Films which Focus on Hands and Feet

[Aaron1927]

Here is a short film from the 1920's using only hands and feet to tell the story. I think it works well. Was this technique very popular in silent films? It's so funny how the audience can't hear or even see them, yet we know exactly what their saying.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xueHTlh6V3M





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[greta de groat]

There's a 1913 Vitagraph short called Extremities that fits the description. Unfortunately I don't know of any extant print. I have a review posted which references a similar Edison film: http://www.stanford.edu/~gdegroat/NT/ol ... xtremities" target="_blank

Greta

[BenModel]

Not necessarily popular, but used a bit. Marcel Perez made AMOUR PEDESTRE in this style, and the opening sequence of the first reel of his short PINCHED also follows this technique.

Ben

[Aaron1927]

About 20 years ago when I first used a video camera, I made short silent films. Silly stories really but it was good fun. I focused the camera entirely on my hands and feet. e.g. A hand reaching for a knife. A hand clutching onto a table cloth and falling back and collapsing to the floor. A car tire rolling into view and stopping. Or to simulate a foggy day in London. Put on my best shoes and use the end of a brush like a gentleman's cane. Light a small fire outside or burn a cigarette and turn on the electric fan to its softest setting, and bingo, I'm walking on the streets of dear old London. The filming budget was always the same. Zero! Then again, I never made a cent.



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[Spiny Norman]

[Rodney]

On Kino's Unseen Cinema there's a short film called something like "Hand Dance" that's just hands doing some choreographed motions. But my favorite bit is in Charley Chase's Mighty Like a Moose, where there is a series of repeated episodes of Charley going to ask his wife for a dance, being cut out by another man, and having to dance with Gale Henry, who only knows the polka. One time the entire interaction is played out with the camera looking only at their feet.

In Mary Pickford's films, there's a sort of running gag that in many of the films you see her feet (or legs) before you see her. It's not particularly sexualized or anything, but it is kind of charming once you notice it.

[Spiny Norman]

[Scoundrel]

Chaney's THE UNKNOWN (1927) definitely belongs here.

[Mitch Farish]

There is a bit in Sjostrom's THE WIND in which Letty and Lige's wedding night is played by just showing their feet. We see his boots pacing, we see her feet on the other side of the wall, pacing. We see his feet stop near a tin cup on the floor. He kicks it across the room. Her feet stop on the other side of the wall as she hears the noise. His boots step deliberately into the room and stand. Her feet step backward apprehensively. His boots walk up to her feet as he faces her. Then we cut to Lige forcing his kisses on Letty. It isn't very long, but it's riveting.

[Ann Harding]

There are two Gaumont shorts called DES PIEDS ET DES MAINS (1915, Gaston Ravel) and LA JOURNEE D'UNE PAIRE DE JAMBES (1909) which show only the hands or the legs of the actors. The first one translated as FEET AND HANDS is available in the Gaumont Treasures Vol. 2 (1908-16) box from Kino. (Both are available in the DVD box Gaumont Cinéma Premier Vol. 2 in France)

There is a clip from DES PIEDS ET DES MAINS (FEET AND HANDS) available on YouTube:

[Spiny Norman]

For some reason, the star wars films appear to really have it in for hands:

[Mbakkel2]

"Hände" (1928, Germany). Directed by Miklos Blandy.



"The Dying Swan" (1917, Russia). Directed by Evgeny Bauer. Scene: "Gizella's Dream"

http://www.criticalcommons.org/Members/ ... dream/view

"Repulsion" (1966, Great Britain). Directed by Roman Polanski



"Day of the Dead" (1985, U.S.A.). Directed by George A. Romero



"V/H/S" (2012, U.S.A.) Several directors

"Self Control" (1984, U.S.A.) Music video


"Ultravox - The Thin Wall" (1981) Music video


"Labyrinth" (1985, U.S.A./Great Britain). Director: Jim Henson



And the all we saw of Richard Diamond's secretary was her legs (1960's TV serial).

Freddy Krueger in "Nightmare on Elm Street" shows his evil hands......

"The Thing" in "The Addams Family" was only a severed hand.

I am unsure if hands stretching from the wall also were featured in Jean Cocteau's French work "Orphee". In Jean Cocteaus 1946 film "La Belle et la Béte" hands were prominently featured:

[Mitch Farish]

In Mockery (1927) Benjamin Christensen focuses on Lon Chaney's gentle hands as he first washes Barbara Bedford's feet, then tucks a blanket around her.

[Mbakkel2]

"Gumshoe" (Short film) Director: Matt Steinauer. FEET



"Mad Love" (1935, U.S.A.) Director: Karl Freund. HANDS

*Hands of a Stranger" (1962, USA) Director: Newt Arnold

"The Hands of Orlac" (1960, France/Great Britain) Director: Edmond T. Gréville.

[Gary]

Bresson often isolates and focuses on his characters' hands and feet, especially, as I remember, in Lancelot du Lac.

