MC Decade Consensus - The Silent Era

[Spinal]

Submit your ten favorite eligible films from this decade and in a week I will give you a top twenty.

The point system is as follows

1st Place-10 points
2nd Place- 8 points
3rd Place- 7 points
4th Place- 6 points
5th Place- 5 points
6th Place - 4 points
7th Place - 3.5 points
8th Place - 3 points
9th Place - 2.5 points
10th Place - 2 points

As you can see, the scale is weighted to give your top film a little bonus and to make sure that the difference between a 6th place and a 10th place is not too drastic.

Ten eligible films must be listed. Please make any edits by making a new post and telling me what changes have been made.

PLEASE READ:
In order to be eligible for this vote, a film must have placed in the top 10 for the Yearly Consensus Poll for the year it was released. Honorable mention films are not eligible. Since you only have ten slots to fill, I want you to focus on films that have a realistic chance of making the final list, so that we may achieve the most accurate results possible. My goal is to increase the influence of your vote. Please feel free to post an additional list that reflects your "true" top films of the decade. However, only lists with ten eligible films will be counted towards the final poll.

In order to add some suspense to the final results, you may (if you choose) PM your ballot to me instead of posting it in the thread below. Either method of voting will be acceptable. (But please do not do both.) "Secret" ballots will be revealed after the final poll is posted.

You may begin now.

Eligible films
Battleship Potemkin (Eisenstein)
Big Business (Horne/McCarey)
Broken Blossoms (Griffith)
Faust (Murnau)
Girl Shy (Newmeyer/Taylor)
Greed (von Stroheim)
Intolerance (Griffith)
Les Vampires (Feuillade)
Metropolis (Lang)
Napoleon (Gance)
Neighbors (Cline/Keaton)
Nosferatu (Murnau)
One Week (Cline/Keaton)
Our Hospitality (Blystone/Keaton)
Pandora's Box (Pabst)
Safety Last! (Newmeyer/Taylor)
Seven Chances (Keaton)
Sherlock Jr. (Keaton)
Steamboat Bill, Jr. (Reisner)
Strike (Eisenstein)
Sunrise (Murnau)
The Birth of a Nation (Griffith)
The Blue Bird (Tourneur)
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Wiene)
The Cameraman (Sedgwick)
The Cameraman's Revenge (Starewicz)
The Circus (Chaplin)
The Crowd (Vidor)
The General (Bruckman/Keaton)
The Goat (Keaton/St. Clair)
The Gold Rush (Chaplin)
The Golden Beetle (de Chomón)
The Great Train Robbery (Porter)
The Kid (Chaplin)
The Kid Brother (Wilde/Howe)
The Last Laugh (Murnau)
The Lodger (Hitchcock)
The Love of Jeanne Ney (Pabst)
The Man who Laughs (Leni)
The Man with the Movie Camera (Vertov)
The Mystery of the Leaping Fish (Cabanne/Emerson)
The Passion of Joan of Arc (Dreyer)
The Phantom of the Opera (Julian)
The Thief of Bagdad (Walsh)
The Unknown (Browning)
Un chien andalou (Buñuel)
Voyage to the Moon (Méliès)

[Spinal]

1. Metropolis
2. Seven Chances
3. The General
4. Un Chien Andalou
5. The Last Laugh
6. Sunrise
7. The Passion of Joan of Arc
8. One Week
9. Nosferatu
10. The Goat

[Raiders]

1. Sherlock, Jr. (1924)
2. Sunrise (1927)
3. Pandora's Box (1929)
4. Girl Shy (1924)
5. The Goat (1921)
6. The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
7. The Crowd (1928)
8. The Last Laugh (1924)
9. Les Vampires (1914)
10. One Week (1920)

A damn, dirty shame: The Big Parade, Menilmontant, The Fall of the House of Usher, The Play House

[Boner M]

1. Sunrise (Murnau)
2. Our Hospitality (Blystone/Keaton)
3. Seven Chances (Keaton)
4. The Passion of Joan of Arc (Dreyer)
5. Girl Shy (Newmeyer/Taylor)
6. Broken Blossoms (Griffith)
7. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Wiene)
8. The General (Bruckman/Keaton)
9. The Man with the Movie Camera (Vertov)
10. Un chien andalou (Buñuel)

[Melville]

1. The Passion of Joan of Arc (Dreyer)
2. Napoleon (Gance)
3. The Circus (Chaplin)
4. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Wiene)
5. The Goat (Keaton/St. Clair)
6. Metropolis (Lang)
7. The Man with the Movie Camera (Vertov)
8. Girl Shy (Newmeyer/Taylor)
9. Battleship Potemkin (Eisenstein)
10. The Gold Rush (Chaplin)

Any of the last three could as well be replaced by Our Hospitality, The Unknown, or Un chien andalou. My true list would have Emak-Bakia (at number one), Winsor McCay the Famous Cartoonist, The Frogs Who Wanted a King, and The Play House.

