I Want to Know As Much as Possible About Silent Film

Cafe Society
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Books:
Kenneth Macgowan, Behind the Screen: The History and Techniques of the Motion Picture
Kevin Brownlow, The Parade’s Gone By
Lillian Gish, The Movies, Mr. Griffith, and Me
Neal Gabler, An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood

Documentary series:
Hollywood (1980) (available on VHS)
Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood (1996) (available on VHS and DVD)

Films:
Méliés the Magician (1997)
D.W. Griffith: Years of Discovery 1909-1913 (2002)
Winsor McCay: Animation Legend (1999)
The Birth of a Nation (US, 1915)
Les Vampires (France, 1915)
Intolerance (US, 1916)
Broken Blossoms (US, 1919)
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Germany, 1920)
The Kid (US, 1921)
Nanook of the North (US, 1922)
Nosferatu (Germany, 1922)
The Last Laugh (Germany, 1924)
Sherlock, Jr. (US, 1924)
The Gold Rush (US, 1925)
The Battleship Potemkin (USSR, 1925)
The Black Pirate (US, 1926)
Metropolis (Germany, 1927)
Sunrise (US, 1927)
October (USSR, 1927)
Berlin: Symphony of a Great City (Germany, 1927)
The Circus (US, 1928)
The Fall of the House of Usher (France-US, 1928)
Steamboat Bill, Jr. (US, 1928)
The Passion of Joan of Arc (France, 1928)
Un chien andalou (France, 1929)
Man With the Movie Camera (USSR, 1929)
Earth (USSR, 1930)
Tabu (US, 1931)
City Lights (US, 1931)
(all of these are available on DVD)

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In addition to the excellent recommendations here, I’ll also mention the documentary Visions of Light, which is sort of a history of cinematography. Obviously, only the first third or so is what you’re looking for, but it’s rather shocking to see the transition from silent to sound and realize just how far the art form backslid once they had to worry about the microphones.

Quite illuminating, no pun intended.

Oh, who am I kidding. Puns are always intended. :wink:

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For anyone in the Chicago area, there’s a Silent Film Festival coming up in August, I believe. There’s an article on it in today’s Tribune. They’ve chosen a grand old theatre (which, ironically, was built to accommodate the first talkies…go figure) and have re-orchestrated the whole score (original music is almost impossible to come by). It sounds like it’s going to be very cool, indeed. I believe one of the first films they’ll show is The Lost World. I’m going to try to make that screening.