silent picture
1
6.1
- noun
- /ˈsaɪlənt ˈpɪkʧər/
:
película muda
- They used to "shoot" silent pictures from the cuff, as they called it.
Examples
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And the result was presented in 1925: the silent picture The Denmark Film (There is a Lovely Country).
Academic text (1999) -
Used to work in silent pictures.
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- I tell you, it's the end of silent pictures.
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From silent picture masterpieces to action films of the present day to the one we'll be watching tonight: The Art of the Deal.
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Silent pictures are yesterday's news.
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They didn't have clapper boys on silent pictures.
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By age 12, she was being paid to play for silent pictures, and as a teenager, she toured with an adult male dance band, playing at grange halls around the region.
Academic text (2017) -
When it comes to Anna Christie, the effect is doubled: Garbo has made her name in silent pictures filled with long close-ups and placard ellipses: "You are... so beautiful."
Fiction book (1999) -
Many classic films are considered iconic silent pictures that shaped the history of cinema.
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In the early 20th century, silent pictures relied on expressive acting and title cards to convey the story.
Synonyms
10
3.2
A film with no recorded sound or spoken words
Old movies made before sound, using acting and writing on the screen to tell the story
Antonyms
How Much Dialogue
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a movie without synchronized sound' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'silent' (lacking sound) with 'picture' (motion picture/movie). This is a straightforward compositional pattern found across many languages (e.g. French 'film muet', Spanish 'película muda'), so a B1 learner who knows both words would readily understand the term.
Etymology
Silent picture comes from the early days of cinema when films had no recorded sound. Audiences saw a moving picture but heard nothing from the film itself, so actors used big gestures, written title cards and live music, and that is why 'silent picture' means a movie without recorded spoken dialogue.