ABSTRACT
This chapter considers silent films made in the United States, the Soviet Union, and France during the early decades of the twentieth century. It highlights the way in which it is just as important to consider social and political contexts when coming to study silent films as it is for any other films. The concept of silent cinema – film without sound, whether spoken dialogue, special effects, or a music soundtrack – covers a vast array of movies made between the final years of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the 1930s in countries around the globe. The Birth of a Nation is considered a cinematic milestone that was crucial in the development of film language. For formalists, mise en scene, cinematography, lighting, sound, and editing were elements of style through which film re-displayed the everyday. Cinema, for formalists, is an art that goes beyond realism.
