Is one of your favorite pastimes going to the movies? If so, do you like suspense, drama or horror with lots of high energy, special effects, and sound?<\/p>\n
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I have to admit I’m a regular movie goer. It’s not completely out of the question that I go to first runs locally or even to the movies before they “officially” come out at the theatres.<\/p>\n
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You see, my son is a filmmaker and he sometimes has the opportunity to see movies before they open in theatres. I, occasionally, will go with him to see the movie if invited. Then, of course, I see movies in the raw when they are being made and he invites me to take a peek at a day’s shoot.<\/p>\n
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So it’s not so unusual for me to be see movies regularly.<\/p>\n
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What is unusual, these days, is to see a movie with no sound.<\/p>\n
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I bet, when you think of silent movies, you think of Charlie Chaplin. At least I do.<\/p>\n
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Some friends were in town this past weekend and I was invited to join them for dinner. They were here to see several Chaplin Comedies at the USC School of Music recital hall and invited me to come along.<\/p>\n
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You’re probably thinking right about now that you might have been bored after just a short time. After all, no special effects, no sound, no words. Black and white?<\/p>\n
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Well, to my surprise, this was one of the most delightful movie going evenings I’ve been to recently.<\/p>\n
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There were two movies. One a short two reel movie called “Easy Street” (a reflection of Chaplin’s own childhood) and a longer 50 minute movie called “The Kid.”<\/p>\n
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What made this an exceptional movie going experience was the genius of Dennis James, an international silent film accompanist. He had researched the music of the era of Charlie Chaplin – an accomplished musician himself – and compiled accompaniment for each movie – performing it live while the movies were running.<\/p>\n
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Dennis’ warm, engaging spirit could make even the most skeptic silent movie goers soften to silent movies, especially “The Kid.”<\/p>\n
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In the 1920’s Charlie Chaplin believed “The Kid” would be his most delightful and charming movie yet. He was having a hard time convincing his company it would fly because of the story line of him adopting a baby and raising him after a distraught mother leaves the baby behind. So, with the passion and drive only Charlie Chaplin had, he borrowed $500,000 and made the movie himself.<\/p>\n
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Ah, I loved independent filmmakers!<\/p>\n
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The movie became the most popular movie of that day AND grossed over 60 million dollars…not bad for 1921 huh?<\/p>\n
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It’s strange how a movie can help one adjust to losses in their lives. Charlie Chaplin was no different. Shortly before making “The Kid” he and his wife lost a newborn son. That tragedy made his raw feelings and talent come alive on that screen. No words were needed to see the charming relationship develop into a witty, hilarious, and occasional sad one with a happy ending for both child, adopted father and biological mother.<\/p>\n
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A bit of trivia here…it featured six year old Jackie Coogan – discovered by Chaplin in Vaudeville – as his adopted son and sidekick. You probably remember Jackie best as Uncle Fester on The Addams Family<\/em>.<\/p>\n \n Thanks, Dennis, for sharing your passion of silent movies through the delightful accompaniment and presentation…and thank goodness we still have a way of preserve these silent wonders!<\/p>\n \n My wish for you today<\/strong> is that you consider the joy of silent movies and, if possible, see Dennis James in a future performance next time he has a USC evening at the movies. You’ll be glad you did.<\/p>\n \n ~ Joellen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Is one of your favorite pastimes going to the movies? If so, do you like suspense, drama or horror with lots of high energy, special effects, and sound? I have to admit I’m a regular movie goer. It’s not completely out of the question that I go to first runs locally or even to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,25,22,16,27,31,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment","category-familyfriends-gatherings","category-friendship","category-life-events","category-living-life-to-the-fullest","category-releationships-general","category-teenagers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}