F. W. Murnau’s The Last Laugh stands out for me. It holds up so well to this day, and the story works so well for the form, it almost wouldn’t come off as well if they had used sound.
The General
Sunrise
The Passion of Joan Of Arc
City Lights
Erich Von Stronheim films
Metropolis, The Gold Rush, Pandora’s Box
“The General” and “The Last Laugh” top my list, as well, but I can’t ignore “Nosferatu,” “Caligari” and Lon Chaney’s “Hunchback.”
No order:
D.W. Griffith (The Birth of a Nation)
F.W. Murnau (Sunrise)
Carl Th. Dreyer (The Passion of Joan of Arc)
William C. De Mille (Miss Lulu Bet)
Cecil B. De Mille (The Cheat)
Maurtiz Stiller (Erotikon)
Victor Sjöstrom (The Wind)
Clarence Brown (Flesh and the Devil)
Erich von Stroheim (Greed)
Josef von Sternberg (The Docks of New York)
Ernst Lubitsch (The Student Prince)
John Ford (Iron Horse)
Raoul Walsh (Regeneration)
G.W. Pabst (Diary of a Lost Girl)
Fritz Lang (Metropolis)
King Vidor (Show People)
Metropolis. I think it’s one of the best movies, silent or not.
i love silent films in theory, and for historical importance, and i love reading about them and discussing them, so on and so forth. but i have to be brutally honest. it’s virtually impossible for me to watch a silent film! i’m asleep immediately. i think the music does me in. i don’t think there’s a single silent film i’ve watched that i haven’t slept through at least one portion of.
The Crowd by King Vidor is my fave. The cinematography is top notch and the ironic full circle story hits the mark perfectly.
i only recently got into silent film, through the genius that is f.w murnau. sunrise is such a beautiful film, its ridiculous to think that its 80 years old. the masters of cinema label in the uk puts out a lot of nicely restored editions by a range of different filmmakers. so far iv picked up sunrise, faust, the holy mountain, metropolis, tabu, spione and woman in the moon.
FW Murnau, King Vidor, Fritz Lang, DW Griffith.
My favorite silents include those with Gloria Swanson, Janet Gaynor, Buster Keaton, and Colleen Moore.
Every Halloween, I sit down to watch “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari”. I even make my own soundtrack to listen to while I’m watching it (usually something kind of spooky, like Radiohead’s “Ok Computer” or something from Animal Collective).
To make a less obvious pitch—Tod Browning’s the Unknown and the Unholy three are amazing.
Keaton’s Sherlock Jr has a moment that is my vote for a shot that sums up the 20th century (a big claim, but still). In teaching, I refer to Sherlock very often in that Keaton learns how to do things by watching and imitating movies.
Keaton
Lang
Murnau
My personal top three
Sunrise of course, perfectly shot, thought and pictured : something you should see before thinking cinema is an art of talks and mouths. it’s an art of landscaping and visageing. only silence can assure you the fullness of a face limbed somwhere between the country and city.
I loved Nosferatu and the silents by HItchcock were always great. Charlie Chaplin silent years were also great.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Nosferatu, A Trip to the Moon. I have a copy of Nosferatu with an introduction by David Carrodine and the sound track is provided by Type O Negative. Also the stuff with Charlie Chaplin is very cool.
Faust, Metropolis. The Nursery did an interesting soundtrack for The Passion of Joan of Arc.
Melias – His work is so charming and incredibly creative for its time.
Brakhage – so beautiful and distinct
Of course the triumvirate of Chaplin, Keaton, and Lloyd is great, but Keaton is my favorite of the three for his athleticism and imagination.
1. The Passion of Joan of Arc
2. Pandora’s Box
3. Modern Times
4. The Last Laugh
5. The Man With the Movie Camera
6. The General
7. City Lights
8. Safety Last
9. The Gold Rush
10. Our Hospitality
Jean Epstein’s films, especially the Fall of the House of Usher, which remains one of the most beautiful silent films of all time.
I thought “Wings” was kind of fun….
