The soul of the moving picture (1924)

Page scan 00061 from The soul of the moving picture

Record Details:

Title:
The soul of the moving picture
Date:
1924
Publisher:
New York : E. P. Dutton & Company
Volume:
The soul of the moving picture
Leaf #:
00061
Language:
English
Collection:
Books
Format:
Books
Contributor:
Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum
Sponsor:
Media History Digital Library
Coordinator:
Media History Digital Library
Description:
Date Added:
August 22, 2024
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Texts 27 privilege, if indeed it does not dispense with it entirely. The spirit of the film author is not shown by allowing his Pegasus to roam uncurbed over boundless territories, emitting wise sayings as he stamps the ground of his seemingly privileged course. His spirit, the intellect that he may have, is revealed in its true light when he exercises an iron will in his search after the right expression, and makes this expression just as short and just as rare as the exigencies of the occasion permit. As Alfred Kerr has laconically put it : uThe goal of your expression? The briefer." And when this law is laid down and adhered to, the really marvelous begins to take place : these condensed, sober, frigid words actually begin to ring and glow. The best text that has ever been given any motion picture, and the one that lent the scene to which it belonged the most veritable magic, was found in Caligari. At the head of these dark and somber horrors stood the one word, "Night." This lone monosyllable, which in the rise and swell of poetry might be passed over quite unnoticed, cast a spell over us in the film like the glowing of greenish eyes from the dark. Such brevity is, of course, not always necessary, nor is it at all times possible, for it would frequently be impossible for the general public