Silent Film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (and in particular, no audible dialogue). In silent films for entertainment, the plot may be conveyed by the use of title cards, written indications of the plot and key dialogue lines. The idea of combining motion pictures with recorded sound is nearly as old as film itself, but because of the technical challenges involved, the introduction of synchronized dialogue became practical only in the late 1920s with the perfection of the Audion amplifier tube and the advent of the Vitaphone system.
The term "silent film" is something of a misnomer, as these films were almost always accompanied by live sounds. During the silent era that existed from the mid-1890s to the late 1920s, a pianist, theater organ
ist—or even, in large cities, a small orchestra—would often play music to accompany the films. Pianists and organists would play either from sheet music, or improvisation. Sometimes a person would even narrate the intertitle cards for the audience. Though at the time the technology to synchronize sound with the video did not exist, music was seen as an essential part of the viewing experience. The term is also frequently used to describe sound-era films that have a recorded music-only soundtrack without dialogue, such as City Lights and The Artist.
Most early motion pictures are considered lost because the nitrate film used in that era was extremely unstable and flammable. Additionally, many films were deliberately destroyed because they had negligible continuing financial value in this era. It has often been claimed that around 75 percent of silent films have been lost, though these estimates may be inaccurate due to a lack of numerical data. --Wikipedia
Select Silent Films
The Adventures of Prince Achmed by Call Number: DVD 620Publication Date: 1926This is the story of a wicked sorcerer who tricks Prince Achmed into mounting a magical flying horse that sends the rider off on a flight to his death. It is based on the stories from "The Arabian Nights".
Avant-Garde: Experimental Cinema of the 1920s and '30s by Call Number: DVD 1892Publication Date: 1921-1947Twenty-five short films that epitomize the avant garde movement of the 1920's and 1930's.
The Battleship Potemkin by Call Number: DVD 103Publication Date: 1925Re-creates the 1905 mutiny on the battleship "Prince Potemkin." It focuses on a mutiny by the battleship's crew and the subsequent massacre of civilians, reflecting the spirit of the times.
The Birth of a Nation by Call Number: DVD 687 and eVideo (exp. 7/6/2023)Publication Date: 1915Two brothers, Phil and Ted Stoneman, visit their friends in Piedmont, South Carolina: the family Cameron. This friendship is affected by the Civil War, as the Stonemans and the Camerons must join up opposite armies.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari by Call Number: DVD 910; DVD 247 & HDDVD 367Publication Date: 1919A somnambulist commits murders under a hypnotist's influence.
The Cameraman's Revenge and Other Fantastic Tales: the Amazing Puppet Animation of Ladislaw Starewicz by Call Number: DVD 456Publication Date: 1912Starewicz's grasshoppers, dogs, frogs, dolls, and other creatures portray heroics and follies with an exuberance of humor and invention.
The Chaplin Mutuals by Call Number: DVD 147Publication Date: 1916Chaplin plays a variety of comedic characters, each of whom becomes involved with different people and situations.
The Chaplin Revue by Call Number: DVD 852Publication Date: 1918-1923Features Charlie in seven of his best short films.
A Christmas Past: Vintage Holiday Films, 1900-1925 by Call Number: DVD 8458Silent vignettes of the Christmas holiday season.
The CircusCall Number: DVD 856Publication Date: 1928A tramp fleeing the police takes refuge in a circus, becomes a clown by accident, and falls for an equestrienne.
City Lights by Call Number: DVD 853 & HDDVD 284 & eVideoPublication Date: 1931A tramp wins the love of a blind flower girl and attempts to obtain money from a millionaire to help her regain her sight.
D.W. Griffith: Years of Discovery, 1909-1913Call Number: DVD 5994Publication Date: 1909-1913Twenty two of the best early films directed by D.W. Griffith.
Easy Virtue by Call Number: DVD 10315Publication Date: 1927A woman goes through a divorce and attempts to overcome the tarnished reputation that accompanies it.
Edison: the Invention of the Movies by Call Number: DVD 1604Publication Date: 1889-1918Commercial motion pictures were invented at the Edison Laboratory between 1888 and 1893. In 1894, Edison was the sole producer of motion pictures in the world.
The Films of Kenneth Anger. Volume one by Call Number: DVD 4018Publication Date: 1947-1954Covering the 1st half of Anger's career, these works by the gay underground filmmaker merge surrealism with homoeroticism and the occult along with elements of documentary, psychodrama, myth, ritual, and spectacle.
The General by Call Number: DVD 6302Publication Date: 1926Rejected by the Confederate army, and taken for a coward by his beloved, young Johnny Gray is given a chance to redeem himself when he wages a one-man war against Yankee spies who have stolen his locomotive.
Georges Méliès Encore: New Discoveries: 26 Films (1896-1911) by Call Number: DVD 11650Publication Date: 1896-1911Features 26 films produced by Georges Méliès between 1896 and 1911
The Gold Rush by Call Number: DVD 11706; DVD 423Publication Date: 1925Chaplin (the Little Tramp) prospects for gold, gets involved with a dance hall girl, and deals with a burly competitor during the Yukon gold rush.
The Great Train Robbery; and Other Primary Works by Call Number: DVD 418Publication Date: 1903These films reveal the foundation from which the styles and stories of the contemporary cinema would later arise.
