An era of films long forgotten, silent films have been criminally overlooked by today’s blockbuster, slam-bang, 3-D-everything, big budget movies. Does today’s generation even know who Charlie Chaplin is? Arguably the best triple-threat director/actor/writer of silent films, his productions beautifully brought soundless cinema to life.
Other notables and pioneers of the silent film era include D.W. Griffith, Buster Keaton and Sergei Eisenstein, who also told their stories visually and paved the way for directors like Kubrick and Hitchcock. The list of notable silent films is lengthy, but there are 10 that have stood the test of time and should not be missed.
10. A Trip to the Moon (1902) – directed by Georges Melies
9. The Fall of the House of Usher (1928) – the Edgar Allan Poe story directed James Sibley Watson
8. The General (1927) – considered Buster Keaton’s greatest film
7. Metropolis (1927) – A masterpiece by Fritz Lang
6. October (1927) – also known as Ten Days that Shook the World and is the last silent film of director Sergei Eisenstein
5. Battleship Potemkin (1925) – directed by Sergei Eisenstein
4. Birth of a Nation (1915) – D.W. Griffith, and hailed as the first true blockbuster
3. City Lights (1931) – Charlie Chaplin
2. Modern Times (1936) – Charlie Chaplin
1. The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) – Maria Falconetti