[Eleven]

1. Sherlock Jr.
2. Les Vampires
3. Un chien andalou
4. The Passion of Joan of Arc
5. Sunrise
6. The Crowd
7. The Man with the Movie Camera
8. Metropolis
9. Broken Blossoms
10. Napoleon

Not Eligible: The Adventures of Prince Achmed, The Doll, Foolish Wives, The Freshman, The Musketeers of Pig Alley, Nanook of the North, Die Nibelungen, The Oyster Princess, True Heart Susie, The Wind.

[Ivan Drago]

1. The Passion of Joan of Arc
2. The Gold Rush
3. The Phantom of the Opera
4. Metropolis
5. Strike
6. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
7. Greed
8. The Kid
9. The Man with the Movie Camera
10. Nosferatu

[Mysterious Dude]

1. Napoleon
2. Metropolis
3. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
4. Sunrise
5. Broken Blossoms
6. The Kid
7. Voyage to the Moon
8. The General
9. Intolerance
10. The Kid Brother

[baby doll]

1. Les Vampires (Louis Feuillade, 1915)
2. Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927)
3. La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1928)
4. Sherlock, Jr. (Buster Keaton, 1924)
5. Greed (Erich von Stroheim, 1924)
6. Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages (D.W. Griffith, 1916)
7. The Man With the Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929)
8. Un chien andalou (Luis Buñuel, 1929)
9. The Crowd (King Vidor, 1928)
10. The Gold Rush (Charles Chaplin, 1925)

Ineligible:

Cabiria (Giovanni Pastrone, 1914)
Die Nibelungen (Fritz Lang, 1924)
The Docks of New York (Josef von Sternberg, 1928)
Fantômas (Louis Feuillade, 1913-14)
Judex (Louis Feuillade, 1916)
Michael (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1924)
The Navigator (Donald Crisp and Buster Keaton, 1924)
Orphans of the Storm (D.W. Griffith, 1921)
Spies (Fritz Lang, 1928)
A Woman of Paris (Charles Chaplin, 1923)

[Yxklyx]

1. Metropolis (Fritz Lang)
2. The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Theodor Dreyer)
3. Seven Chances (Buster Keaton)
4. Un Chien Andalou (Luis Buñuel)
5. Sunrise (F.W. Murnau)
6. The Love of Jeanne Ney (Georg Wilhelm Pabst)
7. Strike (Sergei M. Eisenstein)
8. Our Hospitality (John G. Blystone & Buster Keaton)
9. One Week (Edward F. Cline & Buster Keaton)
0. The General (Clyde Bruckman & Buster Keaton)

[Dead & Messed Up]

I'm going to watch Passion of Joan of Arc and get back to this tomorrow.

[Lazlo]

1. Metropolis
2. The General
3. Nosferatu
4. The Gold Rush
5. Voyage to the Moon
6. The Great Train Robbery
7. The Man With the Movie Camera
8. The Birth of a Nation
9. The Passion of Joan of Arc
10. Battleship Potemkin

[Pop Trash]

1. Sunrise
2. The Passion of Joan of Arc
3. Un Chien Andalou
4. Metropolis
5. The Man with the Movie Camera
6. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
7. Voyage to the Moon
8. The General
9. The Gold Rush
10. Battleship Potemkin

[soitgoes...]

The Passion of Joan of Arc (Dreyer)
The Man with the Movie Camera (Vertov)
Big Business (Horne/McCarey)
Sherlock Jr. (Keaton)
Sunrise (Murnau)
The General (Bruckman/Keaton)
Napoleon (Gance)
The Last Laugh (Murnau)
Neighbors (Cline/Keaton)
The Gold Rush (Chaplin)

[B-side]

1. The Passion of Joan of Arc (Dreyer)
2. The Man with the Movie Camera (Vertov)
3. Un chien andalou (Buñuel)
4. Metropolis (Lang)
5. Seven Chances (Keaton)
6. The Cameraman (Sedgwick)
7. Sherlock Jr. (Keaton)
8. The Circus (Chaplin)
9. The Kid (Chaplin)
10. Battleship Potemkin (Eisenstein)

I'm desperately behind on a lot of the more canonical silent films.

[soitgoes...]

I'm desperately behind on a lot of the more canonical silent films.I'm not sure how you feel about super long silent films, but Gance's Napoleon and La roue deserve a look, as well as the not quite as good J'accuse.

