Silent film facts for kids

Roundhay Garden Scene, which is just over two seconds long and was made in 1888, is believed to be the world's earliest surviving motion-picture film. The elderly lady in black is Sarah Whitley, the mother-in-law of filmmaker Louis Le Prince; she died ten days after this scene was filmed.

A silent movie is a movie made without sound. Silent movies were made from the late 1880s to the early 1930s. They used early cameras that could not record sound. Either the movie was being made before sound cameras were invented, or the movie makers could not afford the expensive new equipment.

Charlie Chaplin was known as one of the best movie stars during "The Silent Era", as it's called today in movie history. Some silent stars also did well in sound movies. Popular silent movies include Nosferatu: A Symphony of Terror, A Trip to the Moon, The General, and Metropolis.

Images for kids

• 

  A still from the 1921 Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, one of the highest-grossing silent films

• 

  Charlie Chaplin, widely acclaimed as one of the most iconic actors of the silent era, c. 1919

• 

  The Horse in Motion, animated from a plate by Eadweard Muybridge, made with an array of cameras set up along a racetrack

• 

  Roundhay Garden Scene, which has a running time of just over two seconds, was filmed in 1888. It is believed to be the world's earliest surviving motion-picture film. The elderly lady in black is Sarah Whitley, the mother-in-law of filmmaker Louis Le Prince; she died ten days after this scene was filmed.

• 

  The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) used stylized inter-titles.

• 

  Lillian Gish, the "First Lady of the American Cinema", was a leading star in the silent era with one of the longest careers—1912 to 1987.

• 

  Lon Chaney (active 1913-1930) was one of the most talented spinet character actors of all time. His unique ability to transform into the most physically grotesque characters earned him the universal name, “Man of a Thousand Faces”.

• 

  Cinématographe Lumière at the Institut Lumière, France. Such cameras had no audio recording devices built into the cameras.

• 

  A scene from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari starring Friedrich Feher—an example of an amber-tinted film

• 

  Price for a hand-colored print of Ben Hur in 1908

• 

  A still from Saved from the Titanic (1912), which featured survivors of the disaster. It is now among those considered a lost film.

See also

In Spanish: Cine mudo para niños