The Harold Lloyd Comedy Collection by Call Number: DVD 5475Publication Date: 1921-1936This collection contains fifteen feature films including Safety Last!, ten shorts, and a bonus disc containing extras including Harold Lloyd's home movies, interviews, featurettes, and more.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Call Number: DVD 6946Publication Date: 1923A film about Quasimodo, the deformed bell-ringer of Notre Dame and Esmeralda, the beautiful gypsy he adores.
Intolerance: A Drama of Comparisons by Call Number: DVD 686Publication Date: 1916Switches back and forth between four separate stories from Babylonian times to the twentieth century to show humanity's inhumanity and intolerance through the ages.
Körkarlen = The Phantom Carriage by Call Number: DVD 10490Publication Date: 1921The last person to die on New Year's Eve before the clock strikes twelve is doomed to take the reins of Death's chariot and work tirelessly collecting fresh souls for the next year. So says the legend that drives the Phantom Carriage.
La passion de Jeanne d'Arc = Passion of Joan of Arc by Call Number: DVD 678Publication Date: 1928Dramatization of the life of Joan of Arc centering on her trial and execution.
La Terre = Earth by Call Number: DVD 771Publication Date: 1921An adaptation "The earth" of Emile Zola's novel of family greed, brutality and deceit in rural France.
Le Voyage dans la Lune = A Trip to the Moon by Call Number: HDDVD 138 and eVideoPublication Date: 1902A group of scientists travel to the moon by being shot in a capsule from a giant cannon, are captured by moon-men, escape, and fall vertically back to earth.
The Lumière Brothers' First Films by Call Number: DVD 173Publication Date: 1898A look at the birth of the motion picture through 85 of the more than 1,500 films made by the Lumière Brothers between 1895 and 1897.
Mad Love: the Films of Evgeni Bauer by Call Number: DVD 785Publication Date: 1913-1916Contents: Twilight of a woman's soul; After death; Dying swan
Man With a Movie Camera by Call Number: DVD 676Publication Date: 1929Documenting a day in the life of a city, Man with a Movie Camera has no intertitles, no overarching narrative, and no professional actors. This experimental documentary explores everywhere from a hospital to busy street corners, subverting expectations and traditional narrative structures at every turn.
Metropolis by Call Number: DVD 8393; DVD 1387 & HDDVD 524Publication Date: 1927In 2026, the rich rule over the poor, who live underground. One man tries to bridge the gap between the two classes.
Modern Times by Call Number: DVD 808 and eVideoPublication Date: 1936A hapless factory worker cracks under the strain of his job and is sent off in a paddy wagon. He then finds himself unemployed, on the streets of Depression America, where he befriends a young woman fleeing childcare authorities, and they embark on a misadventure-filled search for happiness.
More Treasures from American Film Archives, 1894-1931: 50 Films by Call Number: DVD 6534Publication Date: 1894-1931An anthology of films from American film archives. In addition to rare silent-era features, includes cartoons and animation, documentaries and newsreels, earliest American movies, pioneering sound and color experiments, serial episodes, trailers for lost films, advertisements, avant-garde shorts, ethnographic footage, films of ethnic communities, and other film types invented during the first four decades of the motion picture.
Nanook of the North by Call Number: DVD 249Publication Date: 1922Presents a documentary on the life of an Eskimo family pitting their strength against a vast and inhospitable Arctic. Juxtaposes their struggle for survival against the elements with the warmth of the little family as they go about their daily affairs.
Nosferatu by Call Number: DVD 1247Publication Date: 1910Count Orlok's move to Bremen brings the plague traceable to his dealings with the realtor Thomas Hutter, and the Count's obsession with Hutter's wife, Ellen the only one with the power to end the evil.
The Oyster Princess by Call Number: DVD 3265Publication Date: 1919A comedy in which a pampered American oyster tycoon plans to find a prince to marry his much-indulged daughter, but things don't go his way.
The Phantom of the Opera by Call Number: DVD 74 & DVD 748Publication Date: 1925A disfigured man in a mask abducts the prima donna of the Paris Opera House to his lair in the sewers below
Reel Baseball: Baseball Films from the Silent Era, 1899-1926 by Call Number: DVD 3445Publication Date: 1899-1926A collection of films about baseball.
Selma Lagerlöf's Sir Arne's Treasure: A Winter Ballad in Five Acts as Filmed by Call Number: DVD 2575Publication Date: 1919Three Scottish mercenaries murder Sir Arne and his household for his stolen treasure. The only survivor is Elsalill, who moves to relatives in Marstrand. There she falls in love with a charming young officer--Sir Archie, who is one of the murderers.
Silent Shakespeare by Call Number: DVD 208 & eVideoPublication Date: 1899-1911In the early days of the cinema, pioneer filmmakers created these seven films based on the plays of William Shakespeare.
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans by Call Number: DVD 797 & DVD 6142Publication Date: 1927A married farmer falls under the spell of a slatternly woman from the city, who tries to convince him to drown his wife.
Un Chien Andalou by Call Number: DVD 1475Publication Date: 1929This early avant-garde film is a surrealist tale of unfulfilled desire, based on an exchange of dreams between Salvador Dali and Luis Buñuel.