Top Fives: Silent Movies for Beginners

0:00 So, here's the deal everybody. We just absolutely love producing as much content as possible for film and whiskey Nation. But if our regular episodes aren't enough for you, then you can head on over to patreon.com film whiskey sign up for one of our memberships and you will get a slew of extra content for your listening. Pleasure, check us out on patreon.com film, whiskey, welcome into the film whiskey podcasts, everybody. Today, we will be discussing the director cha Oral surgery. Carl's Chaplin and scoring him out as every single director loves for people to do. Then we're going to be trying five whiskies and throw it over to an interview with our friend, Mariah Gates. As she gives her top five, silent movies for beginners. This is the film and whiskey podcast. Hey everybody.

1:09 Welcome into the film and whiskey podcast. I'm Bob book, I'm Brad G. And today Brad, it is time for us to score out. Charlie Chaplin on the four movies that we watched from him. If you're new to the podcast, we've been doing this thing for the bat, the past two seasons. We watch a number of movies by a given director and then we take those movies and we pass them through a five-point metric to figure out numerically mathematically. How good of a director are you Brad? If there's one thing I've learned about art, it's that passing it through a mathematical metric is the way to evaluate it easily. Yeah. It's by far the best way to do it. I don't know why. When you go to like art museums they don't have like scoring karna story.

1:54 Yeah, scoring cards for you to fill out and then Unlike, you know, maybe like attached two or three professional critics cards like underneath each painting or sculpture so you can kind of compare and contrast, what how you think about it? Versus what they think? The thing is, as much as I'm saying, this is a joke, there's part of me that's like oh I would actually kind of enjoy that. Yeah, I would have waited till I saw like the Post-it note that someone wrote next to a Picasso. That's like it's too blue or something. You don't mean. All right Brad. Let's talk about this metric. So we established this. Five-point metric last season in a bonus episode. When we tried to establish, like what makes a good director? What are the things that when you talk about, somebody being good at directing movies that they're actually good at doing and we try to break these down into five distinct categories. Brad can you remind our listeners of what those categories are?

2:47 And what they mean? Performances are how good at directing actors and actresses, is this director cinematography is, What do I see on the screen? And how much is it Pleasant and attractive and work with what he's trying to do editing is sound and visual. So the cutting of the film, you know, when you think about the Lord of the Rings, when you think about The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, like the the movement from scene to scene, is different in these movies like and who does it the best? Cohesion is how well does the film stick together. And this can be story-wise. It can be acting, it can be editing.

3:28 But like all together, how much does the film have consistency? And then finally uniqueness and this is looking at the director and saying, you know, within the pantheon of all films and then also, like, within his contemporaries. How unique are you what, what ideas are you bringing to the table that are unique? What camera movements are you using? That are unique ha, how much can I say, you know, watch a scene from a film and immediately go. Oh, that's that's David Lynch or oh, that is Billy Wilder with, you know, just at the drop of a hat. How unique are they nicely? Done? Sir. Well thanks man. And I'm pretty happy with that. Without further Ado, folks, let's talk about Charles Spencer Chaplin Brad.

4:13 I was a little bit taken aback at. I don't want to say the, the Met response that you had to chaplain because I think it was largely positive, but you were not as over the moon for chaplain, as I thought you might be I just find his movies to be an utter delight and they work from people from ages, you know, 32 103 and they did not work on you as effectively as I thought they would. I mean, what he is known for and like, famous for worked for me, like his true silent film era. The one movie that was filmed and directed in a time where all the movies were silent.

4:56 Teams worked for me, 100%. I was in it was the movies that he made when silent films were into thing anymore and he was still sticking to it or, you know, the Great Dictator his first foray into talkies. That's what I just I just wasn't as impressed with him as a director so I don't know man. I'm going to put this back in the ball, back in your court and say maybe you should have picked better movies. I will say, I have gotten multiple people. Writing to me saying, I can't believe how wrong Brad was about The Great Dictator in particular. The great like not modern times, not City Lights, people really seem to like The Great Dictator and they really seem to not like you as a result. Well what was it?

5:42 The Great Dictator or the fact that I don't like Ikea that really got people. I'm great that's all I'm really push people over the edge. Like I started them off there and just push them off the edge, with my take on the movie. And so they just lumped me in As a terrible person. All right man, let's talk about the performances in Chaplin's movies. I think that if there's anywhere well there's a couple other categories but I think if there's anywhere that he's really going to shine, it's going to be in directing actors including himself. We've talked about that iconic final shot of City Lights where it's just the close up on him at his most destitute as the Tramp, not knowing, if he's going to be accepted by the flower girl, we talked about Goddard in modern times and how good she was.

6:29 We talked about her dad in The Great Dictator and how that guy's not funny at all. And chaplain did a great job of leveraging that I think that whether it is in choreographing people on screen to do these elaborate gags, or in drawing really good dramatic performances. Out of people, I think across the board, man, his, his direction of actors is top-notch. I'm going to give him a nine and a half here. Yeah. Yeah, I met a nine and a half as well. I think that Chaplin himself is an incredible actor. We talked a lot throughout the episodes about even just the way he his famous way, he walks and goes up and down stairs, and he keeps his feet open to the world and it just gives a Ark to his character that like, so few other characters in film history have.