[B-side]

I'm not sure how you feel about super long silent films, but Gance's Napoleon and La roue deserve a look, as well as the not quite as good J'accuse.

I've never seen a super long silent film, but I'm not opposed to the idea in theory.

[Duncan]

1. The Passion of Joan of Arc (Dreyer)
2. Strike (Eisenstein)
3. Un chien andalou (Buñuel)
4. The Goat (Keaton/St. Clair)
5. The Circus (Chaplin)
6. Faust (Murnau)
7. Metropolis (Lang)
8. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Wiene)
9. The Love of Jeanne Ney (Pabst)
10. The Man with the Movie Camera (Vertov)

[soitgoes...]

An alternate (lighter on the Chaplin/Keaton/Lloyd) list:


The Patsy (Vidor)
A Cottage on Dartmoor (Asquith)
Ménilmontant (Kirsanoff)
Finis terrae (Epstein)
Rain (Ivens, Franken)
La roue (Gance)
Lonesome (Fejös)
A Page of Madness (Kinugasa)
The Big Parade (Vidor)
The Phantom Carriage (Sjöström)


I'd actually be totally happy if this were the list I had to submit, more so than with any other decade.

[B-side]

I could do a top 10 silents consisting of only experimental films. :D

[soitgoes...]

I could do a top 10 silents consisting of only experimental films. :DI think Jean Epstein and you would get along real well. Go over to KG and check out some screenshots of Finis terrae and Couer fidele and tell me I'm wrong.

[B-side]

I think Jean Epstein and you would get along real well. Go over to KG and check out some screenshots of Finis terrae and Couer fidele and tell me I'm wrong.

I've seen The Three-Sided Mirror and enjoyed it very much. Coincidentally, I have the other two on my hard drive already.:D I'm so predictable.

[StanleyK]

My true list would have Emak-Bakia (at number one), Winsor McCay the Famous Cartoonist, The Frogs Who Wanted a King, and The Play House.

Far out. All great movies (except for Little Nemo which for me was merely solid), and Emak-Bakia would also top my list, which I will post as soon as I rewatch The Passion of Joan of Arc.

[B-side]

Emak-Bakia would also be near the top of my list were it eligible.

[Yxklyx]

Emak-Bakia would also be near the top of my list were it eligible.

L' Étoile de mer would have been for me. Also, Asphalt.

[Grouchy]

1. Un chien andalou
2. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
3. Metropolis
4. Battleship Potemkin
5. Nosferatu
6. Faust
7. Haxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages
8. The Kid
9. The Birth of a Nation
10. Broken Blossoms

[StanleyK]

1. The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Theodor Dreyer)
2. Sherlock Jr. (Buster Keaton)
3. A Trip to the Moon (Georges Méliès)
4. Pandora's Box (Georg Wilhelm Pabst)
5. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau)
6. Nosferatu, a Symphony of Horror (Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau)
7. One Week (Edward F. Cline, Buster Keaton)
8. The Great Train Robbery (Edwin S. Porter)
9. The Battleship Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein)
10. Cops (Edward F. Cline, Buster Keaton)

Wish I could vote for: Back Stage (Roscoe Arbuckle), Bumping into Broadway (Hal Roach), Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler (Fritz Lang), The Eclipse: Courtship of the Sun and Moon (Georges Méliès), Emak-Bakia (Man Ray), The Insects' Christmas (Wladyslaw Starewicz), The Play House (Edward F. Cline, Buster Keaton)

Must watch again: The Last Laugh (Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau), The Gold Rush (Charlie Chaplin), The Man with the Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov), Metropolis (Fritz Lang)



I have a feeling that, this time, my #1 will match the results'.

[MadMan]

I don't watch enough silent cinema, so my list has too many from similar directors. So I will be using this thread to get some recs, which is why I often visit the Silent Cinema thread, too.

1. The Gold Rush
2. Sunrise
3. Metropolis
4. Nosferatu
5. The General
6. The Phantom of the Opera
7. Un chien andalou
8. The Kid
9. The Last Laugh
10. Broken Blossoms

[Spinal]

Again, apologies. Would someone else be able to complete this?

[dreamdead]

1. Sherlock Jr. (Keaton)
2. The Passion of Joan of Arc (Dreyer)
3. Sunrise (Murnau)
4. The Man with the Movie Camera (Vertov)
5. Pandora's Box (Pabst)
6. Metropolis (Lang)
7. Nosferatu (Murnau)
8. Strike (Eisenstein)
9. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Wiene)
10. Our Hospitality (Blystone/Keaton)

[baby doll]

Again, apologies. Would someone else be able to complete this?I'll do it if you're okay with massive voter fraud (the top three will all be films by Louis Feuillade).

