Not the same thing, but the first time I saw District 9 there were no subtitles for the prawns. I didn’t even know there was supposed to be any. I think I liked that version better.
Wtf, the prawns have actual dialog?
I was so focused on trying to understand the South African accent, that not a single brain cell was available for additional processing.
This is how I first watched it too. I had no idea we were supposed to understand what they were saying.
It highlights how good the movie is, because even without knowing what they were saying you still 100% understood what was going on. That’s pretty impressive.
Metropolis - 1927
Docks of New York and The Cabinet of Dr.Caligari are also really cool silent age movies
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.
Not the best, but Koyaanisqatsi is pretty trippy. The music adds a lot to it, but it would still be visually interesting without it.
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.
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.
A movie with lots of space battles - turning of the sound should be more realistic.
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.
A Quiet Place
The Wizard of Oz while listening to Dark Side of the Moon.
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
The Artist (2011)
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
I’m gonna disagree with that first part. In most movies, the music is created to fit the footage. This is a rare feature-length movie where the footage is created to fit the music. As such, the visuals will warp to fit a score that, if you’re watching it silently, isn’t there.
It’ll look cool, but there will be parts that look weird and you won’t be sure why.
It’ll look cool, but there will be parts that look weird and you won’t be sure why
Like most movies designed to be viewed with sound. I think everyone reading this question assumed the asker knew silent movies exist. I offered something with engaging visuals that doesn’t need dialog to explain the premise
Porno
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.
