Match-Cut's Official Silent Film Consensus

[B-side]

It's that time. This has been in the works for a while now. Nominate anywhere from 5 to 25 silent films. And by silent, I don't mean Koyaanisqatsi or the recent Cthulhu film. I mean films that were restricted by their time period. Modern Times will count as it's, like, almost entirely silent. If you wanna know if something else will count, just ask, but you should have the general idea. If you have some silents you wanna see before making a list, go ahead. This'll be open for over a week, probably even longer. I want everyone to participate, even if they feel they aren't experts on the era. Lord knows I'm not.

[soitgoes...]

Steering away form the more obvious choices to give the lesser seen some added support.

City Girl (Murnau)
Salt for Svanetia (Kalatozov)
Earth (Dovzhenko)
Big Business (Horne, McCarey)
Rain (Ivens)
The Circus (Chaplin)
The Crowd (Vidor)
Napoléon (Gance)
Ménilmontant (Kirsanoff)
Faust (Murnau)
The Big Parade (Vidor)
La roue (Gance)
The Goddess (Wu)
Our Hospitality (Keaton, Blystone)
The Idle Class (Chaplin)
The Phantom Carriage (Sjöström)
Intolerance (Griffith)
Les Vampires (Feulliade)
Every Night Dreams (Naruse)
The Docks of New York (Sternberg)
The Freshman (Newmeyer, Taylor)
Paris qui dort (Clair)
The Scarlet Letter (Sjöström)
The Iron Horse (Ford)
An Inn in Tokyo (Ozu)

[StanleyK]

Back Stage (Roscoe Arbuckle)
The Black Imp (Georges Méliès)
The Butcher Boy (Roscoe Arbuckle)
The Cameraman's Revenge (Wladyslaw Starewicz)
A Corner in Wheat (D.W. Griffith)
Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler (Fritz Lang)
The Frogs Who Wanted a King (Wladyslaw Starewicz)
The Golem (Carl Boese, Paul Wegener)
The Insects' Christmas (Wladyslaw Starewicz)
Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages (D.W. Griffith)
The Last Laugh (Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau)
Nosferatu (Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau)
One Week (Edward F. Cline, Buster Keaton)
Pandora's Box (Georg Wilhelm Pabst)
The Sealed Room (D.W. Griffith)
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau)
A Trip to the Moon (Georges Méliès)

[baby doll]

Feuillade! Feuillade! Feillade!

Fantômas (1913-14)
Les Vampires (1915)
Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages (1916)
Judex (1916)
Orphans of the Storm (1921)
Die Nibelungen (1924)
Sherlock, Jr. (1924)
Metropolis (1927)
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)
La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc (1928)
Spies (1928)
I Was Born, But... (1932)

Edit: Can't believe I didn't include Spies. Lang! Lang! Lang (and von Harbou)! Plus, I'll throw in I Was Born, But... to make it an even dozen.

[B-side]

I still don't know how I wanna run this. Guess I should've figured that out beforehand. I was thinking people vote for their top 5-25 and I count down a top 50 or so afterward. But I'm more than open to suggestions as well as help.

[Melville]

I still don't know how I wanna run this. Guess I should've figured that out beforehand. I was thinking people vote for their top 5-25 and I count down a top 50 or so afterward. But I'm more than open to suggestions as well as help.
Just look up how the earlier consensuses were done.

Winsor McCay, the Famous Cartoonist
The Dancing Pig
The Cameraman's Revenge
The Insects' Christmas
The Frogs Who Wanted a King
October
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Ballet mécanique
Entr'acte
Girl Shy
Greed
Battleship Potemkin
Strike
The Gold Rush
Emak-Bakia
Ménilmontant
Metropolis
Napoléon
The Unknown
The Passion of Joan of Arc
The Circus
The Man with a Movie Camera
Pandora's Box
Un chien andalou
City Lights

[Philosophe_rouge]

Pandora’s Box
Diary of a Lost Girl
City Lights
Modern Times
La Passion de Jeanne D'Arc
The Wind
The Circus
The Big Parade
Show People
Sunrise
Metropolis
The General
The Love of Jeanne Ney
The Unknown
Faust
Ménilmontant
Flesh and the Devil
The Last Laugh
Sherlock Jr
The Smiling Madame Beudet
Foolish Wives
Nosferatu
Haxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages
The Kid
Lucky Star

[Dead & Messed Up]

The ones I haven't seen anyone suggest:

The Cat and the Canary (Paul Leni, 1927)
The Lost World (Harry Hoyt, 1925)
The Man Who Laughs (Paul Leni, 1928)
Nanook of the North (Robert J. Flaherty, 1922)
The Phantom of the Opera (Rupert Julian, 1925)
Waxworks (Paul Leni, 1924)

[Raiders]

Les Vampires
One Week
Neighbors
The Goat
The Play House
Frogland / The Frogs Who Wanted a King
Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler
A Woman of Paris
Sherlock, Jr.
The Last Laugh
Girl Shy
Greed
The Big Parade
The Gold Rush
Ménilmontant
Faust
The Love of Jeanne Ney
Sunrise
The Fall of the House of Usher
The Crowd
The Passion of Joan of Arc
The Man With a Movie Camera
City Girl

[ledfloyd]

Metropolis
Sunrise
Nosferatu
City Lights
The Circus
Modern Times
The General
Sherlock Jr.
One Week (my favorite keaton)
The Passion of Joan of Arc
Hell's Hinges (more people should see this)
Un Chien Andalou
A Trip to the Moon

and that's honestly every silent i can think of that i've seen and liked. shameful i know.

[Qrazy]

Sherlock Jr.
Steamboat Bill Jr.
Sunrise
City Lights
Modern Times
Nosferatu
The Gold Rush
The Passion of Joan of Arc
Metropolis
Man with the Movie Camera
Earth
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Faust
Battleship Potemkin
Rain
Ballet Mecanique
Tabu
The General
The Kid
Safety Last
Un Chien Andalou
Seven Chances
A Trip to the Moon
The Immigrant

Does L'idee (1932) count as a silent?

You can watch it here... http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xevud_lidee-1932_shortfilms

[Russ]

So far, egregious omissions includes Harold Lloyd's two best (imo) For Heaven's Sake and (especially) The Kid Brother. Also deserving are The Life and Death of 9413, a Hollywood Extra, and (although not technically a silent, but I consider it one) L'Age D'or.

[monolith94]

Young Romance (1915)
Regeneration (1915)
Mystery of the Leaping Fish (1916)
The Bluebird (1918)
Victory (1919)
Way Down East (1920)
Our Hospitality (1913)
The Thief of Bagdad (1924)
Sherlock Jr. (1924)
Girl Shy (1924)
Strike (1925)
The Gold-Rush (1925)
Ben-Hur (1925)
Battleship Potemkin (1925)
By the Law (1926)
Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926)
Napoléon (1927)
Metropolis (1927)
The Love of Jeanne Ney (1927)
Speedy (1928)
The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
The Cameraman (1928)
The White Hell of Pitz-Palu (1929)
The Man With a Movie-Camera (1929)
Earth (1930)

runners-up:
The Circus (1928)
Dr. Jack (1922)
Cabiria (1914)
From Hand to Mouth (1919)
Neighbors (1920)
Diary of a Lost Girl (1929)
Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks (1924)
The General (1927)
The Gaucho (1927)
The Docks of New York (1928)

one of the biggest laughs of the era: the opening trolley ride in Hot Water (1924)

[monolith94]

I'd argue that the much-lauded chariot race of the 1950s Ben-Hur doesn't have anything on the stark, visceral, perfectly-edited beauty of the 1925 Ben-Hur.

[B-side]

Does L'idee (1932) count as a silent?

You can watch it here... http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xevud_lidee-1932_shortfilms

Is there any dialogue at all?

[Qrazy]

Is there any dialogue at all?

I don't remember. I don't think so. I think it's like City Lights with just music and sound effects.

[B-side]

I don't remember. I don't think so. I think it's like City Lights with just music and sound effects.

I'll let it slide.

[Pathétique]

Metropolis
The Crowd
The General
Modern Times
The Passion of Joan of Arc
The Freshman
Sherlock, Jr.
La Roue
Potemkin
Steamboat Bill, Jr.
Sunrise
Safety Last!
City Lights
My Best Girl
The Kid Brother
Speedy
Floating Weeds
The Kid
The Gold Rush
L'Etoile de mer
Girl Shy
Show People
Haxan
Why Worry?
For Heaven's Sake

[Spinal]

Tabu
Un chien andalou
The Passion of Joan of Arc
The Fall of the House of Usher (Epstein)
Metropolis
The General
Sunrise
Seven Chances
The Last Laugh
Nosferatu
The Goat
One Week
Neighbors

[Rowland]

No mention yet of Berlin: Symphony of a Great City, which is pretty much a masterpiece, and Cecil B. DeMille's The Cheat is a fantastic melodrama.

