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Your ten favorite silent films?
posted by catmydogsSTAFFMOD on September 5, 2020 at 12:57 AM
"Silent" can be loosely defined. Okay to include films like Modern Times or The Artist.
Anyways, in no order, here are my ten favorites: 1) Pandora's Box (1929) - Louise Brooks is a goddess and G.W. Pabst is one of my favorite directors of the time. This is a seductive, mesmerizing film. A must-see! 2) Diary of a Lost Girl (1929) - another Louise Brooks classic, again with Pabst directing. She plays a woman thrown into a life of sin. These two films alone cement Louise Brooks' place in cinema history. 3) The Chaplin Revue - another a combination of Shoulder Arms / The Pilgrim / A Dog's Life, with new music and Chaplin's introductory narrations. A clear sample of Chaplin's mastery and how the First National films were the height of his creative phase. 4) Metropolis - Well it's the Metropolis board, and this is the absolute peak of all silent sci-fi films. Nothing else even close. 5) Greed (1924) - a very long film, partially lost, but still very long. Try to catch the "restored" version where dynamic stills and title cards fill in the missing portions. A masterpiece, even in truncated form. 6) Nosferatu - Not the first horror or "vampire" film, but certainly the most famous. Classic imagery all throughout by director Murnau. Thank goodness it was not lost or all destroyed (interesting backstory, look it up!) 7) The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) - one of the most tremendous performances ever on screen, male or female, silent or not. Another masterpiece that was nearly lost (great backstory, look it up!) A must-see! 8) Battleship Potemkin (1925) - often found on lists of top ten films EVER, and for good reason. The editing is extraordinary, the pacing superb. A technical masterpiece! If you want to learn how to make a good film, start here! 9) The General (1927) - oh SUCH a funny yet adventurous film! Buster Keaton at his greatest and still so young. It's terrible what MGM did to him with his later contract, such wasted potential. 10) Sunrise (1927) - a great melodrama often listed among the best silent films ever. Another film by Murnau, whose career was tragically cut short.
Honorary mention - Way Down East, Broken Blossoms, Orphans of the Storm, La Roue, The Last Laugh, Die Nibelungen, The Gold Rush, The Circus, Ben Hur, Faust, Napoleon, The Wind. Well, I could go on and on, I've seen hundreds of silent films!
Reply by genplant29
on September 5, 2020 at 2:38 AM
Excellent post, cat; terrific observations, thoughts, and opinions that you shared!
For my list, I'll just consider movies that are in my personal collection as contenders, as Silents I've collected include most of the ones I've felt especially drawn to and particularly impressed by.
As Silents are "my thing" and as I love so many of them, rather than limiting my list to a Top 10, I have to go with a Top 25; while compiling the following list just now, I found narrowing down to even 25 to be really difficult! The following are arranged alphabetically:
Anyone reading this, consider each of those recommended.
Incidentally, each of those, plus a number of additional good Silents, can be found on my list here, that shows what's in my Silent Films collection. (There are some additional DVDs I want, that I intend to also get at some point. Among those definitely must be a couple more of the enchanting Louise Brooks' films! So far Louise is only represented in my collection by this; she's a total delight - and of course stunningly gorgeous - in that.) FYI: TMDb discussion threads (various which include a quite detailed OP) have been created about roughly two-thirds of the films I've listed above; any such threads can be accessed via the above "here" link.