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"
Lonesome (1928)
7.8/10
Director: Paul Fejos
Two lonely people in the big city meet and enjoy the thrills of an amusement park, only to lose each other in the crowd after spending a great day tog... Read more
The Crowd (Y El Mundo Marcha) (1928)
8.1/10
Director: King Vidor
Starring: James Murray
Born on the fourth of July, 1900, the future holds unlimited potential for newborn John Sims. But dreams soon fade with the death of his father when J... Read more
Harold Lloyd - The Definitive Collection: Volume 2 (1928)
Starring: Harold Lloyd
Harold Lloyd was one of the greatest and most loved comedians of the early film era. More sympathetic than Keaton, more prolific than Chaplin, Harold... Read more
The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
8.2/10
Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer
Starring: Renee Falconetti, Eugene Silvain, Andre Berley, Maurice Schutz, Antonin Artaud
With it's stunning camerawork and striking compositions, Dreyer's film convinced the world that movies could be art. Renee Falconetti (in her only rol... Read more
Garbo Silents Collection: The Temptress (1926) / Flesh and the Devil (1926) / The Mysterious Lady (1928)
Director: Clarence Brown, Fred Niblo
Starring: Greta Garbo, Antonio Moreno, Lionel Barrymore, John Gilbert, Conrad Nagel
A collection of three Garbo films from the silent era. 'The Temptress' casts her, in her second American film, as the wife of Lionel Barrymore, she a... Read more
Metropolis (Reconstructed & Restored) ( Blu-ray ) (1927)
8.3/10
Director: Fritz Lang
Starring: Alfred Abel, Brigitte Helm, Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Gustav Frohlich
Fritz Lang's masterwork, set in a towering city of the future whose populace is divided between the idle ruling class and the dehumanized workers who... Read more
Wings (Copy) (1927)
7.5/10
Director: William A Wellman
Starring: Clara Bow, Charles 'Buddy' Rogers, Richard Arlen
The complete, uncut, WWI action drama that won the first Best Picture Academy Award. Richard Arlen and Buddy Rogers are friends who enlist in the Army... Read more
Metropolis (Reconstructed & Restored) (1927)
8.3/10
Director: Fritz Lang
Starring: Alfred Abel, Brigitte Helm, Rudolf Klein-Rogge
Fritz Lang's masterwork, set in a towering city of the future whose populace is divided between the idle ruling class and the dehumanized workers who... Read more
The Silent Films of Alfred Hitchcock: The Manxman / The Ring (1927)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Anny Ondra, Lillian Hall-Davis, Carl Brisson, Malcolm Keen
"The Ring" (1927) One of Hitchcock's best silent films, about boxer "Round One" Stander, a circus attraction who fights all comers. When he marries th... Read more
The Lodger / Downhill (1927)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Marie Ault, Ivor Novello
Aesthetically influenced by German Expressionism, and based on the story of Jack the Ripper, 'The Lodger' was the film in which Hitchcock first demons... Read more