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"
Strike (1924)
7.6/10
Director: Sergei Eisenstein
Starring: Maxim Shtraukh, Grigori Alexandrov, Mikhail Gomorov
In 1922, Lenin also had said that, "...of all of the arts, for us the cinema was the most important." In 1924, the Proletkult offered Eisenstein, then... Read more
Sunrise (1927)
8.2/10
Director: F W Murnau
Starring: George O'Brien, Janet Gaynor, Margaret Livingston
Aka "Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans". This exquisite silent film is just as powerful today as when it was made, telling the simple story of a farmer wh... Read more
Tabu: A Story Of The South Seas (1931)
7.6/10
Director: F W Murnau
Starring: Anna Chevalier, Matahi, Hitu, Kong Ah
A landmark collaboration of F W Murnau ('Nosferatu') and Robert Flaherty ('Nanook of the North') has been hailed as one of the most stunning films eve... Read more
Tartuffe (1926)
7.3/10
Director: F W Murnau
Starring: Hermann Picha, Rosa Valetti, Lil Dagover, Werner Krauss, Emil Jannings
Famous German filmmaker FW Murnau's interpretation of Moliere's satirical play about a devious housekeeper who convinces her master to cut his son out... Read more
The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926)
7.9/10
Director: Lotte Reiniger
German director Lotte Reiniger spent three years making this silent animated film based on the Arabian Nights legends. The dashing Prince Achmed saves... Read more
The Artist (Blu-ray) (2011)
7.9/10
Director: Michel Hazanavicius
Starring: James Cromwell, John Goodman, Penelope Ann Miller, Berenice Bejo, Jean Dujardin
Five Academy Awards--including Best Picture, Director, and Actor--went to this magical, mostly silent seriocomedy set in 1927 Hollywood. As screen ido... Read more
The Big Parade (Blu-ray) (1925)
7.9/10
Director: King Vidor
Starring: John Gilbert
The Big Parade is a 1925 American silent war drama film[2][3] directed by King Vidor, starring John Gilbert, Renée Adorée, Hobart Bosworth, Tom O'Brie... Read more
The Birth of a Nation (1915)
6.7/10
Director: D W Griffith
Starring: Lillian Gish, Mae Marsh, Henry B Walthall
An epic tale of the Civil War which many consider to be the single most important film in the development of cinema as an art. It is a stunning summar... Read more
The Black Pirate (1926)
7.2/10
Director: Albert Parker
Starring: Douglas Fairbanks Sr, Billie Dove, Anders Randolf
The definitive pirate movie and one of Douglas Fairbanks' most popular films is this silent swashbuckler about a nobleman who vows to avenge the death... Read more
The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1919)
Director: Robert Weine
Starring: Werner Krauss, Conrad Veidt, Lil Dagover
Set in a little village on the Dutch border, fairground hypnotist Dr Caligari puts on show a somnambulist called Cesare who has been asleep for 23 yea... Read more