INTERNATIONAL SILENT CLASSICS (I-Z)
L’INHUMAINE
Marcel L'Herbier (France)
In 1922, after several years of directing successful films for the Gaumont studios, Marcel l'Herbier created his own production company, Cinégraphic. In addition to producing films by Claude Autant-Lara, Louis Delluc, Jean Dréville and others, L’Herbier put together an extremely ambitious project, L’INHUMAINE, a film intended to showcase the most…
THE ITALIAN STRAW HAT (uN CHAPEAU DE PAILLE D'ITALIE)
René Clair (France)
René Clair’s sparkling comedy of manners is a witty, delicate, inspired satire on propriety and behavior in the bourgeois mind-set. Transposing the action of the perennial stage farce from 1851 to a summer wedding day in 1895 – the birth of cinema – Clair recalls detail, costume and design captured by the first movies. THE ITALIAN STRAW HAT...
2015 - PERSONAL CHOICE (Alexander Horwath)
J'ACCUSE
Abel Gance (France)
Abel Gance’s extraordinary breakthrough work, J’ACCUSE is a World War I drama considered one of the most technically advanced films of the era and the first major pacifist film, referred to by Gance as, “A human cry against the bellicose din of armies.” This seminal cinematic achievement stars Marise Dauvray as Edith, a young woman who is...
2010 - BEST SPECIAL FEATURES ON DVD (BONUS)
THE JOYLESS STREET (DIE FREUDLOSE GASSE)
Georg Willhelm Pabst (Germany)
DIE FREUDLOSE GASSE (THE JOYLESS STREET) is not only one of the most important films of the Weimar Republic, it is also one of the most spectacular censorship cases of the era. The story from the inflationary period in Vienna in the years immediately after World War I was considered too much of a provocation…
JUDEX
Louis Feuillade (France)
JUDEX is the remarkably inventive and dreamlike French serial by the great Louis Feuillade. Now available on DVD for the first time, the film represents a highlight of a French cinematic tradition that has inspired generations of filmmakers (including Georges Franju, Alain Resnais, Jacques Rivette, and Olivier Assayas) since its first release...
LAILA
George Schnéevoigt (Norway)
LAILA is the crowning achievement of the Norwegian silent cinema, a heart-tugging melodrama in the genre that dominated Norwegian filmmaking in the 1920s: an adaptation of a literary work, shot mostly outdoors and celebrating the splendors of the Norwegian landscape. George Schnéevoigt, the noted Danish-German cinematographer, brings...
LANDMARKS OF EARLY SOVIET FILM
Various Directors (USSR)
During the 1920s, Soviet documentary and fiction films were financed by the State, and their fledgling directors, some barely out of their teens, converted their lives from theater, engineering, painting and journalism to the practice and theory of a revolutionary cinema devoted to showing the achievements and aspirations of the new...
THE LAST LAUGH (DER LETZTE MANN)
F. W. Murnau (Germany)
One of the crowning achievements of the German expressionist movement, THE LAST LAUGH (DER LETZTE MANN 1924), directed by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau (PHANTOM, 1922) and starring Emil Jannings stars as an aging hotel doorman whose happiness crumbles when he is relieved of the duties and uniform which had for years been the foundation of his happiness and pride. Through Jannings’s colossal performance, THE LAST LAUGH becomes more than the plight of a single doorman, but a mournful dramatization of the frustration and anguish of the universal working class.
Paul Leni (US)
THE LAST WARNING was Paul Leni's final film before his untimely death, and a prime showcase for Universal's 1920s leading lady, Laura La Plante. A visual artist at the peak of his career, Leni’s camera never stops shifting, offering cutaways and trick shots involving nervous could-be culprits, a highly suspicious sleuth, and cast members who suddenly disappear in the darkened theater.
THE LATE MATHIAS PASCAL (FEU MATHIAS PASCAL)
Marcel L'Herbier (France)
The biggest French fantasy film of the 1920s, it is remarkably cast with some of the great actors of that era: Ivan Mosjoukine, (as Mathias Pascal), Michel Simon, Lois Moran, Pierre Batcheff and Marcelle Pradot. The film also boasts famous stylized sets designed by Alberto Cavalcanti and Lazare Meerson, seen here to best advantage in a stunning tinted...
2018 - PERSONAL CHOICE (Lorenzo Codelli, Juror)
LISBOA, CRÓNICA ANEDÓTICA
Leitão de Barros (Portugal)
On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the death of the filmmaker J. Leitão de Barros, Cinemateca Portuguesa-Museu do Cinema has released a DVD edition of his first feature film, the documentary LISBOA, CRÓNICA ANEDÓTICA (1930). The edition includes Leitão de Barros first two films – the shorts MALMEQUER and MAL DE ESPANHA (both dated 1918).
William Beaudine (US)
Mary Pickford plays a “tomboy of the tenements” in this comedy drama, which she also wrote. Co-starring William Haines and a wide-ranging, multi-ethnic cast, Little Annie Rooney met with huge critical and commercial success upon its original release, proving fans and critics alike wanted the then-33-year-old Mary to stay a child forever.