[Raiders]

Again, apologies. Would someone else be able to complete this?

I got it. I'll tabulate tonight.

[Ezee E]

1. The Passion of Joan of Arc
2. Voyage to the Moon
3. Nosferatu
4. Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
5. Intolerance
6. Metropolis
7. Sherlock Jr.
8. The General
9. Nosferatu
10. Un Chien Andalou

[Kurosawa Fan]

1. The Passion of Joan of Arc
2. Seven Chances
3. The Circus
4. Sunrise
5. Sherlock Jr.
6. The Last Laugh
7. Metropolis
8. Safety Last!
9. The Gold Rush
10. Un chien andalou

[Dead & Messed Up]

I promise I'll post my mine tonight by midnight (Pacific Time). I promise.

I promise.

[Dead & Messed Up]

Screw it. No way I'm getting through two movies tonight. I'll be lucky if I don't pass out in the next hour.

01. Sunrise (Murnau)
02. Sherlock Jr. (Keaton)
03. Nosferatu (Murnau)
04. The Man Who Laughs (Leni)
05. Metropolis (Lang)
06. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Wiene)
07. Un Chien Andalou (Buñuel)
08. The General (Bruckman/Keaton)
09. Strike (Eisenstein)
10. The Man With the Movie Camera (Vertov)

[Raiders]

Results will go up tomorrow.

[Raiders]

1. The Passion of Joan of Arc
2. Voyage to the Moon
3. Nosferatu
4. Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
5. Intolerance
6. Metropolis
7. Sherlock Jr.
8. The General
9. Nosferatu
10. Un Chien Andalou

E, you got the vampire movie on there twice.

[Ezee E]

E, you got the vampire movie on there twice.

Whoops.

Sunrise should be at #3.

[monolith94]

wait wait wait wait wait

[monolith94]

1. The Thief of Bagdad (Walsh)
2. The Passion of Joan of Arc (Dreyer)
3. Napoleon (Gance)
4. The Love of Jeanne Ney (Pabst)
5. Battleship Potemkin (Eisenstein)
6. Metropolis (Lang)
7. Girl Shy (Newmeyer/Taylor)
8. The Cameraman (Sedgwick)
9. The Man with the Movie Camera (Vertov)
10. The Blue Bird (Tourneur)

Would've included more Russian films had better Russian films been eligible.

[Raiders]

wait wait wait wait wait

Yeah, I haven't been any better of a choice. Got swamped the last two days. Promise this goes up tomorrow morning.

[Raiders]

http://i54.tinypic.com/9uazat.jpg

Directed by Sergei Eisenstein
1925

Wikipedia says: Eisenstein's experiment was a mixed success; he "was disappointed when Potemkin failed to attract masses of viewers", but the film was also released in a number of international venues, where audiences responded more positively. In both the Soviet Union and overseas, the film shocked audiences, but not so much for its political statements as for its use of violence, which was considered graphic by the standards of the time. The film's potential to influence political thought through emotional response was noted by Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, who called Potemkin "a marvelous film without equal in the cinema ... anyone who had no firm political conviction could become a Bolshevik after seeing the film," The film was not banned in Nazi Germany, although Himmler issued a directive prohibiting SS members from attending screenings, as he deemed the movie inappropriate for the troops.

Match-Cut says: "I give Battleship Potemkin an 8. Though, this hardly reflects the energy and sheer power of the images... it's very difficult not to get swept up emotionaly in the plight of the characters. The Odessa Step sequence is incredible, editing is used not only to heighten emotional response, but physically to slow down and extend time. It's incredible. I should see more of his films... then again, I love propaganda."
- Philosophe_rouge

[Raiders]

http://i56.tinypic.com/acaqna.jpg

Directed by F.W. Murnau
1924

Wikipedia says: [After the ending Murnau wanted] ...
Following this comes the film's only title card, which says: "Here the story should really end, for, in real life, the forlorn old man would have little to look forward to but death. The author took pity on him and has provided a quite improbable epilogue."

At the end, the doorman inherits a fortune and is able to dine happily at the same hotel he used to work for.

Murnau noted that the story was absurd on the grounds that "everyone knows that a washroom attendant makes more than a doorman."

