The Silent Film
Society of Chicago
4050 N. Milwaukee Avenue
Chicago, IL 60641
(773) 205-SFSC
Experience Silent Film
The Way It Was Meant to Be
One of the extraordinary things about the
silent cinema is its ability to communicate to everyone. Not
bound by the restraints of speech, its powerful ability to express
truly makes it an international language.
Several factors make the silent film experience truly unique and enjoyable: the music, the theatre, and the film presentation. Each of these elements makes the silent film come alive.
Music
Silent
films were never really silent. Music is a fundamental part of the
silent films experience. In the early years, background noise from the
film projectors were covered up by the music from the piano, either from
a piano roll or a live pianist. Later, theatres engaged pit orchestras
to accompany the
story on the screen. The development of the theatre pipe organ, which
was played by a single musician and could produce sound effects and
create the "voice" of an entire orchestra, became synonymous with the
silent movies. Today the venerable pipe organ, a cast-off in Hollywood's
hasty conversion from silent films to talkies, makes a grand comeback
with the help of the Silent Film Society's featured photoplay organists,
such as Jay Warren, Dennis Scott, and Dennis James.
Theatre
The majestic movie
palace, complete with the grandiose pipe organ, have been replaced by
today's modern multiplex movie theatres. Only a few remain, and the
Silent Film Society is fortunate to count two historic Chicago area
theatres as their screening sites — the Portage Theatre in Chicago, the Pickwick
in Park Ridge, IL, a suburb of Chicago, and the
Arcada Theatre in St. Charles, IL.
Silent Film Presentation
The only exposure
most people have to the silent cinema is through film clips shown on
television, accompanied by an out-of-tune piano or inappropriate
background music, with the film itself shown at the wrong speed. When
sound was first introduced in Hollywood, studio heads were reluctant to
invest extensively in the talkies. At this point, the silent film
photoplay had developed into near perfection and they didn't want to
ruin what they had spent so much time and expense developing over the
years. But the public wanted to hear their favorite stars speak, so
silent films were replaced by sound movies and eventually were
forgotten. Only with the emergence of organizations like the Silent Film
Society of Chicago has it been possible for this overlooked art form to
regain public recognition and acceptance.
The combination of the majestic movie palace, a skilled accompanist at the theatre pipe organ, and the best possible quality movie prints add up to an illuminating experience that can best be described as Live Cinema.