Silent Movies Quotes

• I never approved of talkies. Silent movies were well on their way to developing an entirely new art form. It was not just pantomine, but something wonderfully expressive.

  Lillian Gish

  Art, Way, Silent

  "Personal Quotes/ Biography". www.imdb.com.

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• When you see a silent movie, you understand everything that's going on from the images because the images are so strong.

  Monica Bellucci

  Strong, Silent

  "Monica Bellucci for “Irreversible”". Interview with Paul Fischer, www.darkhorizons.com. March 7, 2003.

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• Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself.

  Charlie Chaplin

  Courage, Failure, Humility

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• This is the problem with language, and this is what makes silent movies fun, because the connection with them, me or the audience is not with the language. There's no question of interpretation of what we are saying it's just about feeling. You create your own story

  Michel Hazanavicius

  Fun, Feelings, Connections

  "Cannes Interview: ‘The Artist’ Director Michel Hazanavicius and Star Berenice Bejo". Interview with Raffi Asdourian, thefilmstage.com. May 18, 2011.

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• The silent film has a lot of meanings. The first part of the film is comic. It represents the burlesque feel of those silent films. But I think that the second part of the film is full of tenderness and emotion.

  Pedro Almodovar

  Thinking, Silent Films, Firsts

  Interview with Jose Arroyo, www.theguardian.com. July 31, 2002.

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• I think the approach of the character for us is the same in a silent movie as in a talking movie because we had balance, we had lines to learn.

  Berenice Bejo

  Character, Thinking, Talking

  "Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo THE ARTIST Interview". Interview with Sheila Roberts, collider.com. November 23, 2011.

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• Right now I'm the most famous silent movie actress in the world and I want to keep that for me. So I hope there's not going to be any other silent movies.

  Berenice Bejo

  World, Want, Actresses

  "Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo THE ARTIST Interview". Interview with Sheila Roberts, collider.com. November 23, 2011.

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• IF YOU PRETEND THE CHARACTERS CANT SPEAK, AND WRITE A SILENT MOVIE, YOU WILL BE WRITING GREAT DRAMA.

  David Mamet

  Drama, Writing, Character

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• Something I am wondering: if you cannot hear do you have no sounds in your head? Do you see a silent movie

  Sharon Creech

  Sound, Wonder, Silent

  Sharon Creech (2014). “Hate That Cat: A Novel”, p.16, HarperCollins

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• Silly boys. Did you think we were making a silent movie?

  Koushun Takami

  Silly, Boys, Thinking

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• I can say is usually people are slightly confused. They think that silent movies are old. But, the fact is, they are old because they have been made in the '20s. That's the thing that makes them old. Not the format. The format is just a format. It's not an old format.

  Michel Hazanavicius

  Confused, Thinking, People

  "Director Michel Hazanavicius THE ARTIST Interview". Interview with Sheila Roberts, collider.com. November 26, 2011.

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• I was playing organ at a silent movie house at Harlem and they'd be showing some death scene on the screen. Likely as not, I'd grab a bottle and start swingin' out on 'Squeeze Me' or 'Royal Garden Blues'. The managers complained but, heck, they couldn't stop me!

  Fats Waller

  Garden, House, Royal

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• Creamy and leggy, with long azure hair and the eyes of a silent-movie star, she moved like a poem and smiled like a sphinx.

  Laini Taylor

  Stars, Eye, Hair

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• The movie people would have nothing to do with me until they heard me speak in a Broadway play, then they all wanted to sign me for the silent movies.

  W. C. Fields

  Movie, Play, People

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• If you try to make a silent movie with a normal script and you just pull out the dialogue, you will have big problems with the actors because you will ask them to tell a story that you don't know.

  Michel Hazanavicius

  Trying, Stories, Actors

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• From the age of four or five. I went to see a lot of Westerns then. But it was silent movies and I loved everything that happened then.

  Eli Wallach

  Age, Four, Silent

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• I'm not an American actor. I'm a French actor. I'll continue in France. If I could make another silent movie in America, I'd like to!

  Jean Dujardin

  America, Actors, France

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• I used to watch movies - silent movies - and stock companies and theater whenever I could.

  E. G. Marshall

  Watches, Silent, Used

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• I encourage film students who are interested in cinematography to study sculpture, paintings, music, writing and other arts. Filmmaking consists of all the arts combined. Students are always asking me for advice, and I tell them that they have to be enthusiastic, because it's hard work. The only way to enjoy it is to be totally immersed. If you don't get involved on that level, it could be a very miserable job. I only have one regret about my career: I'm sorry that we are not making silent movies any more. That is the purest art form I can imagine.

  Vilmos Zsigmond

  Movie, Music, Art

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• In silent movies, they tended to put the camera down, and everybody walked in front of it and acted, and then they all walked off. Cutting was quite infrequent.

  Bruce Beresford

  Cutting, Cameras, Down And

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• Sometimes I think you have to try to do things that people don't think are doable. I remember at the very beginning actually, the first person I had to convince was myself really because there's a self-censorship. When everybody says 'we don't do silent movies anymore,' you agree with everybody, and you say 'yeah, you're right.' It was a fantasy.

  Michel Hazanavicius

  Thinking, Self, People

  "Director Michel Hazanavicius THE ARTIST Interview". Interview with Sheila Roberts, collider.com. November 26, 2011.

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• There was nothing to react to except wind and trees [in Cast Away]. It was like making a silent movie.

  Tom Hanks

  Movie, Wind, Tree

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• Actually, I met a lot of directors and most of them have that fantasy to make a silent movie because for directors it's the purest way to tell a story. It's about creating images that tell a story and you don't need dialogue for that.

  Michel Hazanavicius

  Creating, Needs, Stories

  "Director Michel Hazanavicius THE ARTIST Interview". Roundtable Interview, collider.com. November 26, 2011.

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• As an actor I'm part of a long line of character people you can take back to the silent movies. There's always the little guy who's the sidekick to the tall, good-looking guy who gets the girl.

  Curtis Armstrong

  Girl, Character, People

  Interview with Sean O'Neal, music.avclub.com. December 12, 2006.

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• I always loved silent movies. I was not a specialist, but I loved them. And when I started directing, I became really fascinated by the format - how it works, the device of the silent movie. It's not the same form of expression as a talkie. The lack of sounds makes you participate in the storytelling

  Michel Hazanavicius

  Expression, Sound, Silent

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