7:20 So, yeah, I think that the performances are Stellar here and, and easily will be His Highest category in my I think cinematography does kind of rival it though Brad. And in particular I'm thinking of when we watched the gold rush, we are talking about the special effects that he had on the screen and like an early version of green. Screening. Kind of, if you can call it that when they say, these people are out on this sort of like overhanging cliff and there's these big collapses. I think the way he uses the camera is really, really clever. I know you weren't a huge fan of modern times but the scene where they're in the department store and he's about to roller skate off into the abyss. This you should look up sometime how they pull that shot off because it was all done in camera, but it was done by layering matte paintings through like they painted onto a sheet of glass and then filmed through the glass. So that it looked like he was coming up against a big drop off when there was actually nothing there in real life. Really, really clever use of special effects and I think he's really good at using the camera to tell the story not to be showy.

8:25 Like there's not a ton Of like oh my gosh, what a shot even though we had that one in the Gold Rush that we loved but just economical efficient, use of the camera. And I think that using the camera like that doesn't get high marks often enough and I'm going to give it to him here. I'm going to give him a 9 out of 10. Yeah. Honestly I was going to give him an 8 out of 10 here but the story about how he shot that roller skating scene is like, that's incredible. That's just really, really cool. I think that he does a great job with the camera and that shot you mentioned from Gold Rush when everybody takes to the dance floor. But him is probably like a top 5 favorite shots that I've ever seen in a film. So I'll give him an eight and a half here, alright? That takes us to editing and I think last time we did this with Kathryn Bigelow, Brad, I said that I finally figured out how to separate in my mind the editing and the cohesion categories, and editing is the rhythm of the movie, right? Does the movie drag is the movie cut? Well and then cohesion is like, does the director build a plausible world for these characters? That's kind of how I think about it. At least I think that I'm going to still give him very high marks in cohesion.

9:43 But in editing I'm just going to give him an eight and a half. I really love these movies and so I'm probably scoring him higher than you will hear. But the Great Dictator is like at least ten minutes too long. I think that there are certain Moments in even modern times, my favorite movie of his, where it does get a little repetitive towards the end. It's like, all right, we're going back to the factory again, like we're going to do this, this whole feeding a guy, threw a chicken carcass thing again. So if there's anywhere that I think he suffers it is in editing but he still gets an 8 and a half for me. Yeah, this is this is where I think he struggles the most is knowing when to stop a gag, even in the Gold Rush, there were certain gags that just went on Way too long. I think that this is by far his weakest category and it's the reason I struggled with his movies. So I'm going to give it a six out of ten, he man. Alright, so cohesion then on the other hand, even if the movies drag at certain points, I think that he really does build these fantastic worlds where it has one foot, in reality, one foot and kind of heightened comedy.

10:50 I think about modern times where it's like they're living in a Shack on the edge of a lake. That is clearly. We being used for like dumping toxic waste, you know what I mean? Like it's just there's just little things where yeah this seems plausible but it's also like a place that it makes sense that the little Tramp would live. And I think he does such a great job of finding those worlds, and not making them to Fantastic goal. And also making it make sense that a character, like the Tramp could plausibly exist there. This might actually be his best category for me. I think I'm gonna give him a 10 here, Brad. That's interesting. I for me, I think the performances are easily the highest category. I'll give it an 8 out of 10 on cohesion.

11:31 I think that he builds really interesting worlds and I think that he has interesting characters, I think that there's just enough of a hindrance for me and enjoying the world's that he builds that keep me from giving it a really high score here. So I'll give him an 8 out of 10 here. I think that when it comes to you, Weakness. This is where I have no idea how to score him because compared to every other movie I've ever watched in my life. Yeah. This is very unique but I've not watched any other silent films Bob. So I'm going to let you take the lead here and give a uniqueness score. Well I don't mean I know that I'm really not going to sway your score but this is another area where it's like if it's not a 10 it's a 9 and a half because no one made movies like Chaplin.

12:19 There were three major American comedians at this time. Time it was Chaplin Buster Keaton and Harold, Lloyd and Harold. Lloyd's movies are really sweet and really sincere, but the probably the least artistically accomplished Buster Keaton at just had a very different style of Comedy than Chaplin did and it was much more reliant on Stunt work. So they're like big Burly kind of action e movies with a lot of comedy in it, and, you know, some, some romance as well. Chaplin really wanted to reflect the plight of people in America and across the world. And whether or not that works for you. I think that it's kind of undeniable that no one was doing it the way he was doing it and also trying to make you laugh while he made you cry. They're really just is no parallel for him. And so for me this is another 10 out of 10. I'll give him an 88 and a half out of ten here largely because of my ignorance.

13:14 But also to say that like I really enjoyed his characters that he brought about and I think that that is a unique characteristic that not Tall directors have in them to give you characters that are fascinating and well, acted. So I'll give him an 8 and a half on uniqueness. Bob, I am coming out to a 40.5 out of 50 here, I am coming out to a very, very high 47 out of 50. I think Chaplin whatever you think of the flaws in his movies. I don't think there are very many but I think that our metric is really well suited to chaplain, when it just comes to things. Like, does he build a coherent world does is he unique among Pierce. Like, you're just going to get high marks for being the guy that made silent movies when no one else was making silent movies.

14:00 Like that's unique in itself. So yeah, we're coming out to an average Brad of a forty, three point, seven five out of 50 or a an 87 and a half out of 100. Yeah I think that it's probably a good place for chaplain to fit and I know that I was not as high on his movies as most people are and To that. I say I don't give a rip. No, there it is. All right man. Listen we have to drink five Whiskey's before we throw over to our pre-recorded interview with Mariah Gates. I did want to Bob, we get to drink five, we get to. I was just going to say, I don't want to give the impression that we're going to drink.

