Your top 5 silent films available on DVD

Thanks for the link, that was an interesting article.

It's one just one more (sometimes likely) hair pulling puzzle for film restorers, this business of determining crank speeds against artistic intention.

 

"We didn't need dialogue. We had faces."

 

Almost anything with Lon Chaney is worth watching.

 

I think she might have said something about him.

 

Spies-Fritz Lang
Napoleon-Able Gance
Sunrise-F.W Murnau
The Crowd-King Vidor
The Man With The Movie Camera-Dziga Vertov

 

Heh! My 21 year-old daughter loves silent movies and displays a bit of a 'flapper' fashion sense! Underground trend?

 

At the moment..

The Passion of Joan of Arc (Dreyer)
Nosferatu
The Cabinet of Dr Caligari
The Last Laugh
Easy Street (a Chaplin short)

 

Metropolis
The General
Modern Times
The Last Laugh
The Iron Horse

 

yeah, Clara Bow for sure.

 

Any Fritz Lang disc.
Any Murnaw disc.
Any Ozu disc.
Any Stroheim disc.
Pandora's Box

 

These should be easy enough to find in Region One.

Fantômas
Our Hospitality
Sunrise
The Man with a Movie Camera
I Was Born, But ....

 

I would recommend picking up the Blu Rays or Metropolis and SteamBoat Bill JR

 

The Man Who Laughs is my all-time favorite silent film.

 

These were excellent

The Chaplin at Keystone box was also fun

 

The Criterion edition of that looks pretty good, print/picture wise, it was transfered at 24 fps.

The extra commentary track also provides a lot of historical context.

 

That was one of the first handful of DVDs I ever bought, and my first Region 1 import, I hope it's still in print. Apparently Dreyer intended no music to accompany the film, but I really liked the Voices of Light music on this disc, and it used to sound awesome pumped through the good ol' KEF speakers I had my DVDs going through 10 years ago (those speakers sadly RIP
now!).

 

There are just so many great ones that I find it impossible to list just 5.

As a long time connoisseur of silent films, I'd recommend these SETS right off the bat:

The Harold Lloyd Collection...

http://www.amazon.com/Harold-Lloyd-...XORA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1295369647&sr=8-1

The Douglas Fairbanks Collection...

http://www.amazon.com/Douglas-Fairb...ef=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1295369848&sr=1-1

The F.W. Murnau Collection...

http://www.amazon.com/Murnau-Collec...ef=sr_1_2?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1295370069&sr=1-2

and of course the recent Blu-ray editions of Metropolis along with various Keaton classics (The General; Steamboat Bill; Sherlock Jr.; the upcoming Our Hospitality).

If you have a multi-region DVD player, I'd HIGHLY recommend (sight unseen) the upcoming Max Davidson Comedies from Edition Filmmuseum (Germany; they accept PayPal from international customers) ...

http://www.edition-filmmuseum.com/product_info.php/info/p99_Max-Davidson-Comedies.html

Note: The above set of classic Hal Roach short comedies will contain what may be the funniest short film ever made: "Pass The Gravy" - Note: This was one of the films selected by Brad Bird for his Saturday morning appearance at The San Francisco Silent Film Festival that my wife and I attended while in CA last summer; I recommend checking this Festival out if you're anywhere near San Francisco in July (it's just prior to the San Diego ComicCon).

Also check out Eureka Masters of Cinema series (UK) for some of the finest versions of silent films released on DVD (comparable and often superior to Criterion)...

http://eurekavideo.co.uk/moc/catalogue/

Note: Eureka is also releasing silent BDs of stellar quality; frequently these are Zone unlocked (playable on all Blu-ray players), but those which aren't would require a Zone free BD player (so, if in doubt, be sure to check with Eureka or the DVDBeaver review site before your purchase).

Hope that someone besides me finds all this information useful!


Cat

 

I like that Voices Of Light audio track, too. Even though this was a film that the director (Carl Dreyer) actually intended to be watched without music, and it's such a visually arresting film. I think this is the best Criterion edition of any that I've seen.

 

I got this for her
Packaged in a lacquered wooden display case, this four-disc set includes "Shadows" (1922), "The Shock," "The Lost World" (1925), and "The General" (1927).

 

Just to add another shout for Hitchcock's astonishing 1927 "The Lodger", with its famous "glass ceiling" shot. We re-watched an old disc of this last night. Seems to go in and out of print but it's still available in a Region 2 box set at least.