Curated List
Silent Cinema's Last Light
Six silent films, 1922 to 1931
Six silent films made between 1922 and 1931, from Germany, the Soviet Union, France and the United States. Sound was introduced commercially in the United States from 1927, and silent production fell away quickly over the next few years. The latest film here, City Lights, was made after sound had become standard and was released without dialogue, carrying only a recorded score and effects.
- 01
Battleship Potemkin
Броненосец «Потёмкин» · 1925
Sergei Eisenstein
Eisenstein's 1925 film, photographed by Eduard Tisse. It was banned in a number of countries for years; the British censors refused it a certificate until 1954.
- 02
Metropolis
1927
Fritz Lang
Fritz Lang's 1927 film and the most expensive German production of its day; its cost pushed the UFA studio into financial difficulty.
- 03
Nosferatu
1922
F. W. Murnau
Murnau's 1922 film, an unauthorised adaptation of Dracula. The resulting lawsuit ended in an order to destroy the prints; it survives through copies that had already circulated.
- 04
The Passion of Joan of Arc
La passion de Jeanne d'Arc · 1928
Carl Theodor Dreyer
Dreyer's 1928 film, its words taken from the trial records of 1431 and carried on intertitles. The original negative was lost; a complete print was found in an Oslo psychiatric hospital in 1981.
- 05
Sunrise
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans · 1927
F. W. Murnau
The first film Murnau made for Fox after moving to the United States, in 1927. It took three awards at the first Academy ceremony, one of them for unique and artistic picture, a category awarded only that year.
- 06
City Lights
1931
Charlie Chaplin
Chaplin's 1931 film, made silent after sound had become standard, with a score he wrote himself.