Silent Film Research Articles

Editorial

The editorial introduces this issue of Journal of Scandinavian Cinema (JSCA) that in particular explores the representation of children and films for young audiences in the Nordic countries. The issue includes an article on the child figure in Ingmar Bergman’s Autumn Sonata and an In Focus section with four short subjects about youth films in Nordic cinema, followed by an article on the representation of women in a Finnish silent film and a conference report from China. The editorial summarizes the main arguments and contributions of each article and highlights the relevance and importance of studying cinematic representation in the Nordic countries.

Theory of Mind impairment in childhood narcolepsy type 1: a case-control study.

Narcolepsy type 1 is a central disorder of hypersomnolence characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness, cataplexy and other rapid eye movement sleep-related manifestations. Neurophysiological studies suggest that narcolepsy type 1 patients may experience impairment in emotional processing due to structural and functional changes in limbic structures and associated areas. However, the only study exploring narcolepsy behavioural responses found no impairment in the ability to recognize emotions, possibly due to compensatory mechanisms. The present study was designed to fill this gap in the literature by investigating the behavioural impairment related to emotional processing focusing on an advanced socio-cognitive skill, namely Theory of Mind, in paediatric narcolepsy type 1 patients. Twenty-two narcolepsy type 1 children and adolescents (six female; age range: 8.0-13.5) and 22 healthy controls matched for age and sex (six female; age range: 8.9-13.0) underwent a neuropsychological evaluation to assess socio-economic status, verbal abilities, working memory, social anxiety and Theory of Mind via a verbal task (i.e. Strange Stories task) and a visual task (i.e. Silent Films). Narcolepsy type 1 patients were also evaluated for disease severity. Patients exhibited impairment in Theory of Mind skills, as assessed both through both verbal (controls median = 8; patients median = 5; P = 0.009) and visual tasks (controls median = 8; patients median = 6; P = 0.003), compared to healthy controls. Correlation analyses showed that verbal and visual Theory of Mind was negatively related to narcolepsy severity (ρ = -0.45, P = 0.035 and ρ = -0.52, P = 0.012), and daytime sleepiness (ρ = -0.48, P = 0.025 and ρ = -0.45, P = 0.038). Our study shows a selective impairment in the Theory of Mind domain in children and adolescents with narcolepsy type 1. In addition, our results highlight a link between symptom severity and Theory of Mind, suggesting that lower Theory of Mind levels are associated with higher symptom severity. Further, longitudinal studies are needed to disentangle the direction of this relation and to disambiguate if narcolepsy severity impaired children's Theory of Mind or if Theory of Mind skills modulate the severity of narcolepsy symptoms by providing a greater ability to avoid cataplexy.

What is Valentino's syndrome?

AbstractThe eponym ‘Valentino's syndrome’ is used to describe patients with perforated peptic ulcer disease who present with right lower quadrant pain and suspected appendicitis. It is named for Rudolph Valentino, the film star who died on 23 August 1926 at the age of 31 from complications of perforated peptic ulcer disease. In the early 1920s, the Italian‐born actor had a meteoric rise to fame in the burgeoning film industry. His first starring role in the 1921 silent film, The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse, was a sensation and was followed quickly by a string of commercially successful movies. He was in good health until he presented with an acute abdomen in early August of 1926. He underwent a laparotomy and was found to have a perforated peptic ulcer that was repaired with simple closure and an omental patch. He initially rallied after surgery but ultimately died on the eighth post‐operative day from complications of sepsis. This manuscript will review Valentino's brief acting career, his medical history, and how the eponym which bears his name describes a disease presentation that is different from his actual clinical course.

