Back to the Silent Tempest

The Tempest. Silent Shakespeare. Dir. Percy Stow. Perf. Unknown. 1908. DVD. Image Entertainment, 2000.

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I managed to take another look at the silent version of The Tempest that I had mentioned earlier.  Spinster Aunt's list of silent movies for people who [think that they] don't like silent movies contained no Shakespeare films—scandalous!—and I wanted to recommend one.

I actually recommended a 1920 silent German version of Hamlet (more on that later), but I've been thinking that I should have mentioned this again.  Thinking back on it, I thought it was about thirty minutes long.  It's actually only twelve or thirteen.  They managed to put so much in in such a short amount of time!

Naturally, as Spinster Aunt remarks, the language of Shakespeare is, for the most part, lost in a silent film . . . but that's part of what makes these films so remarkable as films.

Anyway, more on all that later.  I keep having to remind myself that this is a MicroBlog and that my posts should be shorter.

p.s.  And it also has fabulous title cards.  Look at that color in "The dicsovery of Caliban" above!  Wow!

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