I've never heard of this movie, either. Sounds interesting. I actually like watching silent films because it is one type of film that everyone else has the same handicap that I do. They do sometimes tend to overact a bit in them, though, I suppose to convey emotions that normally would be heard, not seen.
O.K. I must make speeches now.
I adore silent films, but these days don't usually actually just sit and watch something without doing something else. YOu can't do that with silent films, you must pay attention.
The melodrama I refer to in Metropolis is more with the writing than the acting.
Now, about Charlie Chaplin. Who is Charlie Chaplin, you say? He's the greatest film maker of all time, IMHO>
He took years to make magnificent films. He felt a silent film should use as few of those word boxes as possible. (I forget what they are called, but the dialog that comes up so you know what the characters are saying to each other.)
Chaplin felt that silent films should relate a story through action and expression and gesture.
Chaplin said, many times I think, that he'd rather work with novice actors than very trained stage actors. He felt actors who were used to using their voice tended to overact something terrible. (He put it better than I just did.) And I feel his films are some of the most subtle silent films you'll ever see.
If you want to see something really weird, check out "Birth of a Nation" sometime. DW Griffith (sp?) looks pretty racist in this film. (He was the producer/director I think.) But he also did another film "Flower Blossoms" maybe
where an oriental man rescues a young white girl from her abusive father.
DW Griffith was a weird guy, from what I can tell of his movies. In "Birth of a Nation" he shows the Klu Klux Klan rescuing a group of people that includes black servants. The real villians are portrayed as "mellato" (that is part black, part white).
If you can stand the racism, it is a fascinating movie. But that can be a pretty big "if" right there.
Anyhow, Metropolis and Chaplin are the best of silent film, IMHO.
O.K. lecture over.