A tantalizing futuristic wonder, Metropolis is a Silent lingering with choreography that makes your eyes wander throughout the tale as a spectacle like no other. Director Fritz Lang pulls out all the stops on what critics claim today as a creative masterpiece, Metropolis becoming an immediate classic in respect where you will never forget this film. Lily's film watch: The Man Who Laughs (1928) with Conrad Veidt, Dir. Paul Leni; The Artist (2011), Dir. Michel Hazanavicius. Bob's film watch: State of the Union (1948), Dir. Frank Capra; The Third Man (1949) Dir. Carol Reed.  YiFeng's film w ..read more

One of the most well-known (dare we say famous!) silent films of all time due to a man dangling from the arm of a clock, Safety Last! anchored Harold Lloyd among the comedic greats of the moving pictures era.  Lloyd plays a small-town "Boy" trying to make it in the big city, who finds employment as a department-store clerk. He comes up with a wild publicity stunt to draw attention to the store after his roommate's successful climb of escape from a cop, resulting in the incredible feat of a death-defying stunt! Laugh-out-loud funny and jaw-dropping in equal measure, Safety Last! is a movie ..read more

The fable-like, poignant story, subtitled A Song of Two Humans, Sunrise is an American silent melodramatic masterpiece by German director F.W. Murnau (In his American film debut) - a beautiful, atmospheric, lyrical and poetic work of art with roots in the German Expressionist movement (from 1914 to 1924). Starring George O'Brien, Janet Gaynor, and Margaret Livingston, the story of corruption and redemption involves a rustic farmer in a romanticized rural town who falls prey to the seductive wiles of a city vamp in an illicit affair. He plots to murder his loving wife during a boat trip to the ..read more

When Letty Mason (Lillian Gish), an impoverished young woman from Virginia, relocates to West Texas, she finds herself unsettled by the ever-present wind and sand. Arriving at her new home at the ranch of her cousin (Edward Earle) she receives a surprisingly cold welcome from his wife (Dorothy Cumming). With tension in the family building and unwanted attention from a trio of suitors, including neighbor Lige Hightower (Lars Hanson), Letty grows increasingly disturbed as time shifts on.  An unwanted marriage, an unwanted lover, and a liable cause for hysteria, Swedish director Victor Sjöst ..read more

As a party of aristocrats gathers at the Vogelöd family manor house for a hunting weekend, the uninvited arrival of Count Oechst (Lothar Mehnert) interrupts their plans. While rumors persist that the urbane and disdainful Oechst may have murdered his own brother (Paul Hartmann), social discomfort increases further when the Baron (Paul Bildt) and Baroness (Olga Tschechowa) arrive, as she is the recently remarried widow of Oechst's brother. When the Baroness' confessor, Father Faramond (Victor Blütner), unaccountably disappears, the villa becomes the arena for separating truth from lies, via two ..read more

Post WW1, F.W. Murnau directs this German-Danish co-production, showcasing some of his best intentions toward future films.   Der Gang in die Nacht (Journey into the Night) is derived from a screenplay by the Danish scenarist Harriet Bloch. It’s an example of the “nobility film,” a genre cultivated by the Nordisk studio where Bloch worked. In these stories, an upper-class man becomes obsessed with a working-class woman, and she leads him to disaster. In Murnau’s film, the well-to-do protagonist is Dr. Eigil Börne. Uneasy with his courtship of his wispy fiancée Helene, he plunges into an a ..read more

In Robert Wiene's final film entry, Wiene proved that he not only had impeccable taste when it came to creating the rococo ambience of the original opera, but was also perceptively tuned into the ironic element which distinguishes Rosenkavalier as one of the major 20th century operas. The film is based on the music of Der Rosenkavalier opera by Richard Strauss. It was arranged in an instrumental form to suit the film medium and was played by a repetiteur on set. Taking the opera’s story line as its central theme, the result was a film comedy enlivened with attractive locations, including Schön ..read more

By the director of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, this is the Passion embedded in a contemporary story.  An anarchist jailed for an attempted assassination is told the Passion story by the prison chaplain, who seeks to convince him that it is better to sacrifice one's own life than take the life of one's enemy. The framing story, taken from a novel, is believed to have been intended to give the Biblical story an anti-Bolshevist propaganda function. In any case, it was added without the knowledge of the actors in the Passion story, who included some of the major stars of the period: Asta Nie ..read more

For the viewer who has grown accustomed to Douglas Fairbank's and his similar "themes," films dealing with swashbuckling or youth or joy, The Gaucho is a silent film classic that will strip away any misconceptions about what role Fairbanks will play or which type of character is best identified toward his bustling career.  The Gaucho is unique in both tone and look--a combination of action/adventure with a morality tale featuring heavy atmosphere and a darker sensibility than any other Fairbanks film. Tragic yet somehow more rugged and realistic, the film and its cast, featuring Lupe Vele ..read more

"Crime and Punishment," the original story written in twelve monthly installments during 1866 by Dostoevsky, focuses on the mental anguish and moral dilemmas of Rodion Raskolnikov, an impoverished ex-student in Saint Petersburg who formulates a plan to kill an unscrupulous pawnbroker for her money. Before the killing, Raskolnikov believes that with the money he could liberate himself from poverty and go on to perform great deeds. However, he finds himself racked with confusion, paranoia, and disgust for what he has done. His justifications disintegrate completely as he struggles with guilt and ..read more