14:40 Five whiskies and then go interview Mariah Gates. That would be a recipe for disaster. But stick around for that at the back half of the show for now. Brad, let's dive into these whiskeys. What do you say? Let's get to it. All right. Brad, we have a gauntlet in front of us. My dude there are five Whiskey's that need to be drank. They meet, they must needs be drunk the to speak. It Old King James language, we've got five whiskies from very different distillers here. In front of us, two of the distillers are Old. Faithful old classics on the film and whiskey podcast.

15:22 One of the distillers is brand-new to us, Brad. I don't know where to quite start here, but let me at least give the names of what we're drinking today. So we've got two whiskeys. From 10th Mountain, whiskey a rye and a bourbon. We've got two experimental Bourbons from Nur. If one is called the yellow leaning and one is called the Blue Claridge, and then we have the newest release from Bardstown bourbon company their Discovery series number 10, which has been picking up rave reviews, all over the place, including from our friend, Zack Johnston at up rocks, who just ranked it in his top 20 whiskies of the year so far. Yeah, and he's right.

16:04 I've tried three of these five whiskeys. I will not say which ones I haven't tried until we get to them, but Brad, what order should we go in here? Um, let's let's just go ahead and start at the top. I would love to talk about this Bardstown Discovery. All right. Cool. So we're starting with the highest proof offering that we have here. This is a one hundred and fourteen point two for proof whiskey and I will say this is based on the fact that iíve already drank all five. So Bob if you want to start somewhere else because fun fact, if you don't drink whiskey consecutively, you should always start with the lower proof whiskey first, and then move your way up. Because if you start off with the 114, your palates going to be fried for the 86-90 proof something. So, if you want to start somewhere else, by all means my friends.

16:58 Now, let's do it. I feel like I kind of like put my thumb on the scale a little bit. When I started talking about all the accolades as things one. So the discovery series from Bardstown is a blended whiskey from different products that they source. And it is just like a fantastic example of what blending whiskey can be. So this particular blend is made up. I'm going to throw a bunch of numbers that you guys, 62 % 9 year-old Kentucky, bourbon 18%, 13-year Kentucky, bourbon 8% six-year, Kentucky, bourbon, 10%, 10-year, Georgia, bourbon, And 2% 10-year, Tennessee, bourbon. So this thing has some age to it Brad it kind of shakes out to be about 75 percent corn 13, right?

17:42 N barley and then point five percent of something else. I assume wheat. I'm not entirely sure. So it's funny like they listed out on the sell sheet of like, oh this is, this has a nine-year bourbon in it and it'll say like, 75 1510, but it won't say what the 75 1510 are, right? So I'm just guessing what the Rains are in this, in any case, it's gotten rave reviews. Let's try the thing. Yeah. So when I jumped into this on the nose, do you remember? I feel like this was around in our childhood cream. Savers. Oh yeah. The Lifesavers that had like the strawberry woven into him and stuff.

18:23 There is strawberry and orange. Those were like, the only two flavors. This is an orange Cream Saver Bob. Wow. It's like I got just the A little bit of citrus to it, but it's creamy and delicious. There's caramel, there's vanilla. I got some like toasted almond nuttiness on the nose. This is friggin incredible, dude. You know what? It almost comes across on the nose, like a really solid weeded bourbon to me. It's not even more than just like, oh, it's a bourbon with wheat in it. It has that classic Cola. Note we get, but I almost had to remind myself that. I wasn't just drinking a Coca-Cola because Is it smells like a Coca-Cola in a glass to me, like, there's almost an effervescence to it.

19:08 And when I went to taste it, it tastes Thin and Thick at the same time. I don't know how to explain it. Like, it has that sort of like thin mouthfeel, you get from like really high proof whiskey sometimes because of the alcohol content. But then the flavor is complex enough that it kind of comes in waves and it really coats your palate. For me. It was like spicy black A Coca-Cola and then like a hint of dark chocolate, ice cream. It was really creamy with some cacao to it, I really like that. Yeah, for me, I'm the flavor. You get the caramel, there's brown sugar, there's vanilla, but the, there's a ton of like a the orange move from a creaminess to like, have you ever had the little dark chocolate oranges that like, split off into little slices?

19:57 Oh yeah. It reminded me of that. And then there was I didn't get quite black And pepper. But there is some, some sort of baking spices mixture in there, that had tons of complexity, and flavor, and like balanced out the sweetness really, really well. And then as I got into the finish, it moved back into the creaminess. There's vanilla, the nuttiness came back through Bob, this is a whiskey. I will say that I am slightly lower on it than I think. Both you and Zach are and it's because of the finish for me. The - got really herbal for me like huh? Yeah, like like almost vegetal kind of it.

20:39 It took on like a really grassy character which is fine, but it just kind of turned a little bit bitter for me towards the end. Whereas the front of it was like Coca-Cola, like a really nice bright, you know, corn syrup e, kind of thing. It didn't finish that way, which is fine. But, you know, I just kind of expected it to kind of follow the trajectory that had had, it didn't quite finish. that way for me, but I think once again, Listen. Bardstown can do no wrong in our eyes. Like they never have, they never will, their products are all good. Like the worst Bardstown product I've had, is still like an eight and a half out of ten and this is probably better than that. Yeah, Bob, I know that like whiskey tasting is an opinion based Endeavor, but you're wrong. This is nearly a perfect whiskey Bob. This Bardstown Discovery 10 series is one of the best. Bourbons that we have had in an extraordinarily long time. Wow, like it's at the perfect proof. Point the, perfect balance perfect flavors. I could drink bottle after bottle of this. Why don't you take this?