Harry O. Hoyt (US)
True to its title, the 1925, 10-reel version of The Lost World effectively disappeared from circulation in 1929—all known positive prints destroyed—a move by First National Pictures to help clear the way for another “creaure film” utilizing special effects and Willis O’Brien’s cutting-edge animation techniques: King Kong. For more than 80 years, only abridged editions of The Lost World remained in existence…
THE LOVES OF PHARAOH (DAS WEIB DES PHARAO)
Ernst Lubitsch (Germany)
Ernst Lubitsch's DAS WEIB DES PHARAO, produced in Berlin in 1921, was the most expensive German film production of its time. Premiering in New York in February 1922, THE LOVES OF PHARAOH began a successful international release in many countries. Its director, Ernst Lubitsch was at the top of the German film industry following-up on his international...
2015 - SPECIAL MENTION
THE MACK SENNETT COLLECTION: VOLUME ONE
Various Directors (US)
"Over a 21-year period from 1912 to 1933, the short and feature films produced by Mack Sennett (and released under the banners of Keystone Comedies and Mack Sennett Comedies) played a large part in creating the style and language that has forever defined visual humor in motion pictures, earning Sennett the nickname "the King of Comedy"…
Paul Leni (US)
Masterfully directed by Paul Leni, THE MAN WHO LAUGHS marks Leni’s penultimate work. Having grown up in Germany during the era of Expressionism, Leni embraces haunting characters, twisted sets, harsh angles, and deep shadows. Heralded as one of the best American silents emulating German Expressionism, THE MAN WHO LAUGHS presents Leni at his creative directorial peak.
Georges Méliès (France)
Complementing earlier DVD and Blu-ray editions of the extraordinary work of early cinema pioneer Georges Méliès, this current digital release focuses on a selection of Mélies’s hand-colored films. MÉLIÈS: FAIRY TALES IN COLOR is designed to feature this director’s love of storytelling as well as his talent for bringing imagination and fantasy to his films.
MISS MEND
Fedor Ozep (USSR)
MISS MEND, an action-packed adventure serial in three feature-length episodes, was produced in Russia with the goal of rivaling, and possibly even surpassing, the most entertaining American movies of the 1920s. Instead of the avant-garde works of Sergei Eisenstein and Dziga Vertov, Russian audiences were enchanted by fast-moving...
Rino Lupo (Portugal)
MULHERES DA BEIRA and OS LOBOS are two examples of films made in Portugal by foreign directors who left their mark on the country’s cinematography prior to the arrival of sound cinema. Both films were directed in the early 1920s and are among the most important works by Rino Lupo, who consummately combined his own well- trained gaze and experience with distinctive local features, such as the Portuguese natural scenery, traditions and literary works.
NATHAN THE WISE (NATHAN DER WEISE)
Manfred Noa (Germany)
Manfred Noa's adaptation of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing's stage play is one of the completely forgotten classics of German silent cinema. It is an appeal to peace and tolerance that was violently attacked by the Nazis. The story takes place against the backdrop of religious wars between Christians, Islamists and Jews in 12th-century Jerusalem...
NERVES (NERVEN)
Robert Reinert (Germany)
In NERVES (NERVEN), writer-director-producer Robert Reinert tried to capture the "nervous epidemic," that seemingly drives people to madness as a result of war, misery and social unrest. This unique portrait of life in 1919 Germany, filmed on location in Munich, describes the cases of different people from all levels of society: Factory owner Roloff, who loses his...
Reinaldo Ferreira (Portugal)
Realized in 1927, O TÁXI Nº 9297 was one of the ephemera of the ephemeral Reporter X Film, for which Reinaldo Ferreira wrote and made several films. Inspired by the European and American mystery serials, the film dramatizes a case that shook the country and which Ferreira had investigated in several reports: the murder of the actress Maria Alves by her manager Augusto Gomes.
THE PEOPLE AMONG US (MENSCHEN UNTEREINANDER) & UNDER THE LANTERN (UNTER DER LATERNE)
Gerhard Lamprecht (Germany)
The double-DVD set, THE PEOPLE AMONG US (MENSCHEN UNTEREINANDER) & UNDER THE LANTERN (UNTER DER LATERNE), presents two films by Gerhard Lamprecht sketching social panoramas of late 1920's Berlin. THE PEOPLE AMONG US (MENSCHEN UNTEREINANDER) delineates the social microcosm of a tenement…
PERILS OF THE NEW LAND: FILMS OF THE IMMIGRANT EXPERIENCE (1910-1915)
Various Directors (US)
TRAFFIC IN SOULS (1913) and THE ITALIAN (1915) are riveting and important social dramas of the American silent screen. Released during the earliest years of feature-length film, when movies were more dedicated to advocacy and reform than to escapist entertainment, both depict new immigrants to America and the hazards that await them.
