Notes
A note on projection speed
The jerky, hurried quality that people associate with silent cinema is almost entirely an artefact of playback.
Films of the period were shot at a range of speeds — commonly sixteen to twenty frames per second, sometimes varying within a single film as the operator turned the crank. When sound arrived, twenty-four frames became the standard, and every existing print was subsequently run at that speed because that was what the equipment did. A film shot at eighteen and shown at twenty-four runs a third too fast, which is exactly enough to turn walking into scurrying.
Once you have seen a properly stepped transfer the difference is not subtle. Gestures land. Performances that looked broad turn out to be measured. The comedians in particular are transformed: what read as frantic becomes precise, and the timing — which was the whole craft — becomes visible again.
Most restorations now correct for this, and the good ones say what speed they chose and why. It is worth checking the note before deciding that a film from 1924 is unwatchable.