Silent movies

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"Sunrise" with Janet Gaynor

"Greed" by Erich von Stroheim

"Broken Blossoms" with Lillian Gish

Hm, Hm..."The Eagle" with Rudolph Valentino

Some of the Fatty Arbuckles are funny, and I grew up watching Chaplin. "Limelight" with Keaton and Chaplin (not a silent) was pretty good.

Rjaye

I don't like them a lot. I relish dialogue, intonation, etc.

About the only silent movies I can recall that I like are Fritz Lang's Metropolis, and most of Chaplin's.

I've seen a few silent films I've enjoyed. I liked Metropolis alot, the Keno Video DVD release is excellent, the most complete to date. I've also seen some other Fritz Lang films like Zigfried and Kreimhelde's Revenge, the first being the better of the two.

John Barrymore's version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is very well done as well. I saw it on a PBS station once, but they didn't have a music track for it, but it was still OK. Nosferateau was great too and I'm glad it still exists today. I remember reading a court ordered all copies of it destroyed because it was made with the permission of Bram Stoker's family, who held the copyright on Dracula, the novel it was based on. Fortunately, some kept copies hidden away in private collections, so we still have it today.

Speaking of silent films, I recently found the first ever horror film, an adaptation of Frankenstien made my the Thomas Edison studio on YouTube recently. It took alot of liberties with the original novel, but it's still interesting to see. It was presumed lost for many years, with nothing known to survive but a few still pictures in a copy of an Edison film catalog, until a man bought a copy in the 1950s at a film collectors event, not realizing that he had a film presumed lost until the 1970s. Only then did he have a copy made and place in an archive so it could be preserved.

I've also been interesed in the work of Georges Meles, the French filmmaker many say is the father of special effects. The film A Trip to the Moon, also on YouTube, is an example of his work.

Luv em Luv em Luv em!! !! !

The Unknown with Joan Crawford and Lon Chaney and it's directed by Tod Brown who did the cult classic Freaks! !

Roundhay Garden Scene by Louis Le Prince, the first film made in 1888!!

Orphans of the Storm, good movie with Lilian and Dorothy Gish.

Metropolis made in Germany set in the future. There's some resemblance to it and the future Germany would have in WWII.

What I like about silent films is the way directors experimented with the cameras and the gestures and expressions of the actors. I'll find myself more than often when given the choice a silent film over a present day film that is consumed with too many speacial effects and less character development as well as depth into a story.

i think the only thing i've seen lon chaney in is the famous 'phantom of the opera', but i really want to see 'the unknown', & another one he's in where he also plays a clown, 'he who gets slapped'. i love how the way people relate to each other in these old movies is so over the top & theatrical, but at the same time incredibly grotesque & bizarre things are accepted in a really matter of fact way.
i saw 'the man who laughed' recently, a movie i think anyone who likes tod browning would like.

Tod Browning reminds me of a modern day Tim Burton. Only I think Tod Browning was more diverse when it came to the settings and themes.

yes, at one point i probably would have claimed tim burton was better but he seems to have got very dull & repetitive in recent years. have you seen 'mark of the vampire', a very glossy movie browning made at mgm, & with bela lugosi?