Silent Movie Recommendations?

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I’ve watched a few silent movies recently and I’ve really enjoyed them. I realize that not many people watch them nowadays, but it would be great is someone could point me towards a few good one.
Thanks!
 
Gia_B said:
I’ve watched a few silent movies recently and I’ve really enjoyed them. I realize that not many people watch them nowadays, but it would be great is someone could point me towards a few good one.
Thanks!
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Well, the first one that came to my mind was ¨Nosferatu¨ which is a movie about Dracula. It is very eerie and spookie visually and if your an old school horror movie buff like I am then you might enjoy it.

God bless
 
“Metropolis” is good. Many Charlie Chaplin movies, there’s one that I wanted to see, I think where he helps a blind girl or something? Maybe I’m confusing it with something else.
 
Gia_B said:
I’ve watched a few silent movies recently and I’ve really enjoyed them. I realize that not many people watch them nowadays, but it would be great is someone could point me towards a few good one.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
  • Anything w/ Harold Lloyd (e.g., Safety Last, etc.) 👍
  • The original Ben Hur and King of Kings
  • Nosferatu
  • Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
  • The Passion of Joan of Arc
  • Phanton of The Opera (the Lon Chaney one)
  • Greed (the fully restored five-hour version)
  • Trapped By Mormons (not a “bootleg,” as it lapsed into public domain)
The newly-restored version of “Metropolis” (not the 80’s one) is going to be on TCM in the next couple weeks, so that’s definitely worth seeing.
 
I second The Passion of John of Arc. Such a haunting performance.
 
BlueRain said:
“Metropolis” is good. Many Charlie Chaplin movies, there’s one that I wanted to see, I think where he helps a blind girl or something? Maybe I’m confusing it with something else.
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The Charlie Chaplin film is City Lights.
 
I’ve seen part of ‘Birth of a Nation’ by DW Griffith - technically it’s good, although it has racist undertones which caused controversy at the time. Perhaps watch it together with ‘Intolerance’, which he made straight afterwards as a corrective.

Great silent versions exist of both ‘Ben Hur’ (starring Ramon Navarro) and ‘The Ten Commandments’ (this was by Cecil B De Mille who went on to make the 1950s version with Chuck Heston).

If you’re into romance, there’s always ‘The Sheikh’ with Rudolph Valentino.
 
I second Metropolis. The message is just as powerful as ever.

Also see *The Phantom of the Opera * with Lon Chaney, Sr. Many call this one of the best horror films ever made.

Nosferatu is considered the closest adapation of Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula. I think there was some kind of lawsuit by Bram Stoker’s widow after this movie came out and for many years, the movie was not seen in public.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is the classic silent movie that almost everyone (in public schools) used to see in high school. My husband loves it, but I always ALWAYS fall asleep during the movie! Interesting, because it’s a movie about a somnambulist (someone who sleeps!). I just can’t stay awake during that film. I wish I could see it with a live theater organ accompaniment–I think that would help me stay awake.

The very best way to see a silent film is with a live theater organ accompaniment. Our city has one of these theaters, and several times a year, they will hire a theater organist. The organist plays throughout the film, providing not only appropriate music, but also sound effects (door knocks, screams, etc.). These old organs are fascinating and highly entertaining.

Here’s a link to our “Wonder Theater”: coronadopac.org/ Come see us! On October 28, there is a “haunted tour” that includes the playing of the Grand Barton organ.

It is worth a drive to get to one of these theaters for a silent movie with theater organ accompaniment, and it is worth a pricey ticket. Don’t miss it if you have the opportunity. Even children enjoy this.
 
LilyM said:
I’ve seen part of ‘Birth of a Nation’ by DW Griffith - technically it’s good, although it has racist undertones which caused controversy at the time.
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“At the time”? I don’t know anyone who can sit through that movie without getting physically ill. It’s trash. Technically, Leni Reifenstahl’s Nazi propaganda film “Triumph of The Will” was good, too, but you don’t see people rushing to Netflix it. And “Intolerance” was already a finished film before Birth of a Nation had even been released, so the notion that he made it in response to the backlash is historical fallacy. Nearly all of D.W. Griffith’s movies are cause for occasion of sin or proximate occasion of sin.
 
I had always heard Intolerance was done as a response to The Birth of a Nation too. I tried to watch Intolerance but couldn’t last ten minutes, I was dying of boredom. Oh, and even though many will deny it The Birth of a Nation has got to be the most influential film ever made - for its technical achievements. Read Roger Ebert’s review. rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20030330%2FREVIEWS08%2F303300301%2F1023

BTW I’m with havana just the thought of seeing that movie makes me sick.
 
havana1 said:
“At the time”? I don’t know anyone who can sit through that movie without getting physically ill. It’s trash. Technically, Leni Reifenstahl’s Nazi propaganda film “Triumph of The Will” was good, too, but you don’t see people rushing to Netflix it. And “Intolerance” was already a finished film before Birth of a Nation had even been released, so the notion that he made it in response to the backlash is historical fallacy. Nearly all of D.W. Griffith’s movies are cause for occasion of sin or proximate occasion of sin.
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It was a typo - I meant to say EVEN at the time, not to imply that the scandal has ceased or died down :o
 
Anything Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, or featuring the Keystone Cops is good.

Wings won the very first Best Picture Academy Award. It’s quite good, but VERY long. It’s best to watch a bit at a time.

1920’s The Mark of Zorro with Douglas Fairbanks is a LOT of fun.

I’ll second a lot of the recommendations above.
 
it’s not exactly a “silent film” in the classic sense, but there are next to no words uttered through the film. Dialog is brilliantly created through wonderful gestures, etc.

There are sounds, just no words (almost).

It is animated, and the art direction is very unique and recalls the old vaudeville, etc stylings.

Eye candy, ear candy, mind candy. I recommend it!
 
The Passion of Joan of Arc
Sunrise
City Girl
Metropolis

Really, you can’t go wrong with any silents by Fritz Lang, FW Murnau, Carl Th. Dreyer, Buster Keaton, and any of the other people mentioned in the thread.
 
Gia_B said:
I’ve watched a few silent movies recently and I’ve really enjoyed them. I realize that not many people watch them nowadays, but it would be great is someone could point me towards a few good one.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Metropolis.
 
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