Silent Era

Birth-of-cinema to the eve of sound. Griffith, Murnau, Eisenstein invent montage, the close-up, expressionism. Chaplin and Keaton make cinema a global language without dialogue.

Part of Films

20 moments in this segment.

1. 1915-01-01 — The Birth of a Nation. D. W. Griffith. Invented most of the grammar of feature filmmaking — close-ups, parallel editing, three-hour running time. Also a Klan-glorifying horror that revived the Klan in real life. The defining ethical problem of film history starts here.
2. 1915-01-01 — Birth of a Nation by D.W. Griffith - Trailer (1915). ) · 00:02:21
3. 1920-02-27 — The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Robert Wiene. Founded German Expressionism — painted shadows, jagged sets, a story told by a madman. Every horror film for the next 30 years owes it something.
4. 1920-02-27 — The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari (1920) Official Trailer #1 - German Horror Movie. · 00:01:57
5. 1922-02-17 — Nosferatu. F. W. Murnau. Unauthorised Dracula adaptation; Stoker's widow sued and won an order to burn every print. The negatives that survived gave horror cinema its first immortal monster.
6. 1925-06-26 — The Gold Rush. Charlie Chaplin. The shoe-eating scene, the cabin teetering on the cliff. Chaplin's own pick as the film he'd be remembered for. The Tramp at his most universal.
7. 1925-06-26 — Charlie Chaplin - The Gold Rush (Trailer). ) · 00:01:28
8. 1925-12-21 — Battleship Potemkin. Sergei Eisenstein. The Odessa Steps sequence is the single most-quoted scene in film history. Built the case for montage — meaning created by the collision of shots — and turned cinema into a political weapon.
9. 1926-12-25 — The General. Buster Keaton. Civil War chase comedy with his ace deadpan and astonishing real-train stunts. Flopped on release; now routinely on best-of-all-time lists.
10. 1926-12-25 — The General (1926) Trailer #1 | Movieclips Classic Trailers. · 00:01:54
11. 1927-01-10 — Metropolis. Fritz Lang. The most expensive silent film ever made; the visual template for every cinematic dystopia since. Lost for decades in fragments; restored from a 2008 Argentine print find.
12. 1927-01-10 — Metropolis (1927) Trailer #1 | Movieclips Classic Trailers. · 00:02:00
13. 1927-09-23 — Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans. F. W. Murnau's American debut. Won the Academy Award for "Unique and Artistic Picture" — a category they awarded once. Considered by many the most beautiful silent film ever made.
14. 1927-09-23 — F.W. Murnau's SUNRISE: A SONG OF TWO HUMANS - Trailer. · 00:01:50
15. 1927-10-06 — The Jazz Singer. Alan Crosland. First feature-length film with synchronised dialogue. "You ain't heard nothin' yet." Killed the silent era within three years. Al Jolson's blackface performance is the rest of its legacy.
16. 1927-10-06 — The Jazz Singer Official Trailer (1927). ) · 00:07:09
17. 1928-04-21 — The Passion of Joan of Arc. Carl Theodor Dreyer. Renée Falconetti's face in close-up for 80 minutes. One of the greatest performances ever captured; she never made another film.
18. 2010-06-22 — Nosferatu (1922) - Trailer. · 00:01:41
19. 2010-12-28 — Battleship Potemkin Trailer 2011 HD Official. · 00:01:33
20. 2020-03-18 — The Passion of Joan of Arc | Trailer HD. · 00:01:44