A British silent crime film directed by J. O. C. Orton
Two families, abolitionist Northerners the Stonemans and Southern landowners the Camerons, intertwine. When Confederate colonel Ben Cameron is captured in battle, nurse Elsie Stoneman petitions for his pardon. In Reconstruction-era South Carolina, Cameron founds the Ku Klux Klan, battling Elsie's congressman father and his African-American protégé, Silas Lynch.
The Birth of a Nation
1915
5
A married farmer falls under the spell of a slatternly woman from the city, who tries to convince him to drown his wife.
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
1927
7
In a futuristic city sharply divided between the rich and the poor, the son of the city's mastermind meets a prophet who predicts the coming of a savior to mediate their differences.
Metropolis
1927
8
A dramatized account of a great Russian naval mutiny and a resultant public demonstration, showing support, which brought on a police massacre. The film had an incredible impact on the development of cinema and is a masterful example of montage editing.
Броненосец Потёмкин
1925
7
This pioneering documentary film depicts the lives of the indigenous Inuit people of Canada's northern Quebec region. Although the production contains some fictional elements, it vividly shows how its resourceful subjects survive in such a harsh climate, revealing how they construct their igloo homes and find food by hunting and fishing. The film also captures the beautiful, if unforgiving, frozen landscape of the Great White North, far removed from conventional civilization.
Nanook of the North
1922
7
Sergei M. Eisenstein's docu-drama about the 1917 October Revolution in Russia. Made ten years after the events and edited in Eisenstein's 'Soviet Montage' style, it re-enacts in celebratory terms several key scenes from the revolution.
Октябрь
1928
6
A semi-documentary experimental 1930 German silent film created by amateurs with a small budget. With authentic scenes of the metropolis city of Berlin, it's the first film from the later famous screenwriters/directors Billy Wilder and Fred Zinnemann.
Menschen am Sonntag
1930
7
The love story of an abused English girl and a Chinese Buddhist in a time when London was a brutal and harsh place to live.
Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl
1919
6
A tramp falls in love with a beautiful blind flower girl. His on-and-off friendship with a wealthy man allows him to be the girl's benefactor and suitor.
City Lights
1931
8
Lulu is a young woman so beautiful and alluring that few can resist her siren charms. The men drawn into her web include respectable newspaper publisher Dr. Ludwig Schön, his musical producer son Alwa, circus performer Rodrigo Quast, and seedy old Schigolch. When Lulu's charms inevitably lead to tragedy, the downward spiral encompasses them all.
Die Büchse der Pandora
1929
7
A gold prospector in Alaska struggles to survive the elements and win the heart of a dance hall girl.
The Gold Rush
1925
7
A classic of the silent age, this film tells the story of the doomed but ultimately canonized 15th-century teenage warrior. On trial for claiming she'd spoken to God, Jeanne d'Arc is subjected to inhumane treatment and scare tactics at the hands of church court officials. Initially bullied into changing her story, Jeanne eventually opts for what she sees as the truth. Her punishment, a famously brutal execution, earns her perpetual martyrdom.
La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc
1928
7
Francis, a young man, recalls in his memory the horrible experiences he and his fiancée Jane recently went through. Francis and his friend Alan visit The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, an exhibit where the mysterious doctor shows the somnambulist Cesare, and awakens him for some moments from his death-like sleep.
Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari
1920
7
Greed
1924
7
In Belgium during the first World War , the Uhlans order the burgomaster to be shot by his son-in-law.
The Burgomaster of Stilemonde
1929
0
As a penniless man worries about how he will manage to eat, he is joined by a young waif and her dog, who are in the same predicament. Meanwhile, across town a dishonest lawyer is working with a gang of criminals, trying to swindle an innocent young heiress out of her inheritance. As the heiress is on her way home from the lawyer's office, she notices the young man and the waif in the midst of their latest problem with the authorities, and she rescues them. Later on, the young man will have an unexpected opportunity to repay her for her kindness.
From Hand to Mouth
1919
6
Anna Karenine
1917
0
Attracted by his wealth, avaricious Germaine marries D'Artois, then leaves him for a more sophisticated man. D'Artois retaliates by moving to the city and learning the proper social graces. His new life style proves to be too expensive for him, and at the end he is left with nothing but one suit of evening clothes and his now contrite wife.
Evening Clothes
1927
0
A young woman becomes infatuated with the leading man of a traveling theatrical troupe. She sneaks away to join him in the next town, but her father forces her to return home...
The Making of a Man
1911
6
In 15th century France, a gypsy girl is framed for murder by the infatuated Chief Justice, and only the deformed bellringer of Notre Dame Cathedral can save her.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
1923
6