The silent film is one that has no sound or dialogue, consisting only in pictures. The idea of combining pictures with recorded sound is nearly as old as cinema itself, but until the end of 20, most films were silent. This period before the introduction of sound, through the Vitaphone system, known as the "silent era" or the "silent period". After the premiere of the film The Jazz Singer, the films became more voice and more trivial, and ten years after the silent film virtually disappeared. The silent film era is often referred to as "The Age of Silver Screen".

The first silent movie was created by Louis Le Prince in 1888. It was a film in two seconds, which showed two people walking around the garden roundhay Ggarden, entitled The Garden in Roundhay.The art of filmmaking reached its full maturity before the advent of movies with sound at the end of the 20s. Many scholars argue that the aesthetic quality of film decreased for several years until directors, actors and production staff adapted to the new theater talk. " The visual quality of silent movies, especially those produced during the 20s - was often extremely high. However, there is a false and very common idea, that these films were primitive and barely visible compared to modern standards. This misconception is because those movies were technical errors (such as movies that are repeated at the wrong speed) and due to the deteriorated condition of many silent films (many recordings are available only through copies of the second or even third generation that were made because the original film was already damaged and neglected).

The silent film required a greater emphasis on body language and facial expression, so the audience could better understand what an actor was representing on the screen. Retrospect, some films from the silent era may be strange, since it may give the impression that the actors overact so exaggerated. Partly because of this, silent comedies tend to be more popular now that the drama, because sobreactuación is more natural in a comedy. However, in some silent film performances are more subtle, depending on the director and the ability of the actors. The sobreactuación was a habit that actors often dragged from the theater scene, and the directors become more familiar with the new medium discouraged.

Most silent films were shot in France at speeds slower than movies with sound (usually 16 to 20 frames per second versus 24), so unless you apply special techniques to show your original speed may seem Quick artificially, which highlighted their unnatural appearance. However, some silent movies were filmed at a lower speed and with intent to accelerate the action, this form of stylization was done preferably with comedias.En the years before the introduction of sound were filmed literally thousands of silent films, but a considerable number of them (some historians estimate that between 80 and 90 per cent) have been lost forever.