devices actors typically used at the time). In fact, that forced melodrama is one of the reasons I have a hard time appreciating old films. And, go figure, the film historians were right! Mary Pickford has this captivating quality about her, without being particularly stunning or sexy. It's just this...LIFE, that makes you not want to look away.
Then it was time to see for myself as audiences at the time saw her. To watch what they fell in love with. I watched the 1917 silent picture The Poor Little Rich Girl, in which she played an 11 year-old, when she was actually 25. (You can watch it yourself on Youtube if you want to be the 5,457th loser to do so - I was Number 5,456, although only 712 losers made it to Part 7 of 7.) I was skeptical about a grown woman playing a little girl. I've seen it done before in classic pictures, and it looks freaking ridiculous. But in the case of Mary Pickford, it was how audiences loved to see her. Little girls (and innocent yet spunky young women) were what she was famous for. So I gave it a shot.
Verdict? Movie magic, I gotta admit! I guess I'm a convert to this whole old movie thing, or maybe I'm onto something - starting at the beginning. Silent films have a kind of childlike magic to them - watching them is like reading a storybook. And Mary Pickford was almost luminescent with charm. Really, those curls!
She was there in the earliest days of film, inventing the profession. Here she is playing a supporting role in 1909, OVER ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO, can you believe it?
And, to round out Lesson One, I ran across a film-buff blogger, who writes a very interesting and well-written post about silent film stars, and how they are (and always have been) overlooked and marginalized. He/She is certainly a better teacher than I on the matter.
Well, MY GOD, look at those curls. (This might not actually be so bad!)
I kick-started Lesson One with something palatable and from 2005. A PBS American Experience documentary on America's very first movie star, Mary Pickford. I went into it with absolutely no knowledge. Had pretty much no idea who she was, how the early picture industry started, what movies at the time were like. All I really knew was that people in old silent films move unnaturally fast and the story gets interrupted every now and then with little captions that sometimes do and sometimes don't translate into modern dialect.
I'm glad I started with a documentary - any good teacher can ignite your passions with their own enthusiasm, and PBS generally does a good job of making things interesting. After watching the PBS deal, I have much more interest watching Mary Pickford films, having a firm understanding of who she was and where she came from (poor, fatherless, Canadian, struggling along with her mother and younger siblings to support themselves by working with traveling theater groups). And next (and most importantly), I probably wouldn't have noticed what she brought to the screen on my own. For one, I'm unapologetically NOT a theater person. And for two, I'm from 2010 (the future!) and my point of reference skews any observation I might bring to silent film-viewing. So, I felt grateful for the filmmakers pointing out to me how she was the first to bring naturalism to her screen acting (not resorting to throwing her hands up, fainting, and the other theatrical devices actors typically used at the time). In fact, that forced melodrama is one of the reasons I have a hard time appreciating old films. And, go figure, the film historians were right! Mary Pickford has this captivating quality about her, without being particularly stunning or sexy. It's just this...LIFE, that makes you not want to look away.
Then it was time to see for myself as audiences at the time saw her. To watch what they fell in love with. I watched the 1917 silent picture The Poor Little Rich Girl, in which she played an 11 year-old, when she was actually 25. (You can watch it yourself on Youtube if you want to be the 5,457th loser to do so - I was Number 5,456, although only 712 losers made it to Part 7 of 7.) I was skeptical about a grown woman playing a little girl. I've seen it done before in classic pictures, and it looks freaking ridiculous. But in the case of Mary Pickford, it was how audiences loved to see her. Little girls (and innocent yet spunky young women) were what she was famous for. So I gave it a shot.
Verdict? Movie magic, I gotta admit! I guess I'm a convert to this whole old movie thing, or maybe I'm onto something - starting at the beginning. Silent films have a kind of childlike magic to them - watching them is like reading a storybook. And Mary Pickford was almost luminescent with charm. Really, those curls!
She was there in the earliest days of film, inventing the profession. Here she is playing a supporting role in 1909, OVER ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO, can you believe it?
Click to viewAnd, to round out Lesson One, I ran across a film-buff blogger, who writes a very interesting and well-written post about silent film stars, and how they are (and always have been) overlooked and marginalized. He/She is certainly a better teacher than I on the matter.