Lang, definitely, especially Spies and Dr. Mabuse.
Griffith, especially Broken Blossoms.
Dreyer, especially Vampyr.
I want to see more Sjostrom—I’ve only had the opportunity to see The Phantom Carriage.
Eisenstein, Vertov, Pudovkin, Dovzhenko are all incredible filmmakers and any of their silent films are worthwhile, I believe. I am trying unsuccessfully to remember the name of a Ukranian filmmakerwho was working in the 50s or 60s ostensibly making silent films, though I belive he put them to a classical score. He made cinemascope black-and-white films, one is about swans. Anyone??
So many to choose from. I love the work of the early Soviet directors. Buster Keaton’s work in the USA was unparalleled. But for my money, my favorites have to be the Germans: Murnau, Pabst, Lang. Those German silents from the twenties include some o the greatest movies ever made.
Keaton
In random order:
Renoir’s “Little Match Girl”: wonderful (few people know this one)
Griffith’s “Broken Blossoms”
Murnau’s “The Last Laugh”
Dreyer’s “Passion of Joan of Arc”
Pabst’s “Pandora’s Box”
Chaplin’s “City Lights”
Pudovkin’s “The End of St Petersburg”
Maddin’s (2006!) “Brand Upon the Brain”
and yes, Melies: the pure essence of cinema
Lang, for Metropolis most of all. Also, Elias Merhige’s Begotten is close enough to being silent to warrant inclusion here.
Sunrise (Murnau)
The General (Keaton, Bruckman)
Metropolis (Lang)
Man with a Movie Camera (Vertov)
Battleship Potemkin (Eisenstein)
Nosferatu (Murnau)
The Gold Rush (Chaplin)
Sherlock jnr (Keaton)
The Passion of Joan of Arc (Dreyer)
Vampires (Feuillade)
Salt for Svanetia (Kalatozov)
The Chess Player (Bernard)
Spies (Lang)
The Wonderful Lie of Nina Petrowna (Schwarz)
Pandora’s Box (Pabst)
Strike (Eisenstein)
Napoleon (Gance)
The Big Parade (Vidor)
Arsenal (Dovzhenko)
People on Sunday (Siodmak, Ulmer)
Fantomas (Feuillade)
The Goat (Keaton)
City Lights (Chaplin)
Girl with a Hatbox (Barnet)
Manhatta (Strand)
Foolish Wives (Stroheim)
The Water Magician (Mizoguchi)
Broken Blossoms (Griffith)
Coeur Fidele (Epstein)
+
the films of Alice Guy-Blaché
yes, wonder6789, The Little Match Girl, relatively neglected Renoir film, is well worth seeing
I’ve never appreciated other silent films the way I do the work of Chaplin. His music flows perfectly with the images and creates a dreamlike quality. Sentimental? Sure, but for me that’s perfect for the grand gestures of silent film. The Keaton movies I watched had what I found to be subpar music (they were cheaper copies and may not have featured the original score). I found the same thing with a number of other silent films. I’ve been contemplating buying the Silent Ozu set but wish I could hear the music first. Does anyone have opinions of the Donald Sosin music on the Silent Ozu set? How about the music on the Kino Keaton releases?
A. Tad Chamberlain
I am a huge silent cinema buff and would love to hear from some of my fellow fanatics!
What are your favorite films from the Silent Era? Who are some of your favorite directors from this incredibly rich period in the history of cinema?
My top five favorite silent films and their directors are:
THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC (Carl Th. Dreyer) — also on my list of top five favorite films of all-time
THE MAN WITH THE MOVIE CAMERA (Dziga Vertov) — also on my list of top ten favorite documentaries of all-time
THE WIND (Victor Sjostrom) — possibly Lillian Gish’s greatest performance
FAUST (F.W. Murnau) — incredible visuals/effects, plus I just love the Faust story and Murnau’s treatment of it
SUNRISE (F.W. Murnau) — some of the most stunning cinematography ever
I could list many more, but that’ll do for a start.