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"
Broken Blossoms (1919)
7.6/10
Director: D W Griffith
Starring: Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess, Donald Crisp
Silent melodrama set in London's Limehouse district where a young Chinese man falls in love with a street waif and is devastated when she is killed by... 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
The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (Blu-ray) (1919)
7.6/10
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
Charlie Chaplin: Volume 9 to 12 (1918)
6.1/10
Director: Charlie Chaplin
Starring: Charlie Chaplin
Hi & welcome to the ultimate Charlie Chaplin collection. The complete collection volumes 1 - 20 containing 66 Chaplin Movies including the full length... Read more
Charlie Chaplin: Volume 17 to 20 (1918)
6.1/10
Director: Charlie Chaplin
Starring: Charlie Chaplin
Hi & welcome to the ultimate Charlie Chaplin collection. The complete collection volumes 1 - 20 containing 66 Chaplin Movies including the full length... Read more
Charlie Chaplin: Volume 5 to 8 (1918)
6.1/10
Director: Charlie Chaplin
Starring: Charlie Chaplin
Hi & welcome to the ultimate Charlie Chaplin collection. The complete collection volumes 1 - 20 containing 66 Chaplin Movies including the full length... Read more
Buster Keaton: The Complete Short Films 1917-1923 (1917)
8.7/10
Starring: Buster Keaton, Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle
A succession of the most timeless, classic comedy shorts ever realised in a luxurious four-disc box set, on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK SY... Read more
Intolerance (1916)
8/10
Director: D W Griffith
Starring: Lillian Gish, Robert Harron, Mae Marsh, Bessie Love
After the storm of controversy that followed "The Birth of a Nation", D.W. Griffith followed up with this profound comment on intolerance through the... Read more
Mad Love: Twilight of a Woman's Soul (1913) / After Death (1915) / The Dying Swan (1916)
5.3/10
Director: Evgenii Bauer
The films of Russian cinema pioneer Evgenii Bauer were thought to be lost until the dying days of the Soviet regime when 20 of his 80 films were recov... Read more
Charlie Chaplin Marathon (1916)
Director: Charlie Chaplin
Starring: Charlie Chaplin
This DVD compilation includes four early Chaplin films; 'The Rink' (1916), 'The Immigrant' (1917), 'The Vagabond' (1916) and 'Tillie's Punctured Roman... Read more