PHANTOM
F.W. Murnau (Germany)
PHANTOM marked a major turning point in the influential career and the groundbreaking style of cinema poet F.W. Murnau. This beautifully reconstructed and restored edition, from an original 1922 negative, features a new orchestral score by Robert Israel. This powerfully expressive and surprisingly insightful film is a triumph of German...
THE RED LANTERN
Albert Capellani (US)
THE RED LANTERN tells the story of a Eurasian, Joan of Arc-like heroine, set against the background of China’s 1900 Boxer Rebellion. The film was an instant success, thanks to an unprecedented advertising campaign and the star qualities of diva Alla Nazimova. Both aspects are extensively discussed in this publication…
LA ROUE
Abel Gance (France)
Never before released in the United States, this monumental French film is one of the most extraordinary achievements in the whole history of cinema. Written and directed by Abel Gance (NAPOLEON, J’ACCUSE), three years in production, and for its time unprecedented in length and complexity of emotion, LA ROUE pushed...
2014 - BEST DVD
SALT OF SVANETIA (DŹIM ŠVANTĖ (SOL' SVANETII) ) / NAIL IN THE BOOT (GVOZD' V SAPOGE)
Michail Kalatozov (USSR)
The Georgian-born filmmaker Michail Kalatozov (1903-1973) is best remembered for directing some of the most innovative and successful Soviet films of the 1950s and 1960s. This DVD presents digitally restored versions of two of his lesser-known, early works, which were highly controversial in their time but now rank among…
2017 - PETER VON BAGH AWARD
THE SALVATION HUNTERS
Josef von Sternberg (US)
“Sometimes described as America’s first avant-garde feature film, The Salvation Hunters was produced on a shoestring by actor George K. Arthur, and shot mostly on location in San Pedro.. “Sternberg was the director, writer, art director, editor. Chaplin’s enthusiasm got the film distributed by United Artists and the critics’ attention. Sternberg was proclaimed a genius…
2011 - BEST DVD
SEGUNDO DE CHOMÓN (1903-1912): EL CINE DE LA FANTASIA
Segundo de Chomón (Spain)
Segundo de Chomón is a key figure in the early years of cinema history, and one whose career has long been overshadowed by his French contemporary, Georges Méliès. This DVD collection now presents 31 films by “the Spanish Méliès,” revealing a filmmaker of comparable imagination, yet unique artistry. Curated from the 105 titles that make up the Segundo de…
SHERLOCK HOLMES
Arthur Berthelet (US)
Long considered lost until a complete dupe negative was identified in the vaults of la Cinémathèque française last year, this William Gillette film is a vital missing link in the history of Sherlock Holmes on screen. By the time it was produced at Essanay Studios in 1916, Gillette had been established as the world’s…
A SIXTH PART OF THE WORLD (ŠESTAJA ČAST' MIRA) / THE ELEVENTH YEAR (ODINNADCATYJ)
Dziga Vertov (USSR)
The poetic travelogue A SIXTH PART OF THE WORLD and the “visual symphony” THE ELEVENTH YEAR mark the beginning of Dziga Vertov’s most creative period, which peaked in the canonical film MAN WITH THE MOVIE CAMERA. Vertov’s Kino-Eye aesthetic attempted “to give [back] the filmic to non-fiction film” as Barbara Wurm notes, as well as, in...
SLUMS OF BERLIN (DIE VERRUFENEN (DER FÜNFTE STAND)) & CHILDREN OF NO IMPORTANCE (DIE UNEHELICHEN)
Gerhard Lamprecht (Germany)
This double-DVD presents two feature films by Gerhard Lamprecht which reproduce Heinrich Zille's view of the Berlin milieu ("Milljöh"). In SLUMS OF BERLIN (DIE VERRUFENEN (DER FÜNFTE STAND)) (1925) the engineer Robert Kramer, released from prison, cannot find his way back to civilian life. He wants to end his life, but is held back by the streetwalker Emma. In…
THREE SONGS OF LENIN (TRI PESNI O LENINE)
Dziga Vertov (USSR)
Next to the classic Man with a Movie Camera, his "film poem" to the founder of the Soviet Union, THREE SONGS OF LENIN (TRI PESNI O LENINE), is the most universally acclaimed and enduringly popular of all Dziga Vertov's films. This 2-disc set presents the earliest surviving versions of THREE SONGS OF LENIN, the 1938 silent and sound reissues…
UNDER FULL SAIL: SILENT CINEMA ON THE HIGH SEAS
Various Directors (US)
UNDER FULL SAIL: SILENT CINEMA ON THE HIGH SEAS collects five breathtaking films that preserve the romance, grandeur and allure of windjammers sailing open waters, exquisitely photographed in the style of the time.
THE YANKEE CLIPPER (1927), produced by Cecil B. DeMille and directed by Rupert Julian, restored...
THE VALENTINO COLLECTION
Various Directors (US)
As one of the most iconic personalities of the silent film era, Rudolph Valentino achieved an unprecedented level of fame that was due in part to his exotic good looks and a magnetic personality, which leapt from the screen. His undeniable cultural resonance, coupled with his untimely death in August of 1926, has made him a recognizable...