21:49 Why did you pick this to start with? Have you ever heard of burying the lead? Like this is what we end with man. That's what this is. What do you say? This is the best thing I've had in Forever. Do you want to know the reality of the situation? Yeah, let's hear it. I knew that if we spent time talking about the other ones, we Would we would get to the end and be like, oh yeah we got to hurry up and like, finish this. That's and not take as much time to talk about how incredible this whiskey is. Well, let's get into the next to Brad and I think that we started off in such a high proof Point. Let's go to the lower proof ones and those are the 10th Mountain whiskeys. Now we've never had this brand before they, they were kind enough to send us each a full bottle of their rye and a full bottle of their Bourbon.

22:32 And the thing that immediately stood out to me, Brad beyond the 82 proof point is that it proudly states on the front that it is aged for one year we have not had a lot of one year Whiskey's on this Pond. Oh, oh it is kind of common knowledge among distillers that Rai ages, a little more rapidly in terms of tasting mature, then bourbon does. I don't think any distillers out there would say this is fully mature at one year, right? So what I'm thinking is that 10th mountain is probably A newer brand. It seems like they are distilling their own stuff which I think is huge awesome, right? Yeah. Like they're not sourcing this, they're just coming out the gate and saying like Hey we're going to put out a really young whiskey. If you like where it's at at one year stick with us at to stick with us at three and four.

23:22 Yeah. Like I hope they get to a point where they're doing friggin Boldon bond in a couple years. That would be awesome. Yeah that would be incredible. I I love when distilleries are willing to put their money where their mouth is and say. Like, we're distilling our own, our own juice and we want to get it out there for people to try. Now, what say, you Bob do you want to try the Rye or the bourbon first? Let's start with the bird. That's alright. Let's start with the ride just because it's on my left here. So, its first what I'm looking at, I really like the nose on this Brad, it is immediately apparent how young this is, because the color on it is just not what we normally get on a well-aged dry. It's very grain forward on the nose, but it doesn't smell like sour ride to me. There's a lot of really Ali bright fruit here. I get a lot of Peach on this.

24:09 I'm actually really interested to see where this goes. The I know you've tasted both of them. These are the two that I have not tasted yet so I'm going to give it a sip while you describe your experience. Yeah. So I as I said, I love what they're doing here. I'm a fan of them, you know, for a young out into the world of whiskey and and trailblazing in their own path but I'm using a lot of big nice words to say that this smells like nail polish remover and it tastes like it too. Oh yeah. See I'm not getting that at all Brad. I'm having a vastly different experience than you actually.

24:51 I'm really glad to hear that eyes. This is this there yet? No, but there's nothing offensive on the palate. It's I think honestly the worst thing I can say about it is that it has no complexity to it yet but it tastes like a really darn good, Rye Whiskey and I'm expecting that like the additional aging is going to bring that complexity and some of the mouthfeel to it as well. It's a little bit thin, but it's got the sweetness that I'm looking for in. In a like, a finished rye whiskey. It's got a little bit of that fruit note to it, as well at one year, I was expecting this to be a heck of a lot worse than it is. This is actually pretty good. I will leave it there and jump on over to the bourbon. I guess, I will say to you.

25:36 You're the resident Rye person on this podcast, but I can see that this Rye is already like in my preferred. I will house. So that's why I think that's why I'm excited about it because I expected to stay in this flavor profile and just pick up some more character as it goes. Yeah, I'm with you. It will pick up more character as it goes. Alright, let's jump into the bourbon. This one has been sitting out for as long as the right house. I've had these both kind of airing out since we started this recording, the bourbon is more subtle on the nose than the Rye, but it does to its Credit have quite a bit of like a maple brown sugar nose to it.

26:23 Yep. Dead it does. If you say it does Bob man you are not. You're not giving them any credit here, Brad. Like I know. Wow. I'll just I'll just get my thoughts out of the way. Bob this isn't good whiskey, the rise not good whiskey. They they need to put more time in. It needs more time in the barrel. Desperately, the bourbon has a A little bit more flavor to it than the Rye does. The, which is surprising because I was expecting the ride to be a little bit better at this age statement, but the bourbon actually has a tiny bit of a brown sugar e note to it. Actually I like your note, it has a hint of maple syrup but beyond that it is high in ethanol low in flavor. I like I've had a few white dogs that I like more than this and now, man, that's saying a lot.

27:23 We have had it brands on this podcast. Before that we have really tiptoed around our thoughts on and a safe to say you have not done that. Today, you've got tipped with you, I appreciate that you haven't. But let me also say this I'm not tiptoeing here either I'm legitimately in the complete opposite place that you are on these Brad. Like I was expecting to not like these. I am very Only surprised with these because when I've tasted young whiskey or white dog, right? Like unaged, whiskey. The grain is the thing that you noticed the most and I will say that whatever they've done with this one year whiskey. It doesn't taste like aggressively grainy to me. It tastes like a whiskey that I don't know how to explain it. It's almost like where you're like, adjusting the color on a picture and you kind of desaturate it a little bit, you know, like Andy the Vibrance out of it, it has finished. And I when I say finished mature whiskey character to it but it's like they just kind of turn the dial down a little bit and I'm okay with that.