[Qrazy]

So is anyone going to watch L'idee?

[Kurosawa Fan]

The Passion of Joan of Arc
Seven Chances
Tabu
Faust
The Last Laugh
Sunrise
The Kid
The Gold Rush
The Circus
City Lights
Safety Last!
Battleship Potemkin
Nosferatu
Neighbors
Metropolis
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Our Hospitality
The Phantom of the Opera

[Mysterious Dude]

So is anyone going to watch L'idee?
I'm on the fence about including L'idée. It is one of my favorite animated movies, and it is technically silent, but I'm not sure it should really be considered silent-era silent, if that makes any sense. It strikes me as being more artistically silent, like La Maison en Petits Cubes (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=71846206387970 68600#), whereas a film like The General is silent because there's no other way to do it.

[Derek]

Earth (Alexander Dovzhenko)
Á Propos de Nice (Jean Vigo)
Pandora's Box (G. W. Pabst)
Man With the Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov)
Diary of a Lost Girl (G. W. Pabst)
H2O (Ralph Steiner)
Regen (Joris Ivens)
The Life and Death of 9413, a Hollywood Extra (Robert Florey & Slavko Vorkapich)
The Wind (Victor Sjostrom)
The Docks of New York (Josef von Sternberg)
Steamboat Bill, Jr. (Buster Keaton)
Speedy (Ted Wilde)
L'Étoile de mer (Man Ray)
La glace a trois faces (Jean Epstein)
The Girl With the Hatbox (Boris Barnet)
By the Law (Lev Kuleshov)
The Big Parade (King Vidor)
Entr'Acte (Rene Clair)
Ballet Mécanique (Fernand Leger & Dudley Murphy)
Girl Shy (Fred C. Newmeyer & Sam Taylor)
The Electric House (Edward F. Cline & Buster Keaton)
The Play House (Buster Keaton)
Convict 13 (Edward F. Cline & Buster Keaton)
The Parson's Widow (Carl Theodor Dreyer)

[Mysterious Dude]

All Quiet on the Western Front (Lewis Milestone)
Morocco (Josef von Sternberg)
:confused: These are definitely not silent.

[Qrazy]

I'm on the fence about including L'idée. It is one of my favorite animated movies, and it is technically silent, but I'm not sure it should really be considered silent-era silent, if that makes any sense. It strikes me as being more artistically silent, like La Maison en Petits Cubes (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=71846206387970 68600#), whereas a film like The General is silent because there's no other way to do it.

Right but if we're including City Lights as silent then it seems like it ought to be included.

[Mysterious Dude]

Right but if we're including City Lights as silent then it seems like it ought to be included.
Chaplin grandfathered into it. I'm not sure Berthold Bartosch earned the same exemption.

(I know that makes no sense.)

[Qrazy]

Chaplin grandfathered into it. I'm not sure Berthold Bartosch earned the same exemption.

(I know that makes no sense.)

Well I mean it was only released a year after City Lights and animated films do take a long time to put together. I don't really know when production began though.

[Derek]

:confused: These are definitely not silent.

Woops. I copied my lists of what I like from 1931 and before and forgot to remove those.

[Mysterious Dude]

Well I mean it was only released a year after City Lights and animated films do take a long time to put together. I don't really know when production began though.
The facts are on your side, I admit.

[monolith94]

Pssst, Derek, the rules were 5-25 silent films.

[Derek]

Pssst, Derek, the rules were 5-25 silent films.

Cut to 25. Although I have no idea how anything is being tabulated, so I went ahead and cut ones that I saw were already listed.

[B-side]

Cut to 25. Although I have no idea how anything is being tabulated, so I went ahead and cut ones that I saw were already listed.

I'm sorry, I just got a bit ahead of myself. Melville told me to look at past consensuses so I can know how to do this, but I'm not sure which ones he's talking about or what exactly.

[Derek]

I'm sorry, I just got a bit ahead of myself. Melville told me to look at past consensuses so I can know how to do this, but I'm not sure which ones he's talking about or what exactly.

Don't sweat it. I just wasn't sure if we should bother nominating films that others have mentioned or if multiple nominations could somehow benefit it. It's not a big deal as the ones I eliminated already have a decent amount of support.

[B-side]

Don't sweat it. I just wasn't sure if we should bother nominating films that others have mentioned or if multiple nominations could somehow benefit it. It's not a big deal as the ones I eliminated already have a decent amount of support.

