Coda

Abstract

Abstract This chapter explores the varied afterlife of silent film: in the long and often halting transition to synchronized sound beyond the Hollywood studio system; in sound-era depictions of silent filmmaking and their role in shaping the cultural memory of the form; and in numerous efforts across the later twentieth century to return to the conditions of silent filmmaking as either a new mode of aesthetic practice or a revival of historical forms. In the alternative silent cinema and the new silent cinema, filmmakers the world over have invested silence with newfound significance, following Rudolf Arnheim and Charlie Chaplin in treating the absence of sound as a deliberate artistic choice. As a thematic tool, a means of political commentary, or an oblique reference to new technological changes threatening further cinematic revolutions, silent filmmaking has continued to be an active and evocative form of cinematic practice into the twenty-first century.