Theme Month! September 2023: Death

I’ve covered quite a variety of topics since I started using theme months ten years ago but this is a first: we are going on a morbid journey, examining how silent films portrayed mortality.

Silent movies are still associated with corny melodramas or slapstick by the general public but fans of the era know it was a rich and creative time with films that covered a broad variety of topics and portrayals of death, including personifications of it, were popular. (Below is Lon Chaney’s iconic masquerade costume from The Phantom of the Opera.)

To prepare ourselves for the dark month ahead, here are some death-themed silent films I have already reviewed:

The Dying Swan (1917): Director Yvgeni Bauer was the master of the morbid and his films capture a doomed Russian Empire. In this film, a ballerina specializing in the title dance becomes the object of obsession for an aristocrat with a death fixation.

Danse Macabre (1922): Saint-Saëns’ tone poem is given a symbolic interpretation as a pair of lovers attempt to outrun death. Special effects, elaborate costumes and professional dancers create a visual feast.

The Plague of Florence (1919): A decadent city revels without realizing that it is being stalked by death in this German historical extravaganza.

The Queen of Atlantis (1921): The queen of a lost city surrounds herself with the bronzed corpses of her discarded lovers. As one does.

And, finally, because I can’t possibly fail to include some Poe, both the American and French adaptations of The Fall of the House of Usher.

I hope you will find some fascinating new films this month. Enjoy the ride on the phantom carriage.

☙❦❧

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