Marion Evelyn Hong before and after the Curse of the Quon Gwon (1916)

This article is a result of an invitation to share the authors’ knowledge and family stories and offer perspectives about Marion E. Hong (1895–1969, also known as Marion Evelyn Wong). The intent is to provide scholars and researchers with first-hand knowledge about Marion’s life milestones and experiences directly from her family. The main source for the content of this article comes from remembrances of Marion’s descendants and documents as well as photographs in the Kumaradjaja Family History Archive. As Marion’s direct descendants, the authors offer first-hand knowledge about her and insight into possible motivations for making the silent motion picture film The Curse of the Quon Gwon: When the Far East Mingles with the West (dir. Marion E. Wong, Mandarin Film Company, US, 1916). Lisa Kumaradjaja is Marion’s granddaughter; Lisa’s mother, Arabella Hong Young, is Marion’s daughter who followed in Marion’s footsteps as a singer, performer, and entrepreneur. This article is written by the granddaughter and great-grandson of Marion E. Hong, Lisa Kumaradjaja and Chris Kumaradjaja, who now serve as the family historians. Information for this article has been gathered from the Kumaradjaja Family History Archive, family oral histories, as well as Lisa’s direct recollections of Marion.

Sticking with Trans: Reconsidering Chinese American Cinema through Anna May Wong

This article asks what exactly makes the trans a key concept in our understanding of Sino-American filmic transactions. By studying two silent films of the Chinese American film pioneer, Anna May Wong (1905–1961), with special attention to her mercurial sartorial performances, I analyze her interstitial trans position between nations, communities, cultures, between audiences here-now and elsewhere-another time, and between objecthood and subjecthood. I stress the trans position as a tension-ridden field that resists easy resolution, thereby challenges American assimilationism and China’s ethno-nationalism all at once. I argue that this trans position, which appears to be stuck and suspended, offers a theoretical and methodological framework for unpacking Wong’s legacy, and more broadly, the complexity of diasporic Chinese and Chinese American film cultures.

Miami Studios and Early Film Production in South Florida

This article examines the history of silent film production in south Florida with a focus on production context. Interest in south Florida as a site for film production increased around 1919 and flourished for several years. Production activity in south Florida in the early 1920s centered around Miami Studios in Hialeah, built in the summer of 1921. Within four short years, the facility had become virtually unutilized for film production. By reconstructing the events and processes surrounding the production of motion pictures filmed in south Florida—utilizing contemporaneous newspaper and magazine reports, business records and correspondences, and other extant archives—this study questions why film producers were interested in Florida and seeks to elucidate why this interest shifted by the end of the silent era. Focus will center around the production of D.W. Griffith’s The White Rose, filmed at Miami Studios during the 1922–23 winter season. This investigation demonstrates that the seasonality of Florida film production, despite the presence of industry heavyweight Griffith, ultimately led to the failure of Miami Studios to sustain long term operations.

Sound arrives at the Tudor, 1927–1931: programming, attendance and the business of cinema exhibition

ABSTRACT The Tudor Cinema was situated in Leicester’s West End, a thriving working-class district less than a mile from the city centre. It was built in 1914 with 975 seats, expanded to 1,250 in the 1920s. The Tudor faced competition from newly opening super cinemas in and around the city centre during the 1920s and 1930s, but like most neighbourhood cinemas in Britain during this time, its audience was both local and loyal. The cinema’s ledgers have already been the subject of some considerable study. This article uses a digital, computational analysis to further enrich understanding of the economic realities of the cinema as a business, as well as the cinemagoing habits of its audience during the transition to sound. It takes the Tudor as a case study whose financial records provide an important and revealing window into audience behaviour and programming during the final years of silent cinema and the first years of sound. It also argues that concomitant factors – such as the shifts in rental arrangements and Entertainments Tax – were as impactful, and in some cases more so, than the arrival of sound on the fortunes of cinemas like the Tudor during the period.

