Love just about anything with Keaton, Harold Lloyd, or Douglas Fairbanks. Those new to silent films should check out the classic TV documentary series Hollywood, by film historian Kevin Brownlow. Features great clips and interviews with key silent film figures. You can watch it on YT, along with Brownlow's follow-up series, Cinema Europe.
Brownlow's Hollywood is THE best series about silent film. Getting last interviews with silent era actors and directors before they passed. Brownlow has a new series in November about film pioneers.
I was on a big Silent kick from 1999 to about 2005. My favorites ended up being: Sunrise Napoleon Docks Of New York The White Hell Of Pitz Palu Broken Blossoms Safety Last The General Cottage On Dartmoor Flesh And The Devil The Wind
Kevin's documentaries are unsurpassed. His films on Griffith, Keaton, Lloyd and Garbo are all excellent.
I'm pretty sure all of them are on official R1 DVD (Kino put out most of them). Napoleon is on a R2 Blu-ray but, sadly, rights issues have prevented Kevin Brownlow's astounding five-hour restoration from being released in the US.
Basically any Buster Keaton feature... Sunrise Broken Blossoms Docks of New York The Crowd City Girl Battleship Potemkin Passion of Joan of Arc The Gold Rush
It did get a VHS release I'm pretty sure rights issues kept it from going out on DVD Fortunately we can watch it on YT -- although one episode (Clara Bow and John Gilbert IIRC) sometimes gets taken down. Probably a music rights issue.
So many great Silent classics we have as mentioned above , a re-enactment is all of this story from Production stills... 1927 film "The Hypnotist" or better remembered as "London After Midnight" a Lost silent film in 1967 fire in MGM film library, and Directed by Tod Browning starring the great Lon Chaney! an original 1927 glass advertisement slide
Anything with Lon Chaney! Keaton, Lloyd, "The Last Laugh" all amazing as is "A Page of Madness" Turner Classic Movies has a great silent series Sundays at Midnight
The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926) Beggars of Life (1928) Behind The Door (1919) The Big Parade (1925) The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari (1920) Children Of Divorce (1927) Diary of a Lost Girl (1929) The Freshman (1927) The Last Warning (1929) The Man Who Laughs (1928) Metropolis (1927) Nosferatu (1922) Pandora's Box (1929) The Passion of Joan Of Arc (1928) The Phantom of the Opera (1925) Speedy (1928) Steamboat Bill Jr. (1928) Sunrise (1927) The Thief of Bagdad (1924) Wings (1927)
I'm going to have to check out Cinema Europe. The Hollywood series is incredibly and so reverentially detailed without whitewashing the obvious downsides of the time. It is clear he was working to ensure he caught the stories of the smaller players in the silent era.
