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Does your significant other support or share your passion for silent film?

It would be a fun topic to bring up.

I typically watch silent films by my lonesome. Aside from Nitrateville and friends and associates I have met through the Internet, I don't have many friends into it and my wife never watches it with me. Although my 9-year-old has watched them with me (only if it's Buster Keaton films) over the years.

But surprised when my wife told me about a silent film screening in our local area and asked me if we can go together. You don't know how awesome that was to hear! Never saw it coming! Lol...

So, curious for others on here, if your significant other (or person you are dating) supports your passion for silent film?

No.

kndy wrote:Does your significant other support or share your passion for silent film?

I would have to say, definitely yes.

I wouldn't say she's as much in love with the classic era as I am but she's happy to watch anything I'm watching, silent or talkie.
However, I do always offer a choice...we can watch the baseball or an old movie.

Last night my wife came along to the screening of GEFAHREN DER BRAUTZEIT and SEVEN CHANCES at the Bonn festival. Karen is happy to go to screenings with live accompaniment, but she does not often join me when I watch a DVD. However, last week the bluray of SPARROWS won her over no problem.

My wife doesn’t share my passion to silents, but she understands it. She has seen almost every important classic we have and loves Chaplin movies. She reads my writings and essays and gives good comments on them. She doesn’t complain when I buy silents, but only thing she doesn’t understand is why I won’t sell the lousiest movies from my collection.

Well, since she is a former Library of Congress Archivist, I guess the answer has to be "Yes".

Not only does she watch `em, she catalogs them too.


RICHARD M ROBERTS

Richard M Roberts wrote:Well, since she is a former Library of Congress Archivist, I guess the answer has to be "Yes".

Not only does she watch `em, she catalogs them too.


RICHARD M ROBERTS

LUCKY!!!!!!!!!!!

My wife and I have watched an old film at dinner time for the last thirty-five years. Obviously she shares my passion for films - no matter what era - although mostly we watch films from the 1930's or British films from whatever era. My passion for silents she shares when we go to a theater showing old silents with an orchestra or someone on piano or organ, but she doesn't prefer to watch silents at dinner time. She just doesn't care to read titles - that's the long and short of it.
(By the way, I have to catalogue all my films by myself. Somewhere close to ten thousand these days, and it's taking over all the space of the house. By the time I'm 90 or so I'll be sleeping under the roots of the tree in the back yard...

I wouldn't say my wife shares a passion for old/silent movies, but she doesn't leave the room when I watch them, and she sometimes gets caught up in them. She seems to enjoy all the Chaplin movies we have seen, and without any prompting from me she ordered the blu-ray of The Artist. I guess she's a convert ... sort of.

My wife is in the process of divorcing me, so I guess that's a no. Not a joke.

When my husband and I were dating, we went to a goofy performance space in an empty building in San Francisco, where we helped set up the chairs after the previous show, the Flying Karamazov Brothers, and then we watched Dancing Mothers and Sex Life of a Polyp. That's one of our fond memories. He didn't realize that a novelty evening was going to become a regular part of his life. But what really won his respect for silents was a screening of Terje Vigen at the PFA. He doesn't love silents per se, but enjoys a good movie of any sort and will even occasionally pull out one of my silent videos to watch on his own. If he doesn't like one i'm watching, he'll just go to sleep (or at home, leave the room). Night before last we watched The Leopard Woman, so last night he said "can we watch something good tonight?" (I put on Carefree with Astaire and Rogers, and while he didn't like the story, he agreed that Change Partners was sublime).

greta

No one shares my passion for Silents, except for one of my nieces who comes to visit from up north and stays as a guest in my house.
We spend every evening during her stay watching Silent films. Last visit we raided the Murnau, Borzage and Fox set.
Next visit will be, VISAGES D' ENFANTS and FAUST.

I go to local Museums for Silent film screenings by myself, but I like to interact with the audience whilst waiting for the film to start.

