pubs
One of the most painfully incomplete of all the lists, and one of the final ones I began before the list function stopped working. Had it kept going for a day or two, this list would be much broader. It did last long enough for someone to add Man with the Movie Camera and Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s Diary. I notice I again say very little about the movies, and tend to be rather… emphatic. Again, though, this is meant to serve as a conversation starter.
Pure cinema isn’t about sound or color; all of that is nice, and can complement a film’s message, but at its core film is all about the picture — how frame to frame, shot to shot, scene to scene, changes and juxtapositions in subject and composition carry meaning. Accordingly, sometimes the most elegant films are those free of our modern distractions.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
One of the most influential of silent films, of German expressionist film, and of the early horror genre. The set design embodies the expressionist ideal in a way that no subsequent film could equal without imitating. This is also the movie to popularize the idea of the twist ending. Lots of stuff going on here.
Metropolis Restored
The biggest masterpiece of the German expressionist film school (depending on where you draw your boundaries), and template for nearly every utopian future vision of the last 90 years, Metropolis also still holds up well as a movie — at least, when it’s restored and reassembled enough that you can make sense of the storyline. The cinematography is gorgeous, and at least 40 years ahead of its time. Even now some of the special effects are kind of astounding.
Modern Times
One of the last films of the silent era, and intended as Chaplin’s first talkie — a decision nixed fairly late in the game — Modern Times is probably one of Chaplin’s greatest and most iconic films ever. It expresses many of the same industrial age concerns as Lang’s Metropolis, but from a satirical rather than a allegorical perspective. Also notable for a kind of unexpected cocaine gag.
Nosferatu
The first and arguably still the best adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula was nearly lost to the world. Murnau didn’t pay for the rights to the novel, you see, so Stoker’s widow won a court injunction and ordered that every copy of the film be destroyed. Good thing that didn’t work out for her, as nearly every classic horror film (including Browning/Lugosi’s 1931 Dracula) would be out a set of crucial influences. Nearly every shot is a masterpiece that could stand on its own. The acting is ridiculous in retrospect, but whatever. The problem is finding a good restoration. The recent Kino one is probably the best bet.
If constructing this list myself the first film I would add is FW Murnau’s Sunrise. Outstanding cinematography. It should be easy to rent yourself a copy if you haven’t seen it.
Other winderful films of the era that come to mind are The General, with Bustor Keaton, Sergei Eisentein’s The Battleship Potemkin, and The Passion of Joan of Arc for its natural acting performances.
I am mostly frustrated by music in films, I feel it has a distancing quality which is rarely used considerately. I appreciate that I can watch silent films without their supplied soundtracks, and feel like I am missing nothing.
Right on. All of those save Sunrise would have gone on the list, and that’s just because I haven’t yet seen Sunrise. I’ve heard lots of good stuff, and I like my Murnau.
I was trying to think of a Harold Lloyd film that I’d class as exceptional, but nothing came to me.