"Restorative and Reflective Nostalgia

in Contemporary Adaptations of Silent Film"

Oliver Mayer (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology)

Due to the technological rupture caused by the arrival of sound film in the late twenties, the language of silent

cinema seemed to be doomed to disappear forever. Nevertheless, during the last decade several attempts have

been made to revitalize the formal structures of silent film and to transform it into an object of nostalgic reverence.

The variety of appropriation techniques applied in these “contemporary silent films“ ranges from formalist imitation

and parodistic mockery to highly (self-)reflexive transfers of silent film language into contemporary visual culture.

This paper aims at examining these various appropriation strategies of the

formal qualities of silent film. Two patterns of appropriation emerge which may

be distinguished according to Svetlana Boym’s differentiation between

“restorative” and “reflective” nostalgia. The restorative approach is represented

by films like Die Gebrüder Skladanowsky (Germany 1995, Wim Wenders et al.),

Der die Tollkirsche ausgräbt (Germany 2006, Franka Potente) or Aki Kaurismäki’s

melodrama Juha (Finland 1999), which construct the period of silent film as an

idealized “origin” of film culture and restrict their approach almost entirely to sheer imitation. On the other hand,

filmmakers like Guy Maddin (The Saddest Music in the World, Canada 2003) or Esteban Sapir (La Antena, Argentina

2007) opt for a radically different approach. Far beyond mere quotation, these films transfer the language of silent

film into contemporary visual culture and integrate self-referential reflexions of silent film’s mediality.