28:25 It almost tastes just kind of like diluted whiskey a little bit. It's really good and I think that at two years at four years, this is going to be darn good stuff and I don't Minded at one year. In fact, I would say, like if you want to try a one-year whiskey, I don't know that you could do any better than this. How much does it cost? I have no idea. Hmm. That that would that would be interesting for me. It was, it was free 99 for us. Brad. That's daggone, right? It was, that is a great price to pay for whiskey pop. All right? Listen, we've got two more to try. Let's try these new riffs. These are both bottled and bond Expressions. They are well they're they're As a straight bourbon whiskey is at 100 Proof. I'm not sure if they're technically bottled in bond. They are experimental runs from new riff using different kinds of corn.

29:15 And in one corner in one experiment, they used what's called a yellow leaming corn. And in the other one they use what's called Blue Claridge. I think it's pronounced Claridge corn. And it's literally like just to see what the difference is by using two different varietals of corn. I think it's really, really cool idea. And I have to say I did Is a difference between these two products. Yeah, 100%. There is a huge difference here. Which one do you want to start with yellow or blue? Let's start with yellow. I'll give my notes real quick because the yellow is like a bob book, special. It's like, I knows this and it was like, I don't think I've ever smelled anything as strongly brown sugar, that isn't brown sugar, but it was just like brown sugar for days.

30:05 As to the point where I started picking up a second note, and I was like, what is that, and the brown sugar kept overwhelming it that I couldn't pick out a second thing. I eventually settled, was it Browner sugar? I'd eventually settled on black pepper because I was like, I guess it's kinda spicy. But listen, this is not the most complex Whiskey in the world but Bob Books palette does not care. Like it is a super decadent super sweet almost like it almost had a we did a bourbon finish to me that I kind of had some of that cold. That we got on the Bardstown Maple vanilla brown sugar, it was just right in my wheelhouse. I was a huge fan of the yellow. Yeah I am mostly with you.

30:47 I think for me the other note I got outside of the sweetness was kind of like a really nice light citrus lemon taste. Like there's just a little bit of a lemony feel to this. That gave it a little bit of character that transformed it from being a nice light. Into something that had a little bit of complexity and really took me in. I like the yellow Leeming a lot. On the other hand we have this blue Claridge. It sounds like maybe you didn't love this one as much. I as I drank it I thought I wonder if Brad's going to like this one better just because the yellow was so far up my alley that I was like okay this one is much more Okie much more spicy a little bit of ride for me on the pallet that the yellow definitely didn't have.

31:35 What were your thoughts on the blue? Incredible. See, I knew it like yeah, I know this one was great. There's caramel there's oh, There's pepper. There's like not like an older let like a new leather feel to it on the palate. I had black pepper. There's a little bit of anise and it which normally I don't like as a flavor but it mixed just fine in here. Dude, this was a really interesting complex kind of dark feeling whiskey that I was totally down with this experience. I would take the blue Claridge any day of the week. This is why I love doing this. This podcast with you like and this is also why new riff like sending us stuff to try because now we get to promote both products and suggest that you go by both products. I really like these.

32:24 Both the yellow is definitely my preference. The blue seems like it's definitely your preference. Mmm. Yeah. The the blue, the blue Claridge had a depth to it that I think was the missing on the yellow. But that being said, like, if I scored both of these out of 50, I'd probably land on like a 7:38 for the yellow and like a 39 or 40 on the blue, like they're both really solid like D+ Whiskey's. Yep. Listen. Sometimes you just want to eat cake frosting, right out of the tub and and that's what the yellow leaving is like, I'm all for it. Sometimes I just don't want to have to think about how complex the whiskey is. I want it to be decadent. I want it to be sweet, and that's exactly what that is and it freaking check the boxes that I needed tonight. I remember one time Haley made.

33:13 Like a homemade vanilla frosting and we had like the cinnamon, graham crackers in the house and I had like I've been in a little bit of an unhealthy period in my life. And I was gaining a little weight and I would just eat graham crackers with vanilla frosting on. It was the most incredible thing. When Haley found out that I was doing that, she was like, well, no wonder you're gaining weight like you just eating the worst possible? Evil thing in the world. Let me live my life, that's what I yeah, do that. Yeah, all right man, we have an interview to get to, we have brought back, our friend, Mariah gates to talk about the top 5 movies. She would recommend for beginners who are new to silent movies.

34:00 Super excited to talk to her. Let's get to it. Brad. Yeah, man. Excited for it. Let's get to it. All right, we are here with Mariah Gates. You might remember her from our episode, a few weeks ago on City Lights Mariah. Thank you for joining us again. Thanks for having me. I mean, you are the resident expert at silent films on film and whiskey and the competition was just me. So, like you pretty easily beat me out in that that capacity. But what we wanted to do is we know that most people that are listening to this episode, have either never seen a silent film or if they've watched A few on our account, it's just Chaplin and Mariah. I want to throw over real quick to a clip from before we started recording the episode Brad was telling you about how City Lights was the first silent movie he'd ever seen and you had such a great take on people seeing silent films for the first time I wanted to include that sound clip here.

