Silent Films
"Our invention can be exploited for a certain time as a scientific curiosity, but apart from that, it has no commercial future whatsoever."
- Auguste Lumiere, early film maker who, with his brother Louis, organized the first public performance of motion pictures in December 1895.
A silent film is a film which has no accompanying soundtrack. The idea of combining motion pictures with recorded sound is nearly as old as the motion picture itself, but before the late 1920s, most films were silent.
The years before sound came to the movies are known as the "silent era" among film scholars and historians. The art of motion pictures grew into full maturity before silent films were replaced by "talking pictures" or "talkies", and a number of film buffs believe the quality of the cinema actually decreased for a few years, before the new medium of sound was adapted to the movies.
The glorious early days of cinema are represented here in this collection with many titles still acknowledged as classics of the cinema to this day.
"Slapstick Comedy" found as a subhead of "Comedy" may also be worth a browse...
Right: Scene from Fritz Lang's 1927 "Metropolis"
Metropolis (Restored) (1927)
8.3/10
Director: Fritz Lang
Starring: Gustav Frohlich, Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Brigitte Helm, Alfred Abel
Perhaps the most famous and influential of all silent films, 'Metropolis' had for 75 years been seen only in shortened or truncated versions. Now, res... Read more
Michael (1924)
7.1/10
Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer
Starring: Walter Slezak, Nora Gregor
Mikaël is an artist who rises as his teacher, the aging Zoret, falls. Zoret gives Mikaël his start, and their relationship is sexual as well. Then Mik... Read more
Mud And Sand (1922)
5.8/10
Director: Gilbert Pratt
Starring: Stan Laurel
Stan Laurel brilliantly lampoons Rudolf Valentino as Rhubarb Vaselino who lives in a small village, where he and his friend, Sapo, enter a bullfightin... Read more
Nanook of the North (1922)
7.7/10
Director: Robert Flaherty
Standing the test of time, this groundbreaking silent film detailing the harsh existence of an Eskimo tribe living on the shores of Canada's Hudson Ba... Read more
Napoleon (1927)
7.6/10
Director: Abel Gance
Starring: Albert Dieudonne
Abel Gance's original 1927 masterpiece is a must-see not only for silent film buffs, but for all interested in classic world cinema. You are taken fro... Read more
Nosferatu (1922)
8/10
Director: F W Murnau
Starring: Max Schreck, Alexander Granach, Greta Schroeder
Aka 'Nosferatu: A Symphony of Terror'. The first and the greatest (not to mention scariest) Dracula movie ever made starring Max Schreck as Nosferatu,... Read more
Orphans of the Storm (1921)
7.8/10
Director: D W Griffith
Starring: Lillian Gish, Dorothy Gish, Joseph Schildkraut, Creighton Hale, Monte Blue
DW Griffith's epic tale of two sisters caught up in the French Revolution, played by two sisters. Henriette (Lillian Gish) brings her blind sister (D... Read more
Pandora's Box (1929)
8/10
Director: G W Pabst
Starring: Franz Lederer, Fritz Kortner, Louise Brooks
A silent German masterpiece based on Wedekind's play, with an unforgettable Louise Brooks in her unforgettable haircut as Lulu, the innocent vamp whos... Read more
Queen Kelly (1929)
7.8/10
Director: Erich Von Stroheim
Starring: Gloria Swanson, Seena Owen, Walter Byron
A convent girl is swept off her feet by a roguish prince and sent to live in East Africa where her aunt runs a brothel, in this fascinating extravagan... Read more
RW Paul: The Collected Films 1895-1908 (1895)
Director: R W Paul
Robert W Paul is justly celebrated as the leading pioneer of British film and one of the founders of world cinema. Concentrating first on actuality fi... Read more