Your Top ten favorite silent films

A distinct lack of Lon Chaney films here! He was one of the greatest actors of the silent screen. I would include at least two of his movies in my list - "Phantom of the Opera" and "He Who Gets Slapped". Also of course "Pandoras Box", as Henri Langlois once said “There is no Garbo, there is no Dietrich, there is only Louise Brooks.”. What else, well Murnau's "Faust" and "Nosferatu", "Der Golem", "Battleship Potemkin", Abel Gance's astounding "Napoleon" (even in its truncated version), "The General" of course and last but not least Fritz Lang's "Testament of Dr Mabuse".

There are some truly wonderful films here but I couldn't whittle the list down to just 10. One I would like to add though would be Ftitz Lang's "M". Peter Lorre was brilliant and the movie itself is one that stays with the viewer for quite a while. Great topic.
I came to Casablanca for the waters.....

I'll do Top 15, because 10 just isn't enough!

1. The General
2. The Circus
3. The Patsy
4. Seven Chances
5. Safety Last
6. Speedy
7. Sherlock Jr
8. Girl Shy
9. Wings
10. Why Worry
11. Battling Butler
12. The Big Parade
13. Hot Water
14. The Crowd
15. Sunrise
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I know what gold does to men's souls.

in no particular order after the first:

city lights
metropolis
phantom of the opera
nosferatu
battleship potemkin
verdun, visions d'histoire (you're all forgiven for not listing it, it's very rare but quite excellent)



overrated:
the blue angel

[deleted]

In chronological order:

The Kid (1921) Charles Chaplin.
Destiny (1921) Fritz Lang.
Nanook of the North (1922) Robert Flaherty
The Last Laugh (1924) F.W. Murnau
Battleship Potemkin (1925) Sergei Eisenstein.
Faust (1926) F.W. Murnau
Metropolis (1927) Fritz Lang.
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927) F.W. Murnau.
The Man with a Movie Camera (1929) Dziga Vertov.
Finis Terrae (1929) Jean Epstein
- no one had listed this? I guess it's quite rare one, but quite excellent too.

Ten isn't enough! the list could go on and on.. I made it a little easier for me to only choose films from 1920's. Otherwise I should've listed more Chaplin, D.W. Griffith! Francesca Bertini and so on.

Where's The Circus, October, He Who Gets Slapped, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd? A lot of stuff missing. But that's a list of film, all of which are masterpieces at least. And F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu is a German expressionistic masterpiece! But I think Fritz Lang's Destiny is too often getting buried beneath it so I gave Destiny a place on the list.


And I don't think Sunrise is overrated at all, a film like that can never be rated over enough. It's an amazing, timeless masterpiece, which I feel like I could have a lecture about. There's so many things in it to talk about.

"I never said all actors are cattle; what I said was all actors should be treated like cattle"

I'm going to admit I have only seen about 2 dozen silents intact. Of them these are my ten favorite, though I certainly would be open to seeing more anytime.

Wings (1927) though a late entry is as exciting the first time as any action/war film since.
The General (1925/27) Funny by design, superbly fun to watch, filmed geniusly without being zany for zany sake.
King of Kings (1927) The color portion is as affecting 80+ years later as it must have been at the time.
Intolerance (1916) Weather an appology for "Birth" or not the narative sagas and large scale managed to keep the viewer connected to the personal.
Greed (1924- four our version) the lead in this film somehow gives a very modern performance. Like the best of many films the leads aren't entirely empathetic but still pull real emotions from the audience.
The Great Train Robbery (1903) the fact that so many bits in this film are used in westerns for the next 100 years says everything about the vision of Porter.
Fatty and Mabel Adrift (1916-short) makes it obvious why Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle was the leading man of the genre. Two of the best women of the day are in this as well giving fine performances. There's almost continuity here, too.
Nanook of the North (1922) Can I use a documentary? That this film was even made is amazing. It's haunting visuals last long after the screen goes dark. Few documentaries are ever this daring and true to the purpose of such films.
Phantom of the Opera (1925) Incredible visuals, suspenseful, involving but only romantic if you are a closet submissive. Nothing like it ever again, though many have tried.
City Lights (1931) if only one Chaplin is allowed this is the one.

Thanks for this thread!

SCJDM

1. The General
2. Nosferatu
3. The Hunchback of Notre Dame
4. Battleship Potemkin
5. Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ
6. Metropolis
7. City Lights
8. The Gold Rush
9. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
10. Pandora's Box