Since getting Netflix I’ve been trying to watch some of the movies that apparently everyone in the world but me has seen. I’ve decided to start with the silent era, so some recommendations please. So far I’ve seen:
1)Metropolis - Thoroughly enjoyed this one, especially the contrast between the elite and the worker drones.
Birth of a Nation - Once again I enjoyed the film, despite being expected to root for the Ku Kluxers.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari - This was one I really liked but for the life of me can’t explain why. I just did.
The General - How can you not like Buster Keaton?
So what should I go for next? Two requests:
It should be available from Netflix (not a dealbreaker…)
Please, please no Chaplin. That little bastard makes my flesh crawl.
Way Down East is pretty darn good in the drama category; I’d also recommend The Phantom of the Opera, Nosferatu, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in their silent incarnations.
I think Netflix will soon have some Harold Lloyd - since his films are finally coming to DVD - at which time you’ll need to see Safety Last.
Broken Blossoms, starring Lillian Gish, directed by D.W.Griffith. When Lillian asked DW why he didn’t get a younger girl to play the role(she was 25 at the time) he told her he didn’t want to submit a younger actress to the harshness of what her character was going to go through. One of the earliest films about child abuse, Lillian Gish plays a young girl whose father regularly subjects her to savage beatings. A sad film, but with splendid acting, and the epilogue is so poignant.
Chaplin was, as Max Sennett pointed out, just the greatest artist who ever lived, and if you can’t appreciate his genius, your life is truly barren.
However, if you want to remain that way, here are a few more:
Sally of the Sawdust. Directed by D. W. Griffith. Starring W. C. Fields. Worth it for that alone. (Not really a great film – Fields needed sound – but interesting).
Sadie Thompson. The final reel has been lost, but there is a version using stills to recreate the ending. Gloria Swanson is brilliant.
Other essential Keaton: Sherlock Jr., The Navigator, Steamboat Bill, Jr.
The Black Pirate – fine Douglas Fairbanks spectacle, the even pokes fun at Douglas Fairbanks spectacles.
He Who Gets Slapped – Lon Chaney in a great role as a clown.
I’ll also second The Wind, Greed, and Dr. Caligari
If I pitted people, which I don’t, my seething words to the Chaplin-haytahs would melt your flesh.
Chaplin-haytin’ OP-type - Phantom of the Opera, and The Navigator.
There’s also a must-see collection of Fatty Arbuckle shorts (which are very rare because of his being blackballed) out there - forget the name, but it features Fatty Arbuckle and Buster Keaton (who Arbuckle discovered) in nearly every one.
The most recent was a complete restoration released in 2002.
Avoid the Giogio Moroder semi-colorized version from the early 1980s. He screwed around with the plot and the motivations of the characters too much.
I can recommend almost all the silent work of Laurel and Hardy, as well as “Seven Chances” featuring Buster Keaton.
CAN NOT recommend: Birth of a Nation or Battleship Potemkin (the famous Odessa Steps sequence in the middle of the film IS one of the signature moments in the history of cinema, but frankly, it’s not worth sitting through the rest of the film for.)
La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc
The Big Parade
Sparrows
Laugh, Clown, Laugh
Napoléon
Nibelungen: Siegfried’s Death
Nibelungen: Kriemhild’s Revenge
The Unknown
Orphans of the Storm
The Man With a Movie Camera
Earth
My Best Girl
The Patsy
The Lodger
The Kid (I know you said no Chaplin, but The Kid isn’t like most of his movies)
Un Chien Andalou
…that’s a rather eclectic collection, but they’re all good. They’re not in any order, but if you only see one, let it be the first.
I’ll second The Wind and Ben Hur, the later is significantly better than the Charlton Heston remake.
Be sure to get a good copy of Nosferatu and Metropolis–there are some truly atrocious versions of those floating around.
I’d suggest trying to see them at a cinema. Of course you can appreciate them at home on TV, but the experience is so greatly enhanced in a dark room with an enormous screen and live accompaniment. There are silent film festivals all over the place, it shouldn’t be too hard to find one nearby.
I’m limiting my list to titles that are currently available from Netflix:
Man With a Movie Camera
The Last Laugh
In the Land of the War Canoes
Earth
Battleship Potemkin
Animation Legend: Winsor McCay
Grass
October
The Camerman (on the DVD TCM Archives: Buster Keaton Collection)
Napoleon (1927)
Tabu
The Black Pirate
Intolerance
The Last of the Mohicans
The Cheat
Fall of the House of Usher
It (if you have problems searching for that title, search under star Clara Bow)
Nanook of the North
Ben-Hur (1925)
Les Vampires (it’s long, but stay with it)
The Passion of Joan of Arc
Berlin: Symphony of a Great City
The Lost World
The Phantom of the Opera
Greed
Landmarks of Early Film
The Magic of Méliès
The Thief of Bagdad
D.W. Griffith: Years of Discovery 1909-1913
Broken Blossoms
The Jazz Singer (well, it’s mostly silent)
Sherlock, Jr.
From the Manger to the Cross
The Wind
Salome (1922)
(Not really a great film – Fields needed sound – but interesting).