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Best full features of the 1910's? Your recommendations please!


So I'm doing this challenge to have seen at least 10 full feature films per year as long back as possible. Movie length has to be at least 45 minutes. No shorts. I'm finishing the 1920's now and move towards the 1910's. Except for The Birth of a Nation (1915) and some early horror movies I haven't a clue what to watch. So please recommend away!

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I'm watching "The Grim Game" right now and think it's worth a view; it's from 1919 and stars Harry Houdini.


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Here's a few you could try...

HYPOCRITES - Lois Weber (1915)
THE CHEAT - Cecil B. DeMille (1915)
TERJE VIGEN - Victor Sjostrom (1917)
J'ACCUSE! - Abel Gance (1919)
BLIND HUSBANDS - Erich von Stroheim (1919)
REGENERATION - Raoul Walsh (1916)
THE BLUE BIRD - Maurice Tourneur (1918)
L'INFERNO - Bertolini (1911)
INTOLERANCE - D.W. Griffith (1916)
BROKEN BLOSSOMS - D.W. Griffith (1919)
BUCKING BROADWAY - John Ford (1917)
CABIRIA - Pastrone (1914)



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Here are my Top-10 features for those years (as far as I can tell. I didn't separate shorts/features on my lists).


1919:

1. J'Accuse [I Accuse] (1919, Abel Gance) [**********]
2. When The Clouds Roll By (1919, Victor Fleming) [*********]
3. Broken Blossoms (1919, D.W. Griffith) [********]
4. Herr Arnes pengar [The Treasure of Arne] (1919, Mauritz Stiller) [********]
5. True Heart Susie (1919, D.W. Griffith) [********]
6. Daddy-Long-Legs (1919, Marshall Neilan) [*******]
7. The Dragon Painter (1919, William Worthington) [*******]
8. Male and Female (1919, Cecil B. DeMille) [*******]
9. The Wicked Darling (1919, Tod Browning) [*******]
10. Die Austernprinzessin [The Oyster Princess] (1919, Ernst Lubitsch) [*******]



1918:

1. The Whispering Chorus (1918, Cecil B. DeMille) [********]
2. Stella Maris (1918, Marshall Neilan) [********]
3. Berg-Ejvind och hans hustru [The Outlaw and His Wife] (1918, Victor Sjöström) [********]
4. Shoulder Arms (1918, Charlie Chaplin) [*******]
5. Hearts of the World (1918, D.W. Griffith) [*******]
6. Thomas Graals bästa barn [Thomas Graal's First Child] (1918, Mauritz Stiller) [*******]
7. Old Wives for New (1918, Cecil B. DeMille) [******]
8. Amarilly of Clothes-Line Alley (1918, Marshall Neilan) [******]
9. The Blue Bird (1918, Maurice Tourneur) [******]
10. Himmelskibet [A Trip to Mars] (1918, Holger-Madsen) [******]



1917:

1. Terje Vigen [A Man There Was] (1917, Victor Sjöström) [*********]
2. The Poor Little Rich Girl (1917, Maurice Tourneur) [********]
3. Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1917, Marshall Neilan) [*******]
4. A Romance of the Redwoods (1917, Cecil B. DeMille) [*******]
5. A Modern Musketeer (1917, Allan Dwan) [*******]
6. Das fidele Gefängnis [The Merry Jail] (1917, Ernst Lubitsch) [*******]
7. Tom Sawyer (1917, William Desmond Taylor) [*******]
8. The Little American (1917, Cecil B. DeMille) [******]
9. A Tale of Two Cities (1917, Frank Lloyd) [******]
10. Wild and Woolly (1917, John Emerson) [******]



1916:

1. Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages (1916, D.W. Griffith) [**********]
2. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1916, Stuart Paton) [*******]
3. Hell’s Hinges (1916, Charles Swickard) [*******]
4. Judex (1916-1917, Louis Feuillade) [*******]
5. The Matrimaniac (1916, Paul Powell) [*******]
6. Joan the Woman (1916, Cecil B. DeMille) [*******]
7. Gretchen the Greenhorn (1916, Chester M. Franklin & Sidney Franklin) [*******]
8. Il fuoco (la favilla - la vampa - la cenere) [The Fire] (1916, Giovanni Pastrone) [*******]
9. Verdens undergang [The End of the World] (1916, August Blom) [******]
10. Reggie Mixes In (1916, Christy Cabanne) [******]



1915:

1. The Birth of a Nation (1915, D.W. Griffith) [**********]
2. Les Vampires (1915, Louis Feuillade) [********]
3. Regeneration (1915, Raoul Walsh) [*******]
4. A Fool There Was (1915, Frank Powell) [*******]
5. The Cheat (1915, Cecil B. DeMille) [*******]
6. Alias Jimmy Valentine (1915, Maurice Tourneur) [*******]
7. Carmen (1915, Cecil B. DeMille) [******]
8. Posle smerti [After Death] (1915, Yevgeni Bauer) [******]
9. Filibus [Filibus the Mysterious Pirate of the Skies] (1915, Mario Roncoroni) [******]
10. The Italian (1915, Reginald Barker) [*****]



