Silent Film Preservation Quotes

I like some of the early silent films because I love to watch how actors had to play then. What would interest me today is to do a silent film.

My father, who was a good deal older than my mother, had basically grown up with silent films; sound didn't arrive until he was 30 years old. So he took me to see silent pictures at MoMA when I was 5 or 6 years old.

My great-grandfather played organ for silent movies. Talkies in, Gramps out.

I hate this idea in the Cinematheque that you must watch silent movies with no music, like it's a piece of art. It's not true.

For me, I loved it. I only want to make silent movies now.

The reason I put so much energy into it at the beginning was that while there were plenty of people looking after the talkies, almost nobody was doing the same for the silents. Now there are plenty of very good historians and restorers.

I've always loved silent movies. I recently saw 'Tilly's Punctured Romance' at the Academy, which is the first comedy made with Charlie Chaplin in 1914, and I sat there, and I couldn't believe that the entire audience of 2,000 people were laughing that hard from a movie made in 1914 - and there were no words; it was all faces.

Now I'm the go-to-girl for silent films.

I love silent cinema but don't hold it sacred. Like any branch of film there are some very boring films alongside the masterpieces.

I saw the Kino print of 'The Man From Beyond,' but apparently a superior new print has been produced by Restored Serials. Maybe a few snippets of missing footage will close up some of the plot holes, but I have my doubts.

There will never be talking pictures.

When you speak of silent movies, everyone thinks of Charlie Chaplin first.

Friends told me not to bother with the silents - they're jerky, poorly photographed and ludicrously badly acted. But I was immediately struck by the freshness and vitality of these films.