I really should have had this all figured out ahead of time. I'll see what I can do and let you guys know.

[soitgoes...]

I really should have had this all figured out ahead of time. I'll see what I can do and let you guys know.
I believe that we generally nominate films that are then used as a sort of master list from which we all the vote from. Using all films voted or only those with 2 or more votes is your choice. You can use this as a template for the main voting, if you wish. (http://www.match-cut.org/showthread.php?t=273&highlight=french+films)

[B-side]

I believe that we generally nominate films that are then used as a sort of master list from which we all the vote from. Using all films voted or only those with 2 or more votes is your choice. You can use this as a template for the main voting, if you wish. (http://www.match-cut.org/showthread.php?t=273&highlight=french+films)

I'd go ahead and list all of the nominees for this. Then people would pick out of the whole list? Assign points to each pick? Like 5 films get 10 points, 4 get 9, and so on?

[soitgoes...]

I'd go ahead and list all of the nominees for this. Then people would pick out of the whole list? Assign points to each pick? Like 5 films get 10 points, 4 get 9, and so on?Yeah you list the master list from which everyone does a final vote on. People vote by grouping their films into 4 tiers. 1st tier films are the best, 2nd tier next best, 3rd and then 4th. No ranking within tiers. All tiers are given a certain point value decreasing as the tiers increase. How many films included in each tier is up to you.

Example

Tier 1
Gold Rush
The General
City Girl
etc.
etc.
etc.etc.

Tier 2
Safety Last!
The Last Laugh
etc.
etc.
etc.

Tier 3
Birth of a Nation
Blah
Blah
Blah...

Tier 4
Phantom of the Opera
Rain
H2O
etc.

All tier one films get 10 points, tier 2 gets 7 points, tier 3 gets 5 points and tier 4 gets 3 points. Count up the points for each film. The one with the most points is Match-Cut's favorite silent film, and so on, and so on...

[B-side]

Sounds good. Thanks for the help.

[soitgoes...]

Sounds good. Thanks for the help.NP :)

[Melville]

I'm sorry, I just got a bit ahead of myself. Melville told me to look at past consensuses so I can know how to do this, but I'm not sure which ones he's talking about or what exactly.
Oh, jeez, sorry, I forgot that all of those List Fu nomination- and voting-threads, except the French-films ones, occurred on the old, now-nonexistent site. Thanks to soitgoes for explaining how those threads worked. To help people decide what films to nominate, you should probably announce somewhere in this thread (i.e. in a new post and in the original post) whether your master list will consist of everything that gets nominated, or only those films that receive more than a certain number of nominations. If you want help tabulating the final votes, I can help with that.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Does Les Vampires count as one, or should I list each individual entry? I don't think I've seen 25 silent films.

[Rowland]

Does Les Vampires count as one, or should I list each individual entry? I don't think I've seen 25 silent films.They count as one.

I really want to see them myself, wish they were more easily available.

[B-side]

Oh, jeez, sorry, I forgot that all of those List Fu nomination- and voting-threads, except the French-films ones, occurred on the old, now-nonexistent site. Thanks to soitgoes for explaining how those threads worked. To help people decide what films to nominate, you should probably announce somewhere in this thread (i.e. in a new post and in the original post) whether your master list will consist of everything that gets nominated, or only those films that receive more than a certain number of nominations. If you want help tabulating the final votes, I can help with that.

Cool, thanks.

--------------

EVERYTHING NOMINATED WILL BE ON THE MASTER LIST

No need to exclude anything here.

[B-side]

Bump?

[Melville]

In light of the nomination system, I replaced The Mystery of the Leaping Fish, The Goat, The Play House, and Our Hospitality with October, The Dancing Pig (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2tP9s8y2Ic), The Cameraman's Revenge (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIC0Sb6pLvI), and The Insects' Christmas (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ed8Hbh5XK0). I *heart* Starewicz.

[Raiders]

:pritch:

[Mysterious Dude]

I'd like to submit nominations, but I'm not seeing any clearly defined rules on how to do so.

[B-side]

I'd like to submit nominations, but I'm not seeing any clearly defined rules on how to do so.

I'm going by soitgoes' template above. Nominate anywhere from 5-25 films. I'll let this go a bit longer, then I'll cook up the master list from which the voting will occur. All films nominated here will be on the master list, so feel free to nominate 25 films nobody's mentioned yet if you feel so inclined.