Match-Cut says: " If Murnau’s avoidance of sub-titles shows a faith in cinema’s visually expressive qualities, the ending suggests a belief in its regenerative powers, both in the feelings it conveys to the audience and the power of the auteur to bend the characters and their fictional world to their own liking. Whether it is real, a dream or a fantasy is beside the point – it recreates its own reality simply because it can and although it doesn’t quite work, the very fact that Murnau even attempted it makes it something less than a fatal flaw in otherwise nearly perfect film."
-Derek

[Raiders]

http://i55.tinypic.com/s5z3h1.jpg

Directed by G.W. Pabst
1929

Wikipedia says: On December 2, 1929, The New York Times called it "a disconnected melodrama", with "a seldom interesting" narrative. The reviewer found Brooks "attractive", but her expressions "often difficult to decide", and concluded it was "filmed far better than the story (deserved)". The film was re-discovered in the 1950s by critics, who acclaimed it greatly.Modern critics now praise the film as one of the classics of Weimar Germany's cinema...

Match-Cut says: "Despite being wildly melodramatic and stuffy in the beginning, Pandora's Box was a gem and the mix of Animal Collective and Brian Eno songs I watched it to was hypnotic (think of Brian Eno's Ambient 4: At Land with the Jack the Ripper scenes.....mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm mmmmmm...tasty)"
-Kurious Jorge v3.1

[Raiders]

http://i52.tinypic.com/2vnigbn.jpg

Directed by Buster Keaton
1921

Anecdote: "Fact: Buster Keaton invented Parkour.

In 1910 Buster Keaton was just a lonely lad growing up in Paris. He contemplated Montaigne and drank wine while imagining the moon was close enough to reach with a particularly impressive leap from the Eiffel Tower. He longed to reach the top of the tower, but couldn’t afford the elevator ride up. Stairs not being invented yet, he decided he would have to climb. But how? He conspired with his friend L’Autre to steal a lemur from the Zoo de Paris. This plan was executed, but I’m not telling you how they did it. (Hint: think floral pattern drapes and other random objects that are lying about the room as I write this.) After six years of watching the lemur climb trees Keaton decided it was time to try his great leap for the moon. He walked along La Seine until he came to the park below the tower (the Seine leads to the Eiffel Tower, right? Been a while since I was in Paris). Keaton mounted fountains only to jump off them with style, the style of the lemur. He later incorporated meerkats into his style as well. It involves a lot of standing and looking and killing snakes. He reached the base of the Eiffel Tower and, with the deadpan face that would come to define him, he Parkoured his way to the top, only to fall when he made his jump for the moon. Luckily a local news van had arrived by this time to cover the event. An American producer saw the post-fall interview:

Reporter (not named Sally): Wasn’t it kind of stupid to jump for the moon?
Keaton: Yeah, Sally. I guess it was."
(courtesy of Duncan)

[Raiders]

http://i53.tinypic.com/2iuujgm.jpg

Directed by Louis Feuillade
1915

Wikipedia says: n November 1915, the walls of Paris were plastered with street posters that depicted three masked faces with a question mark as a noose, and the questions "who, what, when, where?". The morning newspapers printed the following poem:

Of the moonless nights they are kings,
darkness is their kingdom.
Carrying death and sowing terror
the dark Vampires fly,
with great suede wings,
ready not only to do evil... but to do even worse.


Match-Cut says: "Also Les Vampires, at 400 minutes, is pretty great. The fact that it is a serial, thus conveniently broken down into 10 parts, makes it very watchable."
-soitgoes

[Raiders]

http://i55.tinypic.com/2ikp84l.jpg

Directed by Sergei Eisenstein
1925

Wikipedia: It was Eisenstein's first full-length feature film, and he would go on to make The Battleship Potemkin later that year. It was acted by the Proletcult Theatre, and composed of six parts. It was in turn, intended to be one part of a seven-part series, entitled Towards Dictatorship (of the proletariat), that was left unfinished. Eisenstein's influential essay, Montage of Attractions was written between Strike's production and premiere.

Match-Cut says: "Up until the last ten minutes or so, I was ready to argue that Strike! was better than Potemkin. But then Eisenstein goes for the jugular and it doesn't quite work, as the intercutting between the cattle and the slaughter of the workers doesn't quite come off as clarifying the worker's struggle. It adequately displays the way that the company dictators perceive the workers, but there's no artistry, no grace, in the comparison. And there were several scenes here that had a shock of awe in their composition that it's unfortunate the film ends there at that muddled comparison."
-dreamdead

[Raiders]

http://i56.tinypic.com/auju9x.jpg

Directed by Charles Chaplin
1928

Wikipedia says: The production of the film was the most difficult experience in Chaplin's career. Numerous problems and delays occurred, including a studio fire, the death of Chaplin's mother, as well as Chaplin's bitter divorce from his second wife Lita Grey, and the Internal Revenue Service's claims of Chaplin's owed back taxes, all of which culminated in filming being stalled for eight months. The Circus was the seventh highest grossing silent film in cinema history taking in more than $3.8 million dollars in 1928.

