6mo ago

What is the best movie to watch without sound?

51 comments

Mel Brooks’ Silent Movie. I guess you’ll miss the best bit in it though, where the only person who speaks is the mime Marcel Marceau.

Metropolis - 1927
- Docks of New York and The Cabinet of Dr.Caligari are also really cool silent age movies

Not the best, but Koyaanisqatsi is pretty trippy. The music adds a lot to it, but it would still be visually interesting without it.

Star Wars has a silent version released in the 70’s, with descriptive captions and all
https://youtu.be/_zj3ayw-ZtI?si=avF5RxcnMrxdFPdW
This is of Ep. 3 I think but you can find them for all the episodes
- That's pretty neat actually.

I sat next to somebody watching Son of the Mask on an airplane. It wasn't good, but the lack of sound definitely improved things.
- I saw Liar, Liar on an airplane without sound, it was hilarious.

Any of the original Indiana Jones films.
They were storyboarded almost like a comic book. I once heard a University professor online talking about how you can watch any of the three original movies in black and white with no sound and still have a perfect understanding of the story; that's how strong they are . If you ever want an entertaining evening, invite some friends over and do just that.

A movie with lots of space battles - turning of the sound should be more realistic.

A Quiet Place
- An excellent film but I wouldn't call it "without sound". In fact sound is extremely important in this film. It's more like "without spoken words".

So, here's a weird anecdote: Me and my ex were watching The Lighthouse together online (long distance relationship). Neither of us had watched it before. Turns out for some reason, VLC was not able to decode the audio codec properly on my end - I only had some athmospheric parts of ambience and music, but most interestingly no voice at all. Up until the very end, I thought they just went extra-avant-guarde and emulated a silent film in addition to the monochrome aesthetics. Only after we talked about it and she told me something about some dialogue scenes I realised that there was actually supposed to be audible dialogue.
Funnily enough, turns out it was still super enjoyable for me because I love artsy movies and surreal experiences, and I was able to piece together the plot and character interactions pretty accurately.

Hush
- This is a good recommendation. I went into the movie thinking it would be silent. Was kind of disappointed that it wasn't, tbh.
- Might have to give it a re-watch one of these days, just for this

I was trying to watch the original Nosferatu but the version I was watching had dogshit Casio keyboard accompaniment. I muted it and had Spotify put on a playlist based on "Danse Macabre." Much better. That said, a proper silent movie with live accompaniment is fucking fantastic. I saw Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall that way and loved it.

Interstella 5555. It's basically one long music video so there's no dialog and it's anime so the visuals are really striking
- I mean, it was very clearly designed with the music in mind. Without it, you'll notice the loops and sped up movements a lot more, and it'll make less sense without the music.
  
  Yes, all movies with sound typically are. I just mentioned it because I've been to bars that had it on TVs while other music was playing and it was really cool to look at

Can’t say it’s the best but a really good one is Sir Arne’s Treasure. Its a silent film (which is a misnomer because they were always accompanied by live music back in the day). But it’s beautifully shot.
There is some very incredible work in films leading up until the introduction of recorded audio which basically threw cinematography back a good 40 years in development due to the noise they created and how actors had to be blocked to just record their dialog.

The Last Battle (1983)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Dernier_Combat
"A scraggly, anonymous man (Pierre Jolivet) looks for love among a desolate, post-apocalyptic wasteland where almost no one speaks and roaming bands of marauders prey on the weak and unprotected. Assisted by a mad scientist (Jean Bouise), the man attempts to rebuild a broken-down airplane to expand his lonely, seemingly pointless search. At every turn the man is thwarted by well-armed, merciless thugs; however, hope rears its head he discovers one last surviving woman imprisoned by the toughs."
- Never heard of this, definitely going to watch it. Thanks