The Crowd. It took a while for the talkies to catch up with the camerawork in this 1928 film. Nicely done. And as I find with many silent films, it was much funnier than I expected. The work scenes anticipate Il Posto (one of my favorite movies) in some ways. Technically, it’s supposed to be one of the pinnacles of silent film. One early long zoom moment reminded me of Hitchcock’s famous zoom-in in Notorious, 20 years later. Themes include changing social mores in relationships, expectations about masculinity, the arrival of modernity, self-realization, practicality. Probably hard to find on DVD, I lucked out with a live screening and piano accompaniment. Looking forward to the rest of Emory Film Department’s spring 2012 series.