1914:

1. Cabiria (1914, Giovanni Pastrone) [*********]
2. Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914, Mack Sennett) [********]
3. Tess of the Storm Country (1914, Edwin S. Porter) [*******]
4. Cajus Julius Caesar (1914, Enrico Guazzoni) [*******]
5. Fantômas contre Fantômas (1914, Louis Feuillade) [*******]
6. Le faux magistrat (1914, Louis Feuillade) [*******]
7. Det hemmelighedsfulde X [The Mysterious X] (1914) [*******]
8. The Spoilers (1914, Colin Campbell) [*******]
9. The Squaw Man (1914, Cecil B. DeMille & Oscar Apfel) [*******]
10. The Patchwork Girl of Oz (1914, J. Farrell MacDonald) [******]



1913:

1. L'Enfant de Paris [The Child of Paris] (1913, Leonce Perret) [********]
2. Le mort qui tue (1913, Louis Feuillade) [********]
3. Spartaco [Spartacus] (1913, Giovanni Enrico Vidali) [*******]
4. Atlantis (1913, August Blom) [*******]
5. Le avventure straordinarissime di Saturnino Farandola [The Extraordinary Adventures of 6. Saturnino Farandola] (1913, Marcel Perez) [*******]
7. Der Student von Prag [The Student of Prague] (1913, Stellan Rye & Paul Wegener) [*******]
8. Fantômas - À l'ombre de la guillotine (1913, Louis Feuillade) [*******]
9. Ingeborg Holm (1913, Victor Sjöström) [******]
10. Gli ultimi giorni di Pompeii [The Last Days of Pompeii] (1913, Mario Caserini & Eleuterio Rodolfi) [******]



Before that the pickings are slim and these are the only features I've seen from the early part of the decade.


1912:

1. Le Mystere des roches de Kador [The Mystery of the Rocks of Kador] (1912, Leonce Perret) [********]
2. Den Flyvende Cirkus [The Flying Circus] (1912, Alfred Lind) [*******]
3. Quo Vadis? (1912, Enrico Guazzoni) [*******] *Some sources claim it as 1913.
4. Cleopatra (1912, Charles L. Gaskill) [*****]
5. Independenta Romaniei (1912, Aristide Demetriade) [****]
6. Madeleine (1912, Emil Albes) [****] *Not able to confirm if the print I saw was the complete one.
7. Parsifal (1912, Mario Caserini) [****]
8. Les amours de la reine Élisabeth [Queen Elizabeth] (1912, Henri Desfontaines & Louis Mercanton) [***]
9. From the Manger to the Cross (1912, Sidney Olcott) [**]



1911:

1. L'Inferno [Dante's Inferno] (1911, Francesco Bertolini & Adolfo Padovan & Giuseppe de Liguoro) [*******]
2. Den sorte drøm [The Black Dream] (1911, Urban Gad) [****]
3. Karadjordje (1911, Ilija Stanojevic-Cica) [**]
4. Oborona Sevastopolya [Defence of Sevastopol] (1911, Vasili Goncharov & Aleksandr Khanzhonkov) [*]



1910:

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Check out The Sentimental Bloke (1919). It's from Australia
and pretty funny.

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My #1 pick of that entire decade would be Griffiths True Heart Susie. It made Eric Rohmer's and Jacques Rivette's top 10 of all time list in 1962 as well. I'd recommend it but I wouldn't say it's for everyone. Also multiple of Griffith's other films are really good. I'd recommend Intolerance and Broken Blossoms but safe for one more short I haven't seen anything else from him.

Otherwise there's Victor Sjöström. Terje Vigen is fantastic (and on YouTube in good quality with an amazing score). The Outlaw and his wife is really good aswell. Ingeborg Holm is his most respected 1910's film I haven't seen (yet).

Another guy to look out for is Ernst Lubitsch. While most of his popularity rests upon his screwball comedies of the 30's and 40's, he already established himself as a major director in Germany really early and visually some of his early silent films are visionary for their time. I've seen Die Puppe and Die Austernprinzessin. Both are funny, well paced visual treats that don't shy away from some fantastic stories. Especially Die Puppe has amazing visual effects. Some of Lubitsch's other movies from that time interest me aswell.

Another big one which I recorded on TV some time ago (but haven't seen yet( is Gance's J'accuse.

I think you will have an increasingly hard time to find interesting feature films from before 1918 because of the war. Also feature films only just gained popularity in that time. The very first feature film is from 1905 as far as I'm concerned. The earliest I have seen is L'inferno from 1911. It's an adaptation of Dante's inferno done with remarkable special effects and a grand production. I'd very much recommend it, especially considering that such a grand and direct adaptation of Dante's Inferno has never been reattempted and probably never will be in that harsh fashion. Otherwise there are some early Scandinavian productions which look promising but I haven't personally seen them (expect the Sjöström films of course).

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