Respect to (1) black cats and (2) classic films

Disrespect

The two pointy front teeth of a cat are called "canine teeth", just like ours, but when it's a cat, I think it's disrespectful to call them that. I think they should be called feline teeth.

Respect

Speaking of respect for felines, did you know that today, Sunday August 17 2025, is black cat appreciation day? It's true! According to many "national days of" calendars, which you can corroborate with your searching engine of choice.

So here she is. Appreciate and respect her! It's the law.

Intertitles

The hardest part of watching a silent movie today is that the intertitles stay on screen an uncomfortably long amount of time, like 3x longer than it takes for me to read them. It reminds me of a game cutscene where dialogue still appears as text boxes, but because everything is pre-scripted, it doesn't allow you to to press a button to advance the text box. It really kills the pacing when it's just sitting there to make sure you've had time to read everything.

So... perfect application of visual novel technology. It shows you the movie, and each time it reaches an intertitle, it stays on screen until you press a button. That way, you can advance the story at your own pace, and make you feel like you're participating. It gives you the feeling of being the student selected to advance the filmstrip when you hear the beep. You're not just a passive observer, you're vital to the whole damn operation!

For added interactivity, in some of the more intense scenes, it could prompt you to push a certain button before the timer runs out. I think silent movies would be a lot more palatable to the modern audience if you include a few quicktime events.

Say you're watching Ben Hur (1925), and you're at the chariot race. Ben Hur's adversary shouts at him:

You have to press the correct button before time runs out to make Ben Hur¹ shout his rejoinder and run the Greek charioteer's horses aground. Otherwise, you fail the movie. You have to successfully play through a Super Marx Bros. short or something, and then it restarts you at the beginning of the chariot race. But next time, the button prompt might be different. You can't just mash the Y button. You have to pay attention and be ready. I dunno, I just think that would be a good way to keep the young folk with short attention spans like me engaged with the classics.