101 silents that are golden
"Authentic" silents only. Cutting-off point is 1938.
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101 titles
- DirectorGermaine DulacStarsAlex AllinLucien BatailleGenica AthanasiouObsessed with a general's woman, a clergyman has strange visions of death and lust, struggling against his own eroticism.
- DirectorMarcel L'HerbierStarsClaude-France AïsséJaque CatelainBaron Byron Khun de ProrakA French chauvinistic propaganda film made during the Great War.
- DirectorJoe MayStarsAlbert SteinrückElse HellerGustav FröhlichJoe May's sensual drama of life in the Berlin underworld is in many ways the perfect summation of German filmmaking in the silent era: a dazzling visual style, a psychological approach to its characters, and the ability to take a simple and essentially melodramatic story and turn it into something more complex and inherently cinematic.
- DirectorLen PowersA short film with an all animal cast about a young chimp who is kicked out of his home by his parents and heads west to make his fortune.
- DirectorAnthony AsquithStarsHans Adalbert SchlettowUno HenningNorah BaringA former barber escapes from a high security prison. Flashback story of an escape from the lonely, high-security Dartmoor Prison.
- DirectorJean EpsteinStarsEdmond Van DaëleSuzy PiersonNino ConstantiniA renowned doctor and his brother live and work together until the brother falls in love with Marie, a singer, and gives up medicine to be with her. After a time however, she misses her old life and goes back on the stage - an act which leads her lover to commit suicide. Later the doctor and Marie also meet, and she becomes his mistress. He finds out about his brother's suicide and goes through his artifacts looking for a clue as to what might have been the cause. He finds a photograph of Marie and realizes the truth, which decimates their relationship.
- DirectorJean EpsteinStarsLéon MathotGina ManèsEdmond Van DaëleMarie wants to escape from her job and also from her lover, Paul, an unemployed drunk. She dreams of going off with Jean, a dockworker. The two men quarrel and fight over Marie on two occasions, but Paul retains a hold over her. Marie has a baby who falls ill and as time goes on Jean and a crippled neighbor try to help the child. Paul nearly causes the death of the child whilst in a drunken stupor and in a final struggle that occurs, the crippled woman seizes Paul's gun and shoots him dead.
- DirectorMarcel L'HerbierStarsÈve FrancisJaque CatelainMarcelle PradotSibilla is a single mother, working as a gypsy dancer in a lousy cafe in the south of Spain. Unable to keep with the costs of his son's medical bills, she asks for help to Estiria, her son's biological father and one of the richest men in town. After being rejected, Sibilla vows to save her son's life by any means necessary - even at the cost of her own life.
- DirectorJerome HillIn a European seaside village, a maiden takes clean sheets down from the clothesline. Carrying her basket of linens home, she stops to consult a fortune teller, whose been napping the the sun. The cartomancienne sees love in the cards. The young woman pauses to reflect. We then see water, swirling, and into view swims a man, as if just appearing on earth. He arrives on shore - is he just in her mind's eye, or is he real? She weaves a garland of for her hair. Will they meet?
- DirectorF.W. MurnauStarsCharles FarrellMary DuncanDavid TorrenceA Chicago waitress falls in love with a Minnesota farmer, and decides to face a life in the country.
- DirectorJean EpsteinStarsJean DebucourtMarguerite GanceCharles LamyAllan visits the sinister Usher family mansion, where his friend Roderick is painting a portrait of his sickly wife Madeline. The portrait seems to be draining the life out of Madeline, slowly leading to her death.
- DirectorGermaine DulacStarsGermaine DermozMadeleine GuittyJean d'YdAn unhappily married woman devises a scheme to get rid of her husband.
- DirectorCharles Dekeukeleire
- DirectorF.W. MurnauStarsMax SchreckAlexander GranachGustav von WangenheimVampire Count Orlok expresses interest in a new residence and real estate agent Hutter's wife.
- DirectorErnst LubitschStarsOssi OswaldaHermann ThimigVictor JansonForced into marriage by his uncle, a man decides to fool him by marrying a life-like mechanical doll instead.
- DirectorMikhail KaufmanIn Spring is a masterpiece of Ukrainian cinema avant-garde, a non-fiction film made by Mikhail Kaufman, Dziga Vertov's brother and co-author, along the lines of the avant-gardist theory of «cine-eye». The film shows Kyiv in 1929, almost unknown today. Pictures of wakening city, its resurging life resonate with lyrical views of reviving nature. Kaufman's attentive camera dwells deliberately on smiling faces of children, lyrically depicting a declaration of love to Kyiv. In In Spring, Kaufman used the method of «hidden camera» for the first time.
- DirectorElizabeth Woodman WrightSimple title cards link ten home movies shot at Maine's Windy Ledge Farm, at a neighbor's place, and visiting the Brownes in Chocorua, New Hampshire. We watch an uncle mow, farm hands haying with the White Mountains in the background, various young children playing, a lad holding his cat while carrying milk cans on a yoke, a pointer stalking a cat, the annual burning of brush and rubbish, and a montage of chores and relaxation on the farm. The last shot is of spring, a flag in the background. The films are sweet and straightforward, with clear black and white images.
- DirectorMillard MercuryStarsEwing TordellaEdith TrublanchetA humongous and obese anthropomorphic swine dressed like a fine gentleman in a fancy dinner attire tries to make a pass at a solitary lady having a picnic.
- DirectorRené JayetStarsSuzanne TalbaGilbert PérigneauxCamille BardouThe film tells the story of Frau Concha, a femme fatale, or as the story points out, a "fille perdue", a lost girl who has no feelings or scruples, toying with men as she pleases.
- DirectorSergei EisensteinStarsGrigoriy AleksandrovMaksim ShtraukhMikhail GomorovA group of oppressed factory workers go on strike in pre-revolutionary Russia.
- DirectorGermaine DulacStarsLilian ConstantiniAn avant-garde dance short, integrating slow motion, and cutting between the movements of a ballerina, close-ups of machinery and images of nature.
- DirectorRobert WieneStarsWerner KraussConrad VeidtFriedrich FeherHypnotist Dr. Caligari uses a somnambulist, Cesare, to commit murders.
- DirectorMario PeixotoStarsOlga BrenoTatiana ReyRaul SchnoorThree people (Raul Schnoor, Olga Breno and Tatiana Rey) sail aimlessly while remembering their past.
- DirectorEwald André DupontStarsEmil JanningsMaly DelschaftLya De PuttiPrologue: The murderer "Boss" Huller - after having spent ten years in prison - breaks his silence to tell the warden his story. "Boss", a former trapeze artist, and his wife own a cheap side-show that displays ''erotic sensations''. But he longs for his former glamorous life in the circus. When he meets the orphan Berta-Marie, he falls under her spell and leaves his wife and young son behind. He makes Berta-Marie his partner in a new trapeze number. One day, the famous trapeze artist Artinelli takes note of them and engages them for his trapeze show in Berlin. Their salto mortale becomes an immediate sensation. Calculatedly and cold, Artinelli seduces Berta-Marie and destroys "Boss'" happiness.
- DirectorEdward F. ClineBuster KeatonStarsBuster KeatonVirginia FoxJoe RobertsStrange things ensue after a young man attempts to take his own life.