[Mbakkel2]

"The Thieving Hand" (1908, U.S.A.). Director: J. Stuart Blackton

[Wm. Charles Morrow]

There was a short film shown at Mostly Lost last week that was a perfect example of this sort of thing. It was made in France for a company called Monofilm Paris, probably around 1908 or thereabouts, and runs just over 7 minutes. The print came from the Royal Archive of Belgium. The film hasn’t been positively ID’ed as yet, but because it features two bakers it’s currently known as Les Deux Boulangers. We see two men working in a bakery, located at what appears to be basement level. They take a break, go over to a window, and have to climb up to look out at passersby. And then we are given their perspective of the passing parade, entirely from ground level: we see feet, primarily, and the style of shoe tells us something about the gender, age, and social class of the wearer. At one point a little girl drops her doll, which is run over by another child’s toy train. We also see a legless man roll past on a cart. The weirdest moment comes when a man gets down on the ground in order to look at a woman’s wristwatch—which she’s wearing around her ankle! The punchline comes when the two bakers get dust swept into their eyes by a street cleaner, who then sprays them with a hose.

It’s a cute little film. Of course, with so many movies from the era missing it’s impossible to say whether the idea originated with the folks who made this short, or if it was a reworking of something done earlier. Either way, the idea was well realized in this instance.

[earlytalkiebuffRob]

The scene in LITTLE ANNIE ROONEY (1925) where Mary Pickford hides under the table bearing her policeman father's birthday spread, and feels what she thinks are her Dad's legs, only to realise that they are those of his colleague who has come to deliver the news of his death in a shooting.

[Richard P. May]

Early in THE BIG PARADE, we see the character played by John Gilbert in a car, tapping his foot to music.
Later, he is leaving with the troops, and Renee Adoree follows, grabbing his shoe. This predicts the loss of his leg in the battle.

[earlytalkiebuffRob]

The opening shots of STRANGERS ON A TRAIN, contrasting the characters of Guy Haines and Bruno Anthony by their shoes...

[Micromegas]

"Mortmain" from the mid-teens which is along the same lines as The Hands of Orlac.

Steve

[Roscoe]

In the silent BEN-HUR, as I recall, we only ever see Christ's hands, offering water to Novarro, gesturing while preaching, and in one particularly wrenching closeup, writhing in agony while pierced by a huge nail.

[Rodney]

In the silent BEN-HUR, as I recall, we only ever see Christ's hands, offering water to Novarro, gesturing while preaching, and in one particularly wrenching closeup, writhing in agony while pierced by a huge nail.

That's correct (I watched it just a few weeks ago in S.F.). As I remember the story, the author of the novel insisted that Christ never be shown. In the theatrical version he was represented by a shaft of light, which would have been less effective on film. The hands were a compromise, but I thought they were effective. I think we also see him carrying the cross up the road in Jerusalem, but not his head or face.

[earlytalkiebuffRob]

In the silent BEN-HUR, as I recall, we only ever see Christ's hands, offering water to Novarro, gesturing while preaching, and in one particularly wrenching closeup, writhing in agony while pierced by a huge nail.

If memory serves me correctly, only Jesus's hand is seen in the 1959 remake, giving Ben-Hur water from a well. However, Miklos Rozsa'a music leaves us in no doubt who is doing the kindness..

[Roscoe]

In the silent BEN-HUR, as I recall, we only ever see Christ's hands, offering water to Novarro, gesturing while preaching, and in one particularly wrenching closeup, writhing in agony while pierced by a huge nail.

If memory serves me correctly, only Jesus's hand is seen in the 1959 remake, giving Ben-Hur water from a well. However, Miklos Rozsa'a music leaves us in no doubt who is doing the kindness..

Nope, Christ is shown more fully in the Wyler version, but always from behind or with the face obscured. There's a marvelous moment when a Centurion orders Christ away from Ben-Hur, and Christ stands up full figure, seen from behind, dwarfing the Centurion, who is clearly rather taken aback by the experience.

[Rick Lanham]

Going from memory:

In Hitchcock's The 39 Steps, the Richard Hannay character (Robert Donat) is told early on to be on the lookout for someone (male or female) with the tip of their finger missing. He escapes his initial difficulties and after some adventures lands in a location where there are quite a few people. As I remember it, there are lots of shots showing the actors' hands, but never very clear shots. We are being teased by Hitchcock and we (and Hannay) are eventually shown the correct person.

Rick

[earlytalkiebuffRob]

In WE'RE IN THE NAVY NOW (1926), Wallace Beery and Raymond Hatton are peeling their way through a mountain of spuds. There is then a close-up of their hands, peeling efficiently in double-quick time, in which the use of doubles may possibly have played a part.

[Spiny Norman]

Manos, the hands of fate

[Eric Cohen]

(In 1912) "I made the first picture, I think, that was ever made where you never see the faces of the actors. It was just a stunt. I started with the feet, and made the half reel following feet and legs of different characters throughout the comedy. I made two or three that were released by Keystone. However, I was the first photographer that Mack Sennett ever had as an independent producer and director - that was in New York. I made his first Keystone release - I didn't direct any of it, I didn't cut it, I merely photographed it." -Irvin V. Willat to Robert S. Birchard in 1971.

[SilentsPlease]

What's the actual name of the film in the first post? I can't find either "How to Get Hitched" nor "Five Steps to Paradise" in any movie databases.