My partner( or husband depending on which state we are in) will watch a talkie with me but generally draws the line at silents. He did enjoy THE ARTIST so there may be hope. I think the trick will be a screening with live orchestra or even piano. Being In a theater with an appreciative audience makes a big difference.

My wife knows that if I actually push her to watch something, it must be pretty good and not, you know, Salt For Svanetia. The kids, I keep pushing to be more and more adventurous-- we just watched Seven Samurai, I'm sure they thought it would be non-stop action from but they more or less got into the slow fuse of the plot and the character development in place of wall to wall kung fu.

They love going to see the silents at the Portage, especially when Mont Alto is playing... since they know them.

To put it simply, no. My dad does, though. For almost everyone else in my family that I've met face-to-face and "saw" a silent with me, let's just say they "tolerate" them. Basically, I'm the black sheep.

My addiction to silents started with Chaplin (seems to be rather common), which led to Keaton, Lloyd, and beyond. My wife and daughter (age 4) appear to have moved passed tolerating these films to very much enjoying them. My daughter has a crush on Keaton and loves watching Charley Chase's Dog Shy. One of our favorite evenings is projecting a silent film up on the wall and popping a large bowl of popcorn. My DVD/BR collection has grown a lot over the last couple of years and my wife is always interested in watching a new film with me. The most recent was The Patsy. She loved it and I loved the fact that she loved it. While she doesn't share my deep appreciation for the art and history of silent film, she certainly appreciates how much I love it and supports me 100%. I'm a lucky dude.

My wife draws a line between silents she considers entertaining -- which would include Pickford, Fairbanks, William S. Hart, etc., and most of the great comedians -- versus the ones that are historically interesting, with little air-quotes around the word “interesting.” The latter category includes Griffith, Eisenstein, war-related dramas, and the comedians she doesn’t like. (For some reason, she’s never warmed up to Lloyd Hamilton; but she always laughs at Ford Sterling. Go figure.) She’ll watch the entertaining ones with me, and usually enjoys them. I’ve learned which ones I should arrange to watch by myself.

She almost never accompanies me to public screenings, but I’ll either go alone or with film buff pals, so that works for everybody.

I think our partners should count themselves lucky. There's got to be so many worse pastimes than watching classic film. I mean we could be into military reenactment, hunting, steam engines, philandering or even - God forbid! - golf.

My passion is silent comedy and classic 30/40's comedy. My partner doesn't share my passion but supports it 100%. His passion is opera, Dame Joan Sutherland is his favorite and I support his passion as well 100%. He does like Laurel and Hardy of the 30/40's and Harold Lloyd,but would never sit down and watch watch a silent comedy. A few scenes and not more. That's OK, I won't sit and watch an opera! We do watch classic movies together once in a while with Ginger Rogers (with or without Astaire), Bette davis, Errol Flynn, Elizabeth Taylor etc, and just the other night we watched MARIE ANTOINETTE with Norma Shearer.
So things are well.

When it's time for Christmas, birthdays or anniversaries we both know what to get one another and many DVDs in my collection are from him.

Arndt wrote:I think our partners should count themselves lucky. There's got to be so many worse pastimes than watching classic film. I mean we could be into military reenactment, hunting, steam engines, philandering or even - God forbid! - golf.

I agree. While I was writing my post I started thinking how lucky I was to have a wife who is so supportive. I then started thinking, "Wait, if this is the worst thing I do, then she is pretty lucky!" It could be much worse...

Well my wife lets me squander some of our money on movie stills and 16mm films. She will usually attend our local 16mm shows, but will not watch a silent movie on DVD. She will sometimes agree to watch a classic film like African Queen on BluRay with me. My teens will occasionally watch classic comedy shorts with me, but not very often.

On the other hand, my wife thinks that old movie cameras, film reels, movie stills, etc. are great for decorating, so I can't complain.

Arndt wrote:I think our partners should count themselves lucky. There's got to be so many worse pastimes than watching classic film. I mean we could be into military reenactment, hunting, steam engines, philandering or even - God forbid! - golf.

