The intertitles in our silent picture show

[sovay]

I want to go back in time and steal this man's waistcoat. Or at least ask what he was reading:



(Francis George Packer, an actor I'd never heard of even under his stage name, Nigel De Brulier. He played the prophet Jokanaan in the 1923 avant-garde film of Oscar Wilde's Salomé, however, so I expect to see more of him soon. Discovered while looking for Conrad Veidt.)

nineweaving worries it would wear me, but I think the wolf hat could take it.

Comments

[sovay]

But I suppose there's an upside to that, as you'd be entirely justified in assuming that the colors were coincidentally those you find most attractive and flattering.

I don't think that ever quite registered before. It's not that color film is lesser—no one's hair was ever redder than Moira Shearer's in The Red Shoes (1948). But black-and-white is like offscreen horror: what you cannot see is stronger than whatever you can be shown. The actor's hair is the color you'd like best, their clothes are the most complementary shades. If the sky is a summer idyll, it's Platonic blue. I wonder if that's why it's so strange still to see photographs from the '30's and '40's in color: we are accustomed to filling in the fantasy.

Thank you!

I had no idea that there was a film of Salome. I only know it from the R. Strauss opera.

I think I was vaguely aware of its existence, but not that the sets and costumes were designed after Beardsley's illustrations or that it's considered one of the first American art films. The internet indicates it may not be to everyone's tastes, but either way it's amazing.

[moon-custafer.livejournal.com]

I don't know if it was still true at the time the photo was taken, but for a long time colours didn't register on plates with completely accurate tonal values - anything red or green came out a bit darker than in RL, and blue/yellow came out lighter*. I'd guess from the relatively deep shades of gray that the waistcoat in question was some sort of red/green checks.


* This remained a problem in the early days of cinema - anyone with blue eyes looked all creepy. Hence no blonde movie stars until much later.

[sovay]

I'd guess from the relatively deep shades of gray that the waistcoat in question was some sort of red/green checks.

It's probably not green, then, but I'll imagine it was.

This remained a problem in the early days of cinema - anyone with blue eyes looked all creepy. Hence no blonde movie stars until much later.

I didn't know that. Fascinating.

[moon-custafer.livejournal.com]

It could have been light/dark green checks, I guess.


I've seen a still from a really early appearance by Stan Laurel where the director attempted to compensate by having Stan wear extra mascara. It just makes him look like a skinny raccoon.