Essential and underrated silent films?
I'm a moderate fan of silent films. I'm looking for some essentials and also some rare under-appreciated gems.
The ones I've seen: All of Chaplin's silents The Birth of a Nation Buster Keaton's short silents Diary of a Lost Girl Faust Haxan The Holy Mountain The Last Laugh Metropolis Nanook of the North Nosferatu Pandora's Box The Passion of Joan of Arc Sunrise Tabu Vampyr W.C. Field's short silents The Woman in the Moon Any recommendations? |
The Adventures of Prince Achmed
The Unknown Asphalt Man with a Movie Camera Berlin: Symphony of a City Battleship Potemkin Strike The Unholy Three A Cottage on Dartmoor The Dragon Painter Fantomas Warning Shadows Spies Hindle Wakes It Michael Phantom People on Sunday The Phantom Carriage La Terre Broken Blossoms Blind Husbands Foolish Wives J'Accuse! Piccadilly La Roue A Throw of Dice Borderline Also, definitely check out the films of Evgeni Bauer and Wladyslaw Starewicz, as well as the Unseen Cinema box set. |
Definitely Battleship Potemkin. I would put "Man Who Laughs" as a must-see as well as "The Golem" especially if you enjoy German Expressionism.
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Wow, that's quite a list Noirfan. I've got my work cut out for me.
I also want to get The Man Who Laughs, hoping for a Kino sale. |
Greed
Napoleon The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari Un Chien Andalou Les Vampires Flesh and the Devil L'age D'or The Lodger |
King Vidor's The Big Parade and The Crowd don't get enough love.
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Originally Posted by PopcornTreeCt
(Post 8906491)
I'm a moderate fan of silent films. I'm looking for some essentials and also some rare under-appreciated gems.
The ones I've seen: Buster Keaton's short silents Anything starring Harold Lloyd. Ben-Hur |
Originally Posted by Finisher
(Post 8906726)
King Vidor's The Big Parade and The Crowd don't get enough love.
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Originally Posted by Dimension X
(Post 8906759)
If you haven't seen Buster Keaton's features, you should. At least check out Steamboat Bill, Jr. and The General.
I just saw The General (for the first time) this weekend. Holy shit what a masterpiece. |
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Nice to see someone mention 'Dr Caligari'.
'Die Nibelungen' is amazing. Anyone who loves cinema should at least watch, but in truth should own that. |
A measure of Douglas Fairbanks is good for the soul:
The Mark of Zorro (1920) The Three Musketeers (1921) Robin Hood (1922) The Thief of Bagdad (1924) Don Q, Son of Zorro (1925) The Black Pirate (1926) The Gaucho (1927) The Iron Mask (1929) |
I'll second The Battleship Potemkin and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. What about the original Lon Chaney version of The Phantom of the Opera? I haven't seen that mentioned. It may not be a masterpiece, but it's certainly essential viewing for any horror fan.
I like the suggestions here, I'll check out some of the ones I haven't yet seen. |
Originally Posted by Dr Mabuse
(Post 8909223)
Nice to see someone mention 'Dr Caligari'.
'Die Nibelungen' is amazing. Anyone who loves cinema should at least watch, but in truth should own that. |
Besson's Le Dernier Combat - Although not technically a silent film(?), there are less than a few minutes of spoken French the entire duration.
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Originally Posted by Dimension X
(Post 8906759)
If you haven't seen Buster Keaton's features, you should. At least check out Steamboat Bill, Jr.
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Originally Posted by PopcornTreeCt
(Post 8906623)
I also want to get The Man Who Laughs, hoping for a Kino sale.
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Originally Posted by Mondo Kane
(Post 8910114)
On tonight on TCM.
Originally Posted by TCM
12:00 AM Steamboat Bill Jr. (1928)
In this silent film, a student tries to win a rival captain's daughter after taking over his father's riverboat. Cast: Buster Keaton, Ernest Torrence, Marion Byron. Dir: Charles Reisner. BW-69 mins, TV-G |
Originally Posted by visitor Q
(Post 8910079)
Besson's Le Dernier Combat - Although not technically a silent film(?), there are less than a few minutes of spoken French the entire duration.
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Originally Posted by visitor Q
(Post 8910079)
Besson's Le Dernier Combat - Although not technically a silent film(?), there are less than a few minutes of spoken French the entire duration.
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Made well after most of the above, but a couple of great short-ish "silent" funny films are:
The Plank (1967) Futtocks End (1970) Obtainable fairly cheaply (although not sure about P&P charges for non-Brits) via various e-tailers shown in a "find-dvd.co.uk" search. |
Re: Essential and underrated silent films?
I always wondered… what made silent films superior to this sound era.
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Re: Essential and underrated silent films?
What made silent films superior to the modern era? Not much. Great modern films are as good or better than most silent films. The best silent films are as good as the best sound films. Of course I'm not saying a film is great just because it's modern. I'll take The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari over any Transformers movie any day.
Now, if you want to ask why silent films were superior to early sound films, that is easy. Early sound technology put lots of limitations on filmmakers that made early sound films visually dull, as well as early sound technologies often being unreliable and of poor fidelity. Once sound technology improved, there was nothing stopping filmmakers from realizing their vision in full. |
Re: Essential and underrated silent films?
They somehow had more imagination even if they lacked everything technically.
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Re: Essential and underrated silent films?
Early sound films had more imagination? Whatever you say there duffy boy.
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