Studying Early and Silent Cinema by Keith Withall

Author:Keith Withall
Format: epub
Tags: PER004020, Performing Arts/Film & Video/Guides & Reviews, PER004030, Performing Arts/Film & Video/History & Criticism
Publisher: Perseus Books, LLC
Published: 2012-08-31T16:00:00+00:00

4. Émigrés

Hollywood’s dominance in Europe extended beyond the renters and exhibitors. Increasingly in the late silent era the studios poached the best talent from the European industries. This included stars, directors, cameramen, scriptwriters, set designers and musicians. Two early recruits from the German industry were Lubitsch and Murnau. Murnau worked for Fox Studios and there directed one of the classics of silent cinema, Sunrise. The film combined Hollywood storytelling and production values with the innovative style of German film. The story followed the impact of a city vamp on a farmer and his wife. The film included a striking visit to the city with impressive sets, the moving camera and sophisticated editing.

The cream of the German film industry, including Fritz Lang, was to follow these pioneers in the 1930s. They were escaping from the dark, murderous world of the Third Reich, but they also took their mastery of the dark German cinema of the 1920s, which fed into the great film noir cycle of the 1940s. And there was a German diva, Marlene Dietrich, who bought a special sexual magic to Hollywood drama in the 1930s.

The Swedish émigrés included the directors Stiller and Sjöström. Sjöström settled fairly well in Hollywood at Goldwyn Studios, later taken over by M-G-M. He also used the Americanised name, Seastrom. He made some fine films with major Hollywood stars. This included one of the best vehicles for Lon Chaney, the master of make-up and disguise, He Who Gets Slapped (1924). Sjöström’s greatest Hollywood film featured Lillian Gish as the heroine in The Wind. Gish played a migrant married to a farmer out in the wilds. Lars Hansen played the farmer. At the climax Gish was faced by breakdown and the emotional force of the drama is emphasised by the wind. There was a drama with Garbo, The Divine Woman (1928). This is one of the lost masterworks, with only a single reel surviving.

Stiller’s most important input into Hollywood was probably the stars he brought from Sweden. Hansen returned to Sweden, but Garbo became the face of Hollywood stardom, both in the silent era and on into the sound era. One of her key films of the 1920s is Flesh and the Devil (1927). Her co-star was John Gilbert, with whom she also enjoyed an offscreen romance. Onscreen, the romance was torrid and passionate. Garbo remains one of the iconic faces of the twentieth century.

There was one other important group of émigrés. These were the Russians who migrated when the Communists won the post-revolution civil war. The majority settled in Paris and turned out a series of well-made and popular films. The actor Ivan Mozhukhin was a prominent member of this production circle.

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