Silent

  • D.W. Griffith – The Avenging Conscience: or ‘Thou Shalt Not Kill’ (1914)

    1911-1920D.W. GriffithDramaSilentThe Birth of CinemaUSA

    Thwarted by his despotic uncle from continuing his love affair, a young man turns to thoughts of murder. Experiencing a series of visions, he sees murder as a normal course of events in life and kills his uncle. Tortured by his conscience, his future sanity is uncertain as he is assailed by nightmarish visions of what he has done.Read More »

  • Vsevolod Pudovkin – Mat AKA Mother (1926)

    1921-1930DramaSilentUSSRVsevolod Pudovkin

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    The son of a worthless alcoholic father and a hardworking mother leads
    an illegal strike during the failed 1905 uprising. In an attempt to save
    her son, the mother inadvertently gives him away to the police, but
    gradually turns to communism after experiencing injustice and suffering.

    Pudovkin’s first feature turns Maxim Gorky’s rambling novel into a
    tightly constructed narrative. The film’s emotional and visual impact
    has not diminished with time, nor has Baranovskaya’s
    performance. – Holt’s Foreign Film Guide.Read More »

  • Mikhail Kalatozov – Jim Shvante (marili svanets) AKA Salt For Svanetia (1930)

    1921-1930Mikhail KalatozovSilentUSSR

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    Quote:
    The Georgian-born filmmaker Michail Kalatozov (19031973) is best remembered for directing some of the most innovative and successful Soviet films of the 1950s and 1960s. This DVD presents digitally restored versions of two of his lesser-known, early works, which were highly controversial in their time but now rank among the finest achievements in Soviet silent cinema. Salt for Svanetia is an austere depiction of peasant life in the inhospitable terrain of the Caucasus Mountains. Nail in the Boot, a biting parable of wartime irresponsibility, chillingly prefigures the later Stalinist purge trials. Günter Buchwald’s and Stephen Horne’s prize-winning scores and the experimental accompaniment by Masha Khotimshi underline the poetic and expressive visual style of these exceptional masterpieces.Read More »

  • Various – Screening the Poor 1888-1914 [compilation] (1888-1914)

    1881-18901901-1910Short FilmSilentVarious

    Quote:
    Around 1900, the issues of poverty and poor relief were the source of heated controversy. This DVD illustrates in seven chapters how examinations of the ‘Social Question’ were presented in magic lantern slide sets and early films. On the screens of auditoriums, Sunday schools, music-halls, cinemas and churches, visitors could witness orphans freezing to death in the snow, drunkards plunging their families into misery and helpless old people begging for a scrap of bread. Audiences experienced poignant moving pictures in performances with music, singing and recitations. The photographic and film industries delivered glass slide sets and films in very large runs on a variety of themes relating to poverty.Read More »

  • F.W. Murnau – Der Letzte Mann AKA The Last Laugh (1924)

    1921-1930ClassicsF.W. MurnauGermanySilentWeimar Republic cinema

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    Jannings’ character, the doorman for a famous hotel, is demoted to washroom (bathroom) attendant, as he is considered too old and infirm to be the image of the hotel. He tries to conceal his demotion from his friends and family, but to his shame, he is discovered. His friends, thinking he has lied to them all along about his prestigious job, taunt him mercilessly while his family rejects him out of shame. The man, shocked and in incredible grief, returns to the hotel to sleep in the bathroom where he works. The only person to be kind towards him is the night watchman, who covers him with his coat as he falls asleep.Read More »

  • Lotte Reiniger & Carl Koch – Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed AKA The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926)

    1921-1930AnimationGermanyLotte Reiniger and Carl KochSilent

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    Quote:
    A handsome prince rides a flying horse to faraway lands and embarks on magical adventures, which include befriending a witch, meeting Aladdin, battling demons and falling in love with a princess.Read More »

  • Yevgeni Bauer – Umirayushchii Lebed aka The Dying Swan (1917)

    1911-1920DramaSilentUSSRYevgeni Bauer

    Mike Pinsky, DVDVerdict wrote:
    Russian film poet Evgeni Bauer combined the technical virtuosity of D.W. Griffith with the haunting terror of Edgar Allan Poe and the artist’s eye of Johannes Vermeer. He is — perhaps — the greatest film director you have never heard of. During his brief four-year career, Evgeni Bauer created macabre masterpieces. They are dramas darkly obsessed with doomed love and death, astonishing for their graceful camera movements, risqué themes, opulent sets and chiaroscuro lighting. Tragically, Bauer died in 1917, succumbing to pneumonia after breaking his leg.Read More »

  • Aleksandr Dovzhenko – Zemlya AKA Earth (1930)

    1921-1930Aleksandr DovzhenkoAmos Vogel: Film as a Subversive ArtEpicSilentUSSR

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    Quote:
    Dovzhenko was commissioned to make what was intended to be a minor propaganda film to encourage the establishment of farming collectives. Under Dovzhenko’s lyrical montage and photography what emerged far exceeded propaganda; Earth has repeatedly made every international top ten film list.Read More »

  • Le Cochon danseur AKA Dancing Pig (1907)

    1901-1910FranceShort FilmSilentThe Birth of Cinema

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    IMDB Says:
    A pig dressed in fancy clothes flirts with a pretty girl, but she humiliates him and tears off his suit; she then makes him dance for her affections. 104 years later, a GIF will be created to scare Bobby Burke as plotted by John Davison.Read More »

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