Fragile and Frightening.

I'm taking a class this quarter where we are focusing on modernism to study how different mediums convey "truth". The coolest part? Silent films. Seriously.

I've seen Buster Keaton films before. He's hilarious. But I only fully realized what sort of genuis-ness was taking place in early film when I saw some clips of 'Metropolis'. Jeez. It's gorgeous. I read somewhere that they spent a ridiculous amount of money to produce the film. Like millions. In 1927. Woah, right? I love the music that's paired with this. I'm assuming it's the original music, but you never can tell with these old films.

Just watch a few minutes. It's dreamy.

Also, we watched 'The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari' in class this week and it was totes creepy. If you can, you should watch the whole thing. This clip isn't very good but it was the best I could find. I ended up picking it because it had the color tint and the music wasn't as awful as it seemed to be in the other clips. Anyway, this scene is when Dr. Caligari is at the fair and he's offering to show the people "Cesare, the Somnambulist". For those of you who don't know, a 'somnambulist' is a sleepwalker. I learned that by asking (really loud in the middle of the dark class), "Whattsa somnambulist anyway?" So, this is when Dr. Caligari shows off Cesare who has been sleeping for 23 years...in a row! It's a shame this clip omitted the title screens. They were pretty funny.

But the point is...check out Cesare's face as he wakes up. Daaaang. And also, I wouldn't want to run into Dr. Caligari on a dark street, if you know what I mean. Shoooot.