Silent Film
Filmmakers in the silent era pioneered influential techniques and crafted unique, moving stories. In this Spotlight, we look at some of the best silent era films from various countries and movements, as well as a couple modern silent films that pay tribute to that era.
The Artist
An homage to Hollywood silent filmmaking about a romance between a fading silent film star and a rising actress at the dawn of film's sound era.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, United States, Belgium • 2011
- Director Michel Hazanavicius
- Cast Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Bejo, John Goodman, James Cromwell, Penelope Ann Miller, Malcolm McDowell
- Genre Comedy, Drama, Romance
- Available on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube, Spectrum On Demand, Tubi TV, The Roku Channel, Pluto TV, Hoopla, Plex, Plex Channel
I Was Born, But...
(大人の見る繪本 生れてはみたけれど)
In moving to a new town, two young brothers come of age when faced with new social and class struggles.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1932
- Director Yasujirō Ozu
- Cast Tomio Aoki, Tatsuo Saitô, Mitsuko Yoshikawa, Hideo Sugawara, Takeshi Sakamoto, Teruyo Hayami
- Genre Comedy, Drama
- Available on Criterion Channel
A Throw of Dice
(Prapancha Pash)
Two kings fall in love with the same woman and gamble for her hand in marriage.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom, India, Germany • 1929
- Director Franz Osten
- Cast Seeta Devi, Charu Roy, Himansu Rai, Modhu Bose, Sarada Gupta, Tincory Chakrabarty
- Genre Adventure, Drama, Romance
- Available on Kanopy
The Passion of Joan of Arc
(La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc)
The 15th-century teenage warrior Joan of Arc takes on the French church.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 1928
- Director Carl Theodor Dreyer
- Cast Maria Falconetti, Eugène Silvain, André Berley, Maurice Schutz, Antonin Artaud, Michel Simon
- Genre Drama, History
- Available on Criterion Channel, FlixFling, Max Amazon Channel, Max, Apple TV, Amazon Video, Tubi TV
Metropolis
This silent science-fiction classic follows a couple from different backgrounds who attempt to reform a dystopian city defined by class division.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Germany • 1927
- Director Fritz Lang
- Cast Gustav Fröhlich, Brigitte Helm, Alfred Abel, Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Theodor Loos, Fritz Rasp
- Genre Drama, Science Fiction
- Available on fuboTV, FlixFling, Kino Film Collection, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, YouTube, Crackle, Tubi TV, The Roku Channel, Pluto TV, Kanopy, Plex, Plex Channel, JustWatchTV
The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog
A landlady fears that the man lodging with her family and becoming involved with her daughter may be the serial killer terrorizing London.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom • 1927
- Director Alfred Hitchcock
- Cast Ivor Novello, Marie Ault, Arthur Chesney, June Tripp, Malcolm Keen, Reginald Gardiner
- Genre Drama, Thriller
- Available on Amazon Prime Video, Criterion Channel, TCM, Max Amazon Channel, Amazon Prime Video with Ads, Apple TV, Amazon Video, The Roku Channel, Shout! Factory TV, Freevee, Plex, Plex Channel
A Page of Madness
(狂った一頁)
A man working as a janitor in the mental asylum where his wife is being kept finds his own sanity slipping away.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1926
- Director Teinosuke Kinugasa
- Cast Masuo Inoue, Ayako Iijima, Yoshie Nakagawa, Eiko Minami, Misao Seki, Minoru Takase
- Genre Drama, Horror
- Available on Amazon Video
Mother
(Мать)
A mother in 1905 Russia must choose whether to stand with striking workers.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Soviet Union • 1926
- Director Vsevolod Pudovkin
- Cast Vera Baranovskaya, Nikolai Batalov, Aleksandr Chistyakov, Anna Zemtsova, Ivan Koval-Samborsky
- Genre Drama
- Available on Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads, Amazon Video, Public Domain Movies, JustWatchTV
The Adventures of Prince Achmed
(Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed)
This earliest surviving animated feature film tells the story of a heroic prince attempting to save his sister from an evil sorcerer.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Germany • 1926
- Director Lotte Reiniger
- Cast Dana Dempsey
- Genre Adventure, Animation, Family, Fantasy, Romance
- Available on Criterion Channel, Kanopy
The Smiling Madame Beudet
(La souriante Madame Beudet)
An innovative impressionist classic about a woman trapped in an unhappy marriage.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 1923
- Director Germaine Dulac
- Cast Germaine Dermoz, Alexandre Arquillière, Jean d'Yd, Yvette Grisier, Madeleine Guitty, Raoul Paoli
- Genre Drama
- Available on Kanopy
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
(Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari)
After his friend is found dead, Francis suspects the crazed hypnotist Dr. Caligari and his somnambulist, Casare.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Germany • 1920
- Director Robert Wiene
- Cast Werner Krauss, Conrad Veidt, Friedrich Fehér, Lil Dagover, Hans Heinrich von Twardowski, Rudolf Lettinger
- Genre Crime, Drama, Horror, Thriller
- Available on Screambox, Fandor Amazon Channel, Screambox Amazon Channel, fuboTV, Kino Film Collection, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, YouTube, Crackle, Fandor, Cineverse, Kanopy, Hoopla, Plex, Public Domain Movies, Cultpix, Plex Channel
A Trip to the Moon
(Le Voyage dans la Lune)
A voyage to the beginning of narrative cinema
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 1902
- Director Georges Méliès
- Cast Georges Méliès, Henri Delannoy, Bleuette Bernon, Brunnet, Depierre, Farjaut
- Genre Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy, Science Fiction
- Available on Max Amazon Channel, Amazon Video, Public Domain Movies