The British Silent Film Festival and Symposium: an Overview

The British Silent Film Festival and Symposium: an Overview

Silent Films – What Is There to Translate? – Ost und West (1923) in English, German, and Yiddish

Silent Films – What Is There to Translate? – Ost und West (1923) in English, German, and Yiddish

The Evolution of Film Genres: A Historical Analysis

Since its beginnings more than a century ago, cinema has undergone tremendous change as both an artistic medium and a cultural phenomenon. Changes and improvements to film genres are illustrative of this progression. looking back at the development of film genres from their inception all the way up to the current day. historical events, trends, and critical variables that have moulded cinematic genres. early film genres including silent comedies and melodramas emerged at this time, marking the beginning of cinema. Next, it explores how innovations in technology, such sound and colour, influenced the evolution of genres. Examining cinema history in chronological order, this study reveals pivotal epochs of experimentation and invention, such as the silent film era, the Hollywood musical heyday, and the blockbuster era.keywords:- Film Genres, Film History, Cinema Evolution, Genre Development, Silent Film Era, Sound in Film

Ukraińscy twórcy filmowi we wschodnioeuropejskim kinie niemym

The purpose of this article is to analyze the role of the Ukrainian filmmakers of the modern era’s silent cinema. Unfortunately, the Ukrainian context in the history of Eastern European film art is not widely known. Hence, it deserves special attention. Selected aspects of the artistic life of Oleksandr Khanzhonkov and Vera Kholodnaya are described, as well as the achievements of cinematic precursors, such as Iosif Timchenko and Alfred Fedecki. The study is an introduction to the extensive research on the issue of silent cinema in Eastern Europe of the late 19th and early 20th century.

Silent Films and Augmented Reality

Silent Films and Augmented Reality

Agamben liest Bachmann oder die Sprache als Strafe und Hoffnung

In his longest text on Ingeborg Bachmann, The Silence of Words, Giorgio Agamben attempts to trace Bachmann’s journey from philosophy to poetry. While Agamben distinguishes between a speaking language and a silent language, the present essay seeks to demonstrate, by referring to Bachmann’s and Martin Heidegger’s engagement with the saying of Anaximander, that in Bachmann there is no differentiation between good and bad language. Rather, language for Bachmann is always simultaneously a punishment for the past and a message of hope for the future.

Eleanor Rees. Designing Russian Cinema: The Production Artist and the Material Environment in Silent Era Film. KINO—The Russian and Soviet Cinema. London: Bloomsbury, 2023. ix, 264 pp. Appendixes. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Filmography. Photographs. ₤76.50, hard bound.

Eleanor Rees. Designing Russian Cinema: The Production Artist and the Material Environment in Silent Era Film. KINO—The Russian and Soviet Cinema. London: Bloomsbury, 2023. ix, 264 pp. Appendixes. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Filmography. Photographs. ₤76.50, hard bound.

Retrospective Technological Mythmaking: Media Discourses of Furby and Artificial Intelligence

Recent articles suggesting the late-1990s animatronic children’s toy, Furby, was promoted and perceived as true Artificial Intelligence in 1998-99 are not wholly accurate. In examining 130 North American news stories, Furby is often accurately described as only imitating machine learning. This paper analyses these articles from the perspective of mythmaking in technological culture. In the article, I analyse the media discourses at the time and provide their historical context within North American technological culture, containing events such as the Y2K bug, popular media representations, and the dotcom bubble. I also describe several potent emotional reactions to Furby. However, recent media discourses suggest Furby had been perceived as a panic-inducing new technology, similar to the War of the Worlds radio broadcast and silent cinema train effect, both of which historians have largely discounted. I contribute evidence to the contrary, while acknowledging emotional reactions, which are not necessarily indicators of utopian or dystopian cultural panics, but instead a technological banal. The contemporary mythmaking about Furby is situated as comparable to Foucault’s analysis of myths of Victorian prudishness and silence around sexuality. Retroactive mythmaking risks supporting uncritical perspectives in the present, warranting interrogation of myths about AI as it develops and expands.