34:58 And then we'll get back into talking about what we're talking about now. I will say, I told Bob, I was like there's an element of. I, I know I Know what? I don't know. And so I don't totally know how to rate and and you know, the ranking is at the end of the day is somewhat meaningless. But like, you know, that doesn't know how to rate him Ivan's. A lot other side until that happens with silent. Not even just like a novice within the silent Community sound film fan Community because it was depending on who you talk to you. If you're like, talking about actual moving image or Talking about police Cinema you know like the the horse you know images you basically have 40 30 to 40 years worth of cinema, right? That's a long time and there's people who love the the later era stuff who like will give like a fragment one star or they'll give.

35:56 I particularly love the nineteen teens. They'll give like films from the nineteen teens that maybe you know, maybe they're a little more archaic in the way that they the art. We I don't say archaic. The art is different. It's Different mode of expression, right? But they don't like it so they'll give it like one star. And I'm like, that's a masterpiece of 1911. What are you doing? And this is someone who was also seen thousands of silent films. So this is to say that I think there, this is an area that is. So like it's not really a genre. It is, it is a era of filmmaking and there's so much difference within that, you know. Like, I know some people who love the like 1902. That's their, that's their favorite era and it's Like what?

36:38 But also a 1902 is great. I actually have a pink bike one of my films this from that era, but the point is we don't want to offend the 1902 Fanboys out. There is like, no wrong way to engage with silent. That's great to hear anything and watching us on it because there is so much there. Yeah, there's 90% loss. But the 10% that isn't the isn't losses, still thousands and thousands they were making you know like those Weber was making a film a week for like ten years. That's a that's a lot of mu p. So, you know, there's oh, my God, man. Doing is giving me permission to give this a 1 out of 10 just to mess with Bob. I mean, you could, but there's I'm just saying, there's no there's no judgment because it is its vast awesome. You made a really great point.

37:23 The first time you were here, talking about how silent film is not really a genre. It's 40 Years of movies, they just didn't have sound, so it's really hard to lump them all together and yet, I feel like most people probably do lump them together in that way. And so we have a task ahead of us today. We ask Mariah to join us and give us her top five films for beginning, your silent film Journey and I'm really interested to see what Mariah has to say because like you know Brad we talked about the The Sight and Sound poll when that came out and how there's so many different ways of making your list. Is it just hey, I think these are the 10 best films ever made. Hey, these are my 10 favorite movies.

38:04 Hey, I know what movies are going to get voted for and I want Shine a light on some other stuff and hopefully that can get included to. And I feel like Mariah, you could probably approach this like this. I had a fight in found ballet. Oh, hey, yes. And one of the films that I was going to mention. In this top five was on My Sight and Sound pilot, my strategy was exactly what you pointed out. I had one film that. Just barely didn't make the hundred last year. It still didn't make 100 this year mad about it, but oh no, it did it, did it maybe 100 this year. But the last time Ten years, it didn't. And so I, it's from a director of where this is not my favorite of her films, but I wanted it to get in the top hundred, so I had it on my ballot and then, most of the other films were.

38:48 I'm assuming these are having this like don't have a Ice Cube's chance in hell to get on the hot top 100. But I know that when it came out 10 years ago, I looked at all the individual critics whose opinions, I find interesting, not that I agree with. But that I find interesting to see, like, what were their tent So I assumed there are enough people who might find me, interesting, they would click on it and then look at the 10 and then I would have nine films on there. That I felt I wanted at least the the 12 people who might click on my name, will watch these films. That was my strategies actually, I love that strategy and I feel like you could kind of apply that strategy here. It's got to be hard to just pick five movies to direct a silent film newbie to.

39:35 Yeah, this was very stressed. Well, I was thinking I had a different, a couple different five films until I landed on what I decided to do. Was you know, like part of me is like I'm just going to give you five films that are my favorites right? But I tend to like a very distinct time within this period that I believe we would have about City Lights. There was some issue with like the voting of like this is the only sign of film I've given. I can't give it a ten, right? I don't want to throw people into the deep end so I threw that list out. I was like, this is a specific kind of film grammar. It's a specific art is a specific way of telling stories telling that you kind of got to work up to.

40:22 So I didn't I didn't want to throw people and sci-fi films that are like, you know, physics 12 instead of the physics with no math. Kind of, I want to, I want to work them up to those films. So, I went with five films that But assuming you've never seen a silent film except the chaplains. So there's no chaplain on here. I'm assuming everyone, listening, watch the chaplains along with you guys. What would, what would get you a good film grammar. So that if you like these five films, you will then want to seek out more that ended up being my strategy. Well I mean, I don't think we should beat around the bush here. I made a list of five of mine as well and I assume that there will be some overlap especially hearing you like your strategy now. But There's any left over, I might give those as like, honorable mentions.

41:10 After Mariah does hers, I would love for you to walk us through your top five Mariah sir. So I started with I just this is where you got to start. It's a trip to the moon, it's you you may be familiar with it if you seen Martin scorsese's Hugo or the Smashing Pumpkins music video, although I know that's the 90s now. And now that's 30 years old so I don't know how many people have seen that video anymore but for those of you who have You probably have seen the imagery from a trip to the moon. It's a rocket ship on like a cheese moon with a face. It's an interesting film because it is the first sci-fi film. It is melies.

41:50 Doing a little bit of of his old school magician trickery with this new technology, but it's also a play on French fairy. Tales that was a Stage versions of fairy, tales was a big thing. That's why a lot of those early French silent films are like the Cabbage Berry and other weird magic related things. That was that was that's just part of French culture but this is such an influential film. It's hard to watch it and not see every single other science fiction space film ever referencing. Bits of it.