Or in Finland... drinking

Murnau wrote:

Arndt wrote:I think our partners should count themselves lucky. There's got to be so many worse pastimes than watching classic film. I mean we could be into military reenactment, hunting, steam engines, philandering or even - God forbid! - golf.

Or in Finland... drinking

In this country, golf and drinking go together!

Mine will watch anything with me, but they're usually asleep. They enjoy the films more if they're accompanied by belly-rubs. Who doesn't?

Arndt wrote: I mean we could be into military reenactment, hunting, steam engines, philandering or even - God forbid! - golf.

Who says we (or some of us) ain't? Maybe even antique cars. (Though a decent respect to the opinions of mankind has preserved me from that last, God-cursed, folly.)

mndean wrote: In this country, golf and drinking go together!

My God, I've been misinformed...I thought it was drinking & old movies!

entredeuxguerres wrote:

mndean wrote: In this country, golf and drinking go together!

My God, I've been misinformed...I thought it was drinking & old movies!

The flask in the bag and the refreshment wagon with beer on ice were a constant feature of the courses I was on through my 30s, and I was the teetotaler of the foursome. Not that booze was always a good idea. When I was a teenager, I once drove a ball right through another foursome 270 yards away (I measured, having never hit a drive that far in my life). With the roll, I damn near got on a par-4 (short par-4, mind you) green in one. It was the 12th hole, the affronted group was pretty lit and a fistfight was only narrowly averted. I did drink a bit at a tournament I was invited to, I ended up laughing even more than usual at my play. With the Callaway scoring system I thought it would help, but I was still too consistent to place well.

Gee, I haven't played a round of golf since the early '90s.

mndean wrote: The flask in the bag and the refreshment wagon with beer on ice were a constant feature of the courses I was on through my 30s, and I was the teetotaler of the foursome. Not that booze was always a good idea. When I was a teenager, I once drove a ball right through another foursome 270 yards away (I measured, having never hit a drive that far in my life). With the roll, I damn near got on a par-4 (short par-4, mind you) green in one. It was the 12th hole, the affronted group was pretty lit and a fistfight was only narrowly averted. I did drink a bit at a tournament I was invited to, I ended up laughing even more than usual at my play. With the Callaway scoring system I thought it would help, but I was still too consistent to place well.

Gee, I haven't played a round of golf since the early '90s.

Quite a bit longer for me. Imagine my surprise to find that some of my DoN sisters are golfers. In my neck of the woods, golfing was not only accompanied by drinking, but also by a considerable amount of gambling.

Frederica wrote:

mndean wrote: The flask in the bag and the refreshment wagon with beer on ice were a constant feature of the courses I was on through my 30s, and I was the teetotaler of the foursome. Not that booze was always a good idea. When I was a teenager, I once drove a ball right through another foursome 270 yards away (I measured, having never hit a drive that far in my life). With the roll, I damn near got on a par-4 (short par-4, mind you) green in one. It was the 12th hole, the affronted group was pretty lit and a fistfight was only narrowly averted. I did drink a bit at a tournament I was invited to, I ended up laughing even more than usual at my play. With the Callaway scoring system I thought it would help, but I was still too consistent to place well.

Gee, I haven't played a round of golf since the early '90s.

Quite a bit longer for me. Imagine my surprise to find that some of my DoN sisters are golfers. In my neck of the woods, golfing was not only accompanied by drinking, but also by a considerable amount of gambling.

Outside of sibling rivalry, I cared not a whit about my score except to improve on it if possible. I saw other people gamble and was roped into it a few times (foursome vs. foursome). Didn't care for it. Funny, I never knew anyone to gamble at bowling except hardcore gamblers/ringers. Shame there are no DoN around here, I'd play a round with one.

FYI, I did mean the double entendre.

entredeuxguerres wrote:

mndean wrote: In this country, golf and drinking go together!

My God, I've been misinformed...I thought it was drinking & old movies!

No, that's too refined. When you watch movies, you watch movies. When you play golf, you play golf. And when you drink, you really drink: as long as you are really drunk, puke and go out.