Silent

  • Emile Chautard & Victorin-Hippolyte Jasset – Le mystère de Notre-Dame de Paris (1912)

    1911-1920Emile ChautardShort FilmSilentVictorin-Hippolyte Jasset

    Drama in which the love between Claude and Germaine is tested when Claude is falsely accused and Germaine’s father doesn’t approve of their relationship.
    Germaine Darlot’s father forbids a marriage between her and Claude Duval. Claude wants to commit suicide because of this, but when he wants to jump into the river he drives away a robber who has just robbed a rich gentleman. He drags the rich gentleman to his house, who dies there. Claude and Germaine flee to the colonies, where Claude becomes the mining director. When another woman fancies Claude, Germaine becomes jealous, suspects him of adultery, and reports Claude. He is sentenced to twenty years in prison.Read More »

  • Hal Roach – I Do (1921)

    1921-1930ComedyHal RoachSilentUSA

    A Harold Lloyd two-reeler that was planned as a three-reeler; after an unsuccessful preview, the first reel was axed.Read More »

  • ? – Messe noire aka Black Mass (1928)

    ?1921-1930EroticaSilent

    PLOT SUMMARY
    Vintage porn from the silent era in which the initiation of a neophyte into a satanic cult turns into an orgy.Read More »

  • Jean Epstein – La chute de la maison Usher AKA The Fall of the House of Usher (1928)

    1921-1930ArthouseFranceJean EpsteinSilent

    Quote:
    A leading member of the French cinema’s avant-garde movement and the director of the Impressionist classic Coeur fidèle (1923), Jean Epstein broke with his more modernist colleagues in the late 1920s to make documentaries and fiction films grounded in the realities of everyday life. Before that evolution, however, Epstein filmed this adaptation of two Edgar Allan Poe stories: “The Fall of the House of Usher” (1839) and “The Oval Portrait” (1850). The film’s significance lies not so much in its fidelity to Poe’s stories as in its atmospheric evocation of the author’s gothic sensibility. Read More »

  • Max Mack – Die Tango-Königin (1913)

    Germany1911-1920Max MackSilent

    Quote:
    Hanni, the shop girl, comes from a milieu like Zille, from which she is freed, so to speak, by Ferdinand, a wealthy elderly gentleman. The first date turns into a shopping spree, and after the new clothes come a new home. Since we write the year 1913 and at that time the cinema was still chaste, Max Mack saved us the details of the Techtelmechtel. To keep the story going, they both learn the new fashion dance: Tango, which Lieutenant Lulu has tried in vain. A tango competition makes the comedy a mix-up comedy: it wins – who wouldn’t have thought it – Hanni as the tango queen.
    (International Forum of Young Films 1984)Read More »

  • Alfred Hitchcock – The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927)

    1921-1930Alfred HitchcockCrimeSilentUnited Kingdom

    A serial killer known as “The Avenger” is on the loose in London, murdering blonde women. A mysterious man arrives at the house of Mr. and Mrs. Bunting looking for a room to rent. The Bunting’s daughter is a blonde model and is seeing one of the detectives assigned to the case. The detective becomes jealous of the lodger and begins to suspect he may be the avenger.Read More »

  • Georges Méliès – The Movies Begin – Disc 4 – The Magic of Méliès (1904 – 1908)

    1901-1910ExperimentalGeorges MélièsSilentThe Birth of Cinema

    The Magic of Méliès
    Director: Georges Méliès
    Country: France
    Year: 1904-1908
    Tribute is paid to the screen’s first special effects wizard in this special collection of marvelously restored prints. In addition to more than a dozen of his early trompes l’oeil – such as Untamable Wiskers, Tchin-Chao, the Chinese Conjurer, and The Mermaid – this volume boasts the illuminating documentary, Georges Méliès, Cinema Magician and a rare hand-tinted print of the fantastic spectacle An Impossible Voyage.Read More »

  • Gustaf Molander – Mälarpirater AKA Pirates of Lake Malaren (1923)

    1921-1930AdventureGustaf MolanderSilentSweden

    Quote:
    Three boys escape their strict stepparents, steal a sailboat and have adventures on Lake Mälaren northeast of Stockholm. This successful version of Sigfrid Siwertz’s popular young peoples’ novel, which was also adapted for the screen several times in the sound film era, is a pleasant summer film with convincing actors that feels fresh even today. The film copy, restored by the Swedish Film Institute, initially shows slight nitrate deterioration but otherwise features beautiful picture quality and original intertitles.Read More »

  • Arthur Robison – Die Todesschleife AKA Looping the Loop (1928)

    Drama1921-1930Arthur RobisonGermanySilentWeimar Republic cinema

    Quote:
    Circus and variety films were a popular genre in the silent film era. This was Robert Reinert’s last film collaboration; he died before the production was finished. It tells the story of a clown who hides his identity while courting a young female artist. The atmospheric sets by Robert Herlth and Walter Röhrig, the masterful direction by Arthur Robison, and especially the dramatic performance by Werner Krauss raise the film considerably over other works in the genre. The elaborate digital restoration by the Munich Film Museum displays the film’s visual beauty.Read More »

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