42:30 It's a bit weird. It's also kind of Anti-Imperialist which is fun so you can watch it. Just for fun. You can watch it on a very deep philosophical level. You can watch it on a deep literary level or again, you can just watch it because it is very trippy, very lonely, and is only 13 minutes long, I recommend finding the lobster films transfer it is, there was a hand-painted - found in 1993 and I believe the lobster films edition of a trip. To the moon, is a digitized version of that. And so you At that beautiful early color as well. And I think it's really important. That is how it was supposed to be seen. They used to hand paint every frame, so it wouldn't be exactly the same everywhere, you know?

43:19 Because they would send those those prints out everywhere. But that version is the closest to what Millie has wanted people to see. I love it. Alright, so number five is Georges méliès a trip to the moon. Let's let's hear number four. Okay. Number four was My Sight and Sound was on My Sight and Sound ballot. 1916, it is Louis Webber's. Shoes is a melodrama about a working. Not a working girl because that she's not a sex worker, a woman who works at a Five and Dime Store and she supports her parents and her dad is an alcoholic and he takes all her money and she just needs a new pair of shoes and she may find herself becoming the other kind of working girl in order to get a new pair of shoes.

44:04 She's but it's really yes but it's a bit. Eek, it doesn't necessarily does not necessarily leave you thinking like the world is a great place. But what's interesting for me about it, is that lowest Weber was this filmmaker who saw film not just as a medium for entertainment, but a medium for social change. And so she made some of her films are not. Well, they did not age well, like she made some Eugenics films. You have to mention that because it's important to know that that's not good, but some of her other films that That aren't on that Line shoes has a movie. I think that has aged beautifully and really is about the exploitation of women in the workforce.

44:47 And it's got a beautiful performance from Mary McLaren. And it's just, it's a gorgeous film. And I think a really important film sounds like a blast. Yeah, honestly, though, I'm not familiar with shoes. This is one that I am going to have to seek out. Like, I've never heard of this movie. I think it's on Criterion Channel. Still, okay, have Criterion channel. It's Definitely on Blu-ray was part of the quino's pioneers of our lie silent Cinema set. I believe and then I think Milestone may have put it out as well. So there's a few ways to watch it. Awesome. And I was not the only person who had it on my Sight and Sound Bala time. I think it was, oh, my God, she writes for New York Times Nola dargis. I think she I think she also had shoes on her science and Bella and I was like, just two of us here in Good Company. There you go.

45:37 All right. What's coming in at number three? Okay. Now we 3i as much as I love the the teens I want us to get into like the meat of the silent era which is the 1920s. I also really love John Gilbert. So I have to have a John Gilbert film. This is flesh and the devil. It's Greta, Garbo, John Gilbert, Lars Hanson. I believe I mentioned Barbara Kent, previously. Also she's in Lonesome so this is the second part we can't film. It's probably the sexiest silent film. I'm at least in the top five sexiest, silent films, Greta Garbo. Literally will eat you alive with her face in this movie with her eyes. Like she's so sexy in this movie. It's hard to even think about it. John Gilbert also very sexy but basically, the plot is that Greta Garbo is so sexy.

46:26 That two men almost died. That's the movie. Yeah, that's, I mean, it sounds plausible to me. That's the movie and it's shot by Clarence Brown. Who would go on to the in the 30s. Make some of the best, Garbo and Joan Crawford movies. So he was a great actress director and this movie is just is so So good man, I love these so far. All right, let's hear number two. Okay, number two, maybe the first silent film I ever saw my dad found a copy of it on VHS. We were out of town. One time he bought it and he was so excited because it didn't used to be on available and he was like oh my God I remember this movie from when I was a kid, not that he was alive when it came out but I think he saw it like it's a rerun on TV or something as a kid. He's so excited to show it to us. It's so good.

47:17 It's Metropolis. Topless you can't, you can't go wrong with a strapless. Again, it's sci-fi. It is so influential, not just on all the music videos, so many music videos based on this movie, but you can see it in a lot of contemporary movies. The Styling of the city, you can see it in Blade Runner and so many other science fiction films in the last. Even last couple of years, have Rift on Metropolis, it has Brigitte Helm in it. Who's one of my favorite actresses? If you like her in this movie, you should just watch every single one of her movies that are available, because she truly was one of the great not just one of the great silent film actresses, she's one of the great actresses period and she was German, but not a Nazi as soon as Nazi.

48:08 He's took over. She was like bye. So she's also unproblematic German. Yeah, which is it, which is there's a few where you're like, oh, you're terrible. But you're a good actor but he come good actor and said, you know, no to the Nazis. So that's great. It's just, it's a great film. I don't know what there is to say about Metropolis that you then it's so good. I just am looking at the sum of the the stills from it. And it reminds me of Batman from Tim Burton. Yeah definitely played on it, the Android in, it was Star Wars fans will be parallels there, what I will say is there are basically two versions of metropolis. There's a normal metropolis and there's Giorgio moroder's Metropolis.

48:59 Now, I would suggest watching normal Metropolis, how Fritz Lang intended it to be but if you like it, It's worth watching the Giorgio moroder especially if you enjoy 80s like dumb 80s pop music because it is a different experience as a totally different movie, they had these pop songs like Queen wrote, some of the songs and Eurythmics I think is in the red next. Yeah. It's, if you like New Wave Music, it's like it's not Metropolis anymore, its own. There's a reason they call it Giorgio moroder's Metropolis. It is its own thing at that point, but I am a fan of it, but I wouldn't want it to To be your first way to watch Metropolis. That makes sense.

