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"
The Gold Rush (1925)
8.2/10
Director: Charlie Chaplin
Starring: Charlie Chaplin, Mack Swain, Tom Murray
Considered by many to be Chaplin's finest comedy: Charlie is the gold prospector in the Yukon near starvation and treacherous villains. Many great sce... 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
The Last Laugh (1924)
8.1/10
Director: F W Murnau
Starring: Emil Jannings, Kurt Hiller
The crowning achievement of the German expressionist movement and one of the most notable artworks to arise from the Weimar Republic is Friedrich Wilh... Read more
Die Nibelungen ( Siegfried / Kriemhild's Revenge ) (1924)
6.6/10
Director: Fritz Lang
Starring: Hanna Ralph, Margarete Schon, Paul Richter, Rudolf Klein-Rogge
One of the greatest artistic and technical achievements of the German silent cinema, Fritz Lang's monumental saga is a passionate retelling of Nordic... Read more
The Thief of Bagdad (Fairbanks) (1924)
7.6/10
Director: Raoul Walsh
Starring: Douglas Fairbanks, Snitz Edwards, Charles Belcher, Anna May Wong
A classic silent film with roguish pickpurse Douglas Fairbanks setting out on a dangerous quest to battle an evil warlord for the hand of beautiful pr... Read more
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
Buster Keaton: 3 Hours of Shorts (1923)
8.9/10
Director: Buster Keaton, Eddie Cline
Starring: Buster Keaton
Buster Keaton's acting trademark was physical comedy with a stoic, deadpan expression on his face, earning him the nickname "The Great Stoneface". His... Read more
Harold Lloyd - The Definitive Collection: Volume 1 ( inc. Safety Last ) (1923)
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 Three Ages (1923)
8.8/10
Director: Buster Keaton
Starring: Buster Keaton, Margaret Leahy, Wallace Beery
Keaton's first independently produced film sends up DW Griffith's 1916 epic 'Intolerance', only instead of greed and hatred through the ages, Buster t... 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