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"
Hitchcock Collection: Secret Agent / The Farmer's Wife / Rich and Strange / Juno and the Paycock / The Lady Vanishes (1938)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: John Gielgud, Peter Lorre, Henry Kendall, Joan Barry, Barry Fitzgerald, Margaret...
A collection of 5 classic Hitchcock films. 'Secret Agent' (1935) - Hitchcock's realistic, darkly funny thriller stars John Gielgud as the British agen... Read more
Laurel & Hardy: Someone's Ailing (1932)
4.7/10
Starring: Oliver Hardy, Stan Laurel
A collection of classic Laurel & Hardy shorts on the theme of ailments, plus the only example of a direct sequel in L&H history. In 'County Hospital'... 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
Un Chien Andalou / Land Without Bread ( Las Hurdes ) (1929)
Director: Luis Bunuel
Luis Bunuel's first film, the surrealistic masterpiece "Un Chien Andalou" ("An Andalusian Dog"), was based after an exchange of dreams with co-writer... Read more
Frau Im Mond ( Woman in the Moon ) (1929)
7.4/10
Director: Fritz Lang
Director Fritz Lang's final silent epic. A rocket on its way to explore the moon is commandeered by a group of spies intent on plundering the moon's n... Read more
Asphalt (1929)
7.6/10
Director: Joe May
Starring: Betty Amann, Gustav Frohlich, Else Heller
One of the last great German Expressionist films of the silent era from acclaimed director Joe May. A by-the-book traffic cop (Gustav Frohlich) catche... 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
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
The Garden Of Eden (1928)
6.8/10
Director: Lewis Milestone
Starring: Lowell Sherman
Toni Le Brun, a beautiful Viennese singer, becomes the ward of the wardrobe mistress of a Monte Carlo nightclub. Her benefactor, however, is actually... Read more
The Cameraman (Blu-ray) (1928)
8.1/10
Director: Buster Keaton, Edward Sedgwick
Starring: Buster Keaton
Hopelessly in love with a woman working at MGM Studios, a clumsy man attempts to become a motion picture cameraman to be close to the object of his de... Read more