49:41 So I had never seen Metropolis. You know. It's all about a decade ago, Kino lorber released a Blu-ray the complete Metropolis. They finally found like an existing print of the movie. Yeah. Like like like so many of these stories that it was just like deteriorating in a back room somewhere. They found a complete print of this movie and no one had ever seen it. Like the first time they were able to piece it all together and they released it's a two-and-a-half-hour silent. Brad. And like the, the best thing I can say about it to influence you, to go. Watch this movie. Is it flies by it? Is like it does. I can't believe this movie is is, is that long, incredibly influential movie. One of my favorite movies of all time, Metropolis. Another film, that's very anti, the man anti taking advantage of the working class.

50:30 Very pro-union Pro like Workers Unite. It's really fascinating. So it's another film that I'll give you just watch it on the level of your, you want to watch a good Sci-Fi, you can do that. But then, if you want to go deeper, there's many, many, many levels to this movie. All right. We've got one more left. I'm anxious to see what your number one is Mariah. Taking it back to Comedy. I can't not mention Buster Keaton. I personally I think you should just watch every Buster Keaton movie and they are all on Criterion Channel right now. But the one that I particularly love is the cameraman only two. Yes, it's so sweet. It's one of the best romantic comedies.

51:11 He's he's so like, you get everything in this movie where, you know, his other films, you get a little bit of this and a little bit of that. And, and they're all cohesive, because they're all Eaten. But this one, you really get all the different facades of what he does best, which is the physical comedy, the camera movements, and the romance, anything he does Shadow Ball in this too, which is really fun. So you get a little baseball if after thing and there's a cute monkey. Yeah. I mean, that's a selling point. There's, there's a cute monkey. It's like, what else do you need? So, it's Keaton in Marshall and day. And it's just this beautiful romantic comedy with a little, with them. Or chaos towards the end.

51:53 Yeah, there's like a riot words and the monkey is amazing, and it's just really good. So, in my list, I wanted to pick a key and I picked the cameraman that's always been my favorite Keaton movie, and I'm so glad that like in the last 10 years or so, people have started to appreciate it on a level that they didn't. Before I think again that has a lot to do with the fact that it's finally become available like on Blu-ray. It's yeah. Put that one out as well 100%. Yeah. If I can add one to the list. If there's one movie that I would suggest, Just everyone on earth needs to watch at some point. I stayed up really late one night. Brad, I watched this movie because I knew that it was regarded as like a classic of world Cinema. It rocked my world to the extent that like, I couldn't sleep that night and it is the passion of Joan of Arc. Oh, yes, it is.

52:41 Probably if I was making a list Brad of like the 10 greatest films ever made, this is like maybe in my top five. It is it features the greatest performance ever put on film. Yes. Eddie, she's she's a brilliant in this absolutely haunting movie. The time they had faces then. Yeah. Right. She has so many face. Yeah, I am. Like, I'm very sorry to end on a note where I'm talking about watching a film. That is literally like a Beat by beat re-creation of the trial and death of Joan of Arc. Damn it. If that isn't just a perfect movie, and I hope that that gives you Brad and like everyone listening a clearer picture on The breadth and the depth of silent film.

53:25 We have everything from Harold, Lloyd and Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin to these incredible Classics of world Cinema like Metropolis, that their influence stretched for decades, you know, Mariah talked about Blade Runner and how that is like. So clearly based on Metropolis, I really hope Brad that we've given you a couple movies to add to your watch list today. Yeah, like I said, 11 One movie a week is not enough for me. I need to watch more and more films when Mariah we can't thank you enough for joining us again. I know you told us a few weeks ago when you were here but where can our listeners find you? The best place to find me these days is on sub, stack East, be very active on Twitter via Twitter is dying but on sub stack old film Slicker dotsub stack.com. I have my weekly directed by women viewing guide where I write about seven films.

54:22 Each week to give you a film a day directed by a woman to watch. And I guarantee you I'll never run out of films. There are so many and then I also write a lot about silent silent film on there as well. And they're trying to be sort of a social thing, not just a newsletter. So there's like notes where I occasionally post random things like photos with quotes that I've read, while I'm researching a silent film that no one cares about. To try to get people to care. So that's, that's really the best, the best place to find everything. And I also share my writing there as well. Mostly not about silent films.

55:03 I'm tend to be on the bad romantic comedy beat. So, I don't know when this airs. If I'll have watched another bad romantic comedy. But the thing is, I actually love romantic comedies and that's why I'm so critical on the ones coming out today because they're bad and they should be better, should be better. Just because they're out and we having something doesn't mean that it's good. And that is my that's going to be my window when you can watch the camera man like, you know, Zell that's that's the best place to find me. Is it? Bob and I watched way back in like, season one or two, When Harry Met Sally, that's the best romantic. And yes, that's all that needs.

55:46 To be said, frankly, dad is the movie. For modern romantic comedies. Literally like using modern technique modern you know writing modern characterization modern, whatever. That's the that's the rubric and it's the reason it's so good. I'm sorry. I'm going to just this is something outside of home early but the reason it's so good. It's the characters feel like real people and what happens with romantic comedies today is they take the plastic beads but they don't craft characters and that is why most romantic, huh? These today are garbage. Mmm, that's the final word from Mariah games.

56:28 All right, everybody, we will be back on Tuesday with another regularly scheduled episode. But until then I'm Bob book, I'm Reggie and we'll see you next time.