Social Changes in America: The Silent Cinema Frontier and Women Pioneers

Silent cinema acted as a bridge between early motion pictures and today’s film industry, playing a transformative role in shaping feminist film history and American society. This article explores pioneering American women in the silent film industry who ventured into technology, film culture, marginalized communities, and social movements. Despite the prevalence of racist and sexist propaganda, American silent films were a frontier for innovation, filmmaking, and exploring the New Women concept. This study examines 23 American silent films that have often been overlooked and rarely studied, whereby film analysis generally aligns with established feminist silent film theories. By shedding light on a previously overlooked film directed by May Tully, this study challenges the widespread belief that there existed “no women directors in 1925”. The examination of databases reaffirms American women directors’ contributions to silent films, especially during the early years of the silent film era. The results modify the previous scholarly notion that “influential women directors’ involvement was over by 1925”. Following an initial surge in their active leadership during the early years, influential women directors’ participation was over after 1922, rather than 1925.

Obecność Victora Sjöströma w twórczości Ingmara Bergmana na przykładzie filmu "Tam, gdzie rosną poziomki"

Ingmar Bergman was a filmmaker deeply immersed in the tradition of both classical and silent cinema. It can be inferred from his comments that Victor Sjöström played a particularly important role in his work. This article attempts to trace Sjöström’s influence on the film Wild Strawberries, on which, according to Bergman, he was to have a considerable impact. The study juxtaposes selected elements of Sjöström’s works with the film in focus and presents a broader cinematic-historical context to show Bergman’s profound connection with the silent film era and the significant role that Sjöström played in his development.

Cortical time-course of evidence accumulation during semantic processing

Our understanding of the surrounding world and communication with other people are tied to mental representations of concepts. In order for the brain to recognize an object, it must determine which concept to access based on information available from sensory inputs. In this study, we combine magnetoencephalography and machine learning to investigate how concepts are represented and accessed in the brain over time. Using brain responses from a silent picture naming task, we track the dynamics of visual and semantic information processing, and show that the brain gradually accumulates information on different levels before eventually reaching a plateau. The timing of this plateau point varies across individuals and feature models, indicating notable temporal variation in visual object recognition and semantic processing.

Staging Shanghai in Love and Duty 戀愛與義務 (1923, 1931)

Abstract This study explores the significance of the various urban locations for representations of gender in Love and Duty—the 1931 silent film from Lianhua Studios, as well as the 1923 illustrated serialized novel by “Luo Chen” (a.k.a. Madame S. Rosen Hoa/Horose). I show that both the novel and the film foregrounded the built environment to express the aspirations and frustrations of the female protagonist, played by Ruan Lingyu; and that the novel effectively served as a previsualization for the film as produced by Luo Mingyou and directed by Bu Wancang with cinematography by Huang Shaofen. Further, drawing on sources relating to the publication and film production, Shanghai and Beijing cultural history, and China’s changing geopolitical circumstances, I suggest that Lianhua strategically “staged,” even allegorized, Shanghai to signal its cosmopolitan ambitions while simultaneously alluding to Chinese filmmakers’ quest for a kind of “cinematic sovereignty” during the early Nanjing decade.

‘I am big. It’s the pictures that got small’: A look at Sunset Boulevard through Marshall McLuhan’s theory of hot and cool media and personalities

Billy Wilder’s 1950 movie Sunset Boulevard has been widely analysed as a portrayal of the demise of Hollywood’s traditional values with the introduction of modern technology. This article revisits the iconic film in a new light to uncover a relationship between its plot and characters and Marshall McLuhan’s theory of hot and cool media. In the transition period after silent movies’ displacement by talking pictures, two characters get involved in an unsettling story about Old Hollywood, obsession and obsolescence. Their contrasting personalities, heavily influenced by the different environments they come from, can be seen as examples of the hot and cool personalities described by McLuhan in Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. This article demonstrates how analysing classic films in the context of media ecology theories can help us uncover a deeper meaning behind traditional plots and character archetypes.