Recently I found myself watching a handful of silent films at library but now I've reached a point where I need some guidance. So far I had seen...

D.W. Griffith's Broken Blossoms, Birth of a Nation and Intolerance.
Metropolis
Battleship Potemkin

What other wonderful silent films are there? Thanks!

Oh wow, you can go anywhere with this.

I would start to delve into Chaplin and then Buster Keaton and then Harold Lloyd.

You can actually see a bunch of silents online. Most for free. I watched a bunch on Movieflix.com. I also watched a bunch of silents online at imdb.com. Like The Great Train Robbery and A Trip To the Moon.

Saxon

Nosferatu is an awesome flicks. Also I saw this Japanese silent Story of Floating Weeds by Yasujiro Ozu and it was top notch cinema.

Lots of classics mentioned and discussed here:
http://forum.dvdtalk.com/showthread.php?t=352465

For one made a couple of years ago, I would highly, highly recommend Call of Cthulhu---a fantastic adaptation of a Lovecraft story that, considering they had a rather limited budget, really is an amazing work and a classic movie.

http://www.cthulhulives.org/cocmovie/index.html

Sunrise by Murnau is very good.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

The Passion of Joan of Arc!

The Passion of Joan of Arc
City Lights
Gold Rush
The Kid

King Vidor's "The Crowd" and "The Big Parade" are fantastic, in my opinion.

Most of these have already been mentioned, but you'll want to get your hands on everything by Chaplin, especially City Lights, Modern Times, The Gold Rush, and The Circus. Buster Keaton is a must as well.

The Passion of Joan of Arc is arguable the greatest silent film of all time. See it.

Murnau's films are must sees as well. Check out Sunrise, Nosferatu, and Faust to start out with.

The best DVD version of "Sunrise" is by Masters of Cinema, which is available at amazon.co.uk and other British distributors like Benson's World and CD-Wow. It is NTSC (and region-free, I believe), so even if you're not all-format, you can play it.

I agree that "The Passion of Joan of Arc" is the high water mark of silent films, but it may or may not appeal to you. You should definitely see it, and the Criterion DVD is amazing. My personal favorite.

Murnau's "Faust" is another great one. The domestic release is good, but again the Masters of Cinema release is best. However, this MoC is a PAL release, so you'll have to be capable of playing that format on your equipment.

You're making a lot of people here very happy. We've all heard too many times, "Oh, I just don't like old movies." One of the things about silent movies is that if it's on DVD, it has something to recommend it. No one saved the bad movies.

Comedy:
Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, "A Nous La Liberte"

Horror:
Nosferatu, Vampyre, Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

Action:
Dr. Mabuse der Speiler, The Lost World

Drama:
Passion of Joan of Arc

I'll second Sunrise and Passion of Joan of Arc. I also recommend Keaton's Sherlock Jr. Fantastically funny, inventive film.

I very much like The Wind.

Virtually every title already mentioned is indeed worth your time - terrific stuff!

Another gem to check out is THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA particularly in the Image 2-disc release. Lots of informative extras, and the movie itelf is great, with early color sequences that are eye-popping.

Also in Image, THE LOST WORLD (based on story by SIr Arthur Conan Doyle) is a restored version that is 50% longer that the version I had taped from Turner Classics several years ago, and the commentary is a winner.

Strong Agreement.

But I like Lloyd, then Keaton, then Chaplin.

Not that it needs it, but I'll also add a vote for the Passion of Joan of Arc. I'd also recommend Haxan, for which there is also a nice Criterion release...

You've gotten a lot of good suggestions in this thread and I agree with almost all of them. I want to reiterate Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Faust, and Buster Keaton's work.

I knew I could rely on you guys. I got around watching The Passion of Joan of Arc, Nosferatu & Sunrise. They were so great that I'm determined on buying these but is there any planned new releases that I should know about? Thanks.

I doubt we'll see any release as good as Criterion's for "The Passion of Joan of Arc".

Eureka's Masters of Cinema release of "Sunrise" is the current best and likely to stay that way (you'll need to order from amazon.co.uk or cd-wow or benson's world because it's a British release, but again it's NTSC and all-region).

I would consider waiting for MoC's promised two-disc release of "Nosferatu" scheduled for 2007. I think it's likely that it'll be better than anything currently out there, and the extra features will likely by top-notch (only Criterion betters MoC in that regard, IMO).

Here's a top 100 list created by silent movie fans. The list includes some 1 and 2 reelers.

http://www.silentera.com/info/top100.html

Pandora's Box is coming next month from Criterion and a recent release of The Phantom is worth checking out as well.

Also here's a link to an archive of DVDTalk's silent columns:
http://www.dvdtalk.com/silentdvd/archive.html

Am I the only one who doesn't like "Pandora's Box"? Maybe another viewing on a spiffy Criterion transfer will do it. But I don't know.

I feel bad about it. I'm always hoping that Criterion will release at least a handful more silent films and criticizing them for not doing so (they've really neglected the silent era IMO), and here I am rejecting a famous title that's bound to make for an excellent release. Can anybody sell me on this one?

Follow-up to my last post: there's a good chance that MoC's "Nosferatu" release next year will be PAL format (they release PAL and NTSC discs), so if that's an issue for you, then take that into consideration if you're thinking about waiting for that release before adding this title to your collection.

You must be. Criterion is going all out for this release. There will be four different scores to choose from and the extras will include the TCM documentary on Louise Brooks and a 48 minute interview with Brooks that was done in the 1970s. Perhaps the extras will work for you?

re: Nosferatu. I can't believe I'm considering a triple dip on this title!

The extras might help me see the brilliance that I've previously missed! So, you like the flick, damfino?