Match-Cut says: "As expected The Circus offers a lot of good universal sight gags, although I found most of my favorites to be overloaded during the beginning of the film, such as the bit where the tramp is eating the baby's food or when he disguises himself as an animatronic robot after getting lost in the hall of mirrors.

The final trapeze act with the monkeys is pretty solid too, and I always enjoy bittersweet endings. Despite their simplicity, Chaplin's films are always a joy for me and this was another truly entertaining one, but perhaps not as poignant as some of his other more mature films that incorporate more of a social commentary."
-origami_mustache

[Raiders]

http://i54.tinypic.com/11kdxfb.jpg

Directed by Abel Gance
1927

Wikipedia says: At 9:00PM MT, Friday, Aug 31, 1979 Napoleon was shown to a crowd of hundreds at the Telluride Film Festival (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telluride_Film_Festival), in Telluride, CO. The film was presented in full Polyvision at the specially constructed Abel Gance Open Air Cinema, which is still in use today. Gance was in attendance and watched from the window of the New Sheridan Hotel. Kevin Brownlow was also in attendance and presented M. Gance with his Silver Medallion. His 1980 reconstruction was re-edited and released in the United States by American Zoetrope (through Universal Pictures) with a score by Carmine Coppola performed live at the screenings. The restoration premiered in the United States at Radio City Music Hall in New York City on January 23-25, 1981. Gance could not attend because of his health. At the end of the January 24 screening, a telephone was brought onstage and the audience was told that Gance was listening on the other end and wished to know what they had thought of his film. The audience erupted in an ovation of applause and cheers that lasted several minutes. The acclaim surrounding the film's revival brought Gance much-belated recognition as a master director before his death only 11 months later, in November 1981.

Match-Cut says: "The library I work at has a VHS of Napoleon. The bureaucrats in charge have decided to get rid of all the VHS tapes (even though they play better than most of the DVD's). Anyway, I'm trying to figure out how to steal it."
-Isaac

[Mysterious Dude]

I totally stole that video. :D

[Raiders]

http://i56.tinypic.com/331kuwj.jpg

Directed by Georges Melies
1902

Wikipedia says: When originally screened, the film featured a final scene depicting a celebratory parade in honor of the travelers' return. Until recently, this scene was considered lost, and did not appear on any commercially available editions. However, a complete cut of the film was discovered in a French barn in 2002. Not only is it the most complete cut of the movie, but it is also entirely hand-colored. It was restored and premiered in 2003 at the Pordenone Silent Film Festival. The complete film is now available on the extensive new box set.

Match-Cut says: "One of the very first sci-fi films, in which a venture to the unknown and mysterious stands in for the discovery and advances of film. A group of scientists find a way to go to the moon, and Méliès finds a way to illustrate this with groundbreaking special effects; the people in this film are very excited and awed with what they discover, and this represents what people at the time must have felt when they were watching the newest art form. A Trip to the Moon is a milestone for cinema, and one of my favorites."
-StanleyK

[Raiders]

http://i56.tinypic.com/wi0pw0.jpg

Directed by Charles Chaplin
1925

Wikipedia says: Chaplin attempted to film many of the scenes on location near Truckee, California, in early 1924. He abandoned most of this footage (which included him being chased through the snow by Big Jim, instead of just around the hut as in the final cut), retaining only the film's opening scene. The final film was shot on the backlot and stages at Chaplin's Hollywood studio, where elaborate Klondike sets were constructed.

Discussing the making of the film in the documentary series Unknown Chaplin, Hale revealed that she had idolized Chaplin since childhood and that the final scene of the original version, in which the two kiss, reflected the state of their relationship by that time (Chaplin's marriage to Lita Grey having collapsed during production of the film). Hale discusses her relationship with Chaplin in her memoir Charlie Chaplin: Intimate Close-Ups.

The Gold Rush was a huge success in the US and worldwide. It is the fifth highest grossing silent film in cinema history, taking in more than $4,250,001 at the box office in 1926. It is in fact the highest grossing silent comedy film. Chaplin proclaimed at the time of its release that this was the film for which he wanted to be remembered.

Match-Cut says: "Those well versed in cinematic history know of the classic "Eating the shoe" scene, or the famous "Oceanic Roll" moment. But to me the film's best comedic parts come when the house is hanging on the edge of a cliff, with its occupants unaware of their predicament; the Tramp accidently catching his suspenders on someone else, walking away, and pratfalling. These moments help lay the groundwork for the movie's more bittersweet and sad parts, most notably The Tramp's desperate and endless attempts to win over who he perceives to be the girl of his dreams, which is something so easily identifiable with most people. In a way, The Tramp is simply a template for future comedic characters, most notably the usual sad sack loser trying to win some pretty lady's heart and actually excel at something in life"
-MadMan

[baby doll]

I'm glad that Les Vampires made the top twenty, especially since I was fairly sure I was the only one who even voted for it.

But The Last Laugh is slow as hell. I prefer Faust of Murnau's German films.

[Derek]

But The Last Laugh is slow as hell. I prefer Faust of Murnau's German films.

Wrong.

I really have no excuse for seeing zero Fieullade's though. Need to fix that ASAP.

[StanleyK]

Match-Cut says: "Up until the last ten minutes or so, I was ready to argue that Strike! was better than Potemkin. But then Eisenstein goes for the jugular and it doesn't quite work, as the intercutting between the cattle and the slaughter of the workers doesn't quite come off as clarifying the worker's struggle. It adequately displays the way that the company dictators perceive the workers, but there's no artistry, no grace, in the comparison. And there were several scenes here that had a shock of awe in their composition that it's unfortunate the film ends there at that muddled comparison."

I agree with dreamdead there; the movie is very solid when it doesn't take the sledgehammer approach, which it makes it all the more frustrating that it does. Surprised to see it place higher than The Battleship Potemkin. I'm also surprised, but pleasantly so, at Pandora's Box making the list and A Trip to the Moon being this high.

[soitgoes...]

The silent era is so difficult for me to vote on. There's four distinct periods within it. You have the first actualities, little minute long snippets of life; then we see the beginning of fictionalized short films; followed by the birth of feature length cinema; and last, silent cinema fully realized. I can't seem to vote for anything prior to the last period, because the weight of films from the earlier periods are mostly historical. Some of the teen films are able to almost compete (Feulliade, Griffith and the Swedes), but still they are painfully limited by the cinematic techniques that would be learned over the next 5-10 years. Is A Trip to the Moon really better than Eisenstein's, Chaplin's or Murnau's films? Its importance to cinema might be greater, but I don't see how that makes it a better film.

[Russ]

The silent era is so difficult for me to vote on. There's four distinct periods within it. You have the first actualities, little minute long snippets of life; then we see the beginning of fictionalized short films; followed by the birth of feature length cinema; and last, silent cinema fully realized. I can't seem to vote for anything prior to the last period, because the weight of films from the earlier periods are mostly historical. Some of the teen films are able to almost compete (Feulliade, Griffith and the Swedes), but still they are painfully limited by the cinematic techniques that would be learned over the next 5-10 years. Is A Trip to the Moon really better than Eisenstein's, Chaplin's or Murnau's films? Its importance to cinema might be greater, but I don't see how that makes it a better film.

Yeah...exactly. Pretty much why I sat out this round. Would've been better to have a 20's decade and a pre-20's one (mind you, I'm not complaining as I'm very appreciative of the work that various folks have put into this project).

[StanleyK]

Is A Trip to the Moon really better than Eisenstein's, Chaplin's or Murnau's films? Its importance to cinema might be greater, but I don't see how that makes it a better film.

For me, A Trip to the Moon film is as entertaining and fascinating as the best of Murnau or Keaton (I haven't seen a lot of Méliès, but most of it is also pretty great), and not just because of its importance. It stands on its own as a great film.

[soitgoes...]

For me, A Trip to the Moon film is as entertaining and fascinating as the best of Murnau or Keaton (I haven't seen a lot of Méliès, but most of it is also pretty great), and not just because of its importance. It stands on its own as a great film.Entertaining and fascinating are personal things to you that I can't argue. I just think if Méliès' film were released in 1925 it would be deemed a throwaway film. Maybe its sci-fi angle would rescue it from obscurity, since science fiction films didn't really establish a foothold until later, but from a technical standpoint it would be like comparing a student film to the great films of that time.

As I said it is an important film to the history of cinema, but that doesn't cover up its obvious shortcomings when placed next to a fully conceptualized cinema. If there were an early pre-1910 consensus then I would have no problem voting for it.

[baby doll]

As I said it is an important film to the history of cinema, but that doesn't cover up its obvious shortcomings when placed next to a fully conceptualized cinema. If there were an early pre-1910 consensus then I would have no problem voting for it.I can understand saying that pre-1910 cinema is a little crude, but Feuillade's grasp of tableaux staging is so sophisticated that he has no need for post-1917 continuity editing.

[StanleyK]

As I said it is an important film to the history of cinema, but that doesn't cover up its obvious shortcomings when placed next to a fully conceptualized cinema. If there were an early pre-1910 consensus then I would have no problem voting for it.

What shortcomings? Special effects, the static camera? Those are concessions you have to make keeping in mind the time of the film's release. You also have to make concessions for films from 1925; they're all in black-and-white and have no sound. 100 years from now they'll have to make concessions for films made today.

[Raiders]

http://i53.tinypic.com/10mmn12.jpg

Directed by Buster Keaton
1925

Wikipedia says: When released, Mordaunt Hall, the film critic for The New York Times, gave the film a mixed review, and wrote, "After viewing Buster Keaton's latest comedy, Seven Chances, one is justified in assuming; that there is a slump in the fun market...it took the combined efforts of three experienced gag men to turn the stage effort into screen material. The result inclines one's belief in the old adage concerning too many cooks, as although there are quite a number of good twists some of them have been produced in haste. The ideas did not have time to ripen and are therefore put before the audience in a rather sour state."

Match-Cut says: "Seven Chances had a problematic first half, but once the chase began, it was consistently, enthrallingly ingenious."
-Rowland

[Raiders]

http://i54.tinypic.com/ruxldt.jpg

Directed by Buster Keaton and Clyde Bruckman
1926

Wikipedia says:
Keaton performed many dangerous physical stunts on and around the moving train, including jumping from the engine to a tender to a boxcar, sitting on the cow-catcher of the slow moving train while holding a railroad tie, and running along the roof. One of the most dangerous stunts occurred when Buster sat on one of the coupling rods, which connect the drivers of the locomotive. In the film, the train starts gently and gradually picks up speed as it enters a shed.


The climax of the film includes a spectacular moment where a bridge (sabotaged by Johnnie) collapses as a railroad train crosses it. Keaton filmed the collapse in the conifer forest around the town of Cottage Grove, Oregon using 500 extras from the Oregon National Guard. They all dressed up in Union uniforms and were filmed going left-to-right before changing into Confederate uniforms and being filmed going right-to-left.


The production company left the wreckage in the river bed after the scene was filmed. The wrecked locomotive became a minor tourist attraction for nearly twenty years. The metal of the train was salvaged for scrap during World War II.


Match-Cut says: "This won't go over well, but I was kinda underwhelmed by The General. Probably my least favorite Keaton so far. It's fun, and it goes by quickly, but the romance was hard to get into and the humor was a bit lacking. That's not even to get into the fact that she was vapid and unworthy of Keaton's attention. Less train scenes, more humor and pathos please."
-Brightside

[Raiders]

http://i53.tinypic.com/aky4cj.jpg

Directed by F.W. Murnau
1922

Wikipedia says: For cost reasons, cameraman Fritz Arno Wagner only had one camera available, and therefore there was only one original negative. The director followed Galeen's screenplay carefully, following handwritten instructions on camera positioning, lighting, and related matters. Nevertheless Murnau completely rewrote 12 pages of the script, as Galeen's text was missing from the director's working script. This concerned the last scene of the film, in which Ellen sacrifices herself and the vampire dies in the first rays of the Sun. Murnau prepared carefully; there were sketches that were to correspond exactly to each filmed scene, and he used a metronome to control the pace of the acting.

Match-Cut says: "The Murnau film, as many vintage horror films, is interesting as a historical piece, and less as a source of thrills and chills."
-Chac Mool

[soitgoes...]

What shortcomings? Special effects, the static camera?
Any camera technique past holding a static long shot. Editing. An extremely simplistic story. Again, I'm not crying foul. I understand what it meant for its time, but to say that it is comparable to what was being made 20-25 years later is weird to me.


Those are concessions you have to make keeping in mind the time of the film's release. You also have to make concessions for films from 1925; they're all in black-and-white and have no sound. 100 years from now they'll have to make concessions for films made today.Except we aren't making comparisons for all films, just those in the silent era. A 1925 film holds up just fine with its contemporaries. Let me put it this way, if Battleship Potemkin or The Big Parade were made in 1902, it would make every other film made the same year, the same decade even, look laughable. What occurs now or 100 years from now has no bearing on a silent film consensus.

[soitgoes...]

I can understand saying that pre-1910 cinema is a little crude, but Feuillade's grasp of tableaux staging is so sophisticated that he has no need for post-1917 continuity editing.
I gave Feuillade a slight reprieve from my only 1920's films may apply caveat above. Les Vampires would fall just outside of my Top 10, as would Griffith's Intolerance.

[StanleyK]

Any camera technique past holding a static long shot. Editing. An extremely simplistic story. Again, I'm not crying foul. I understand what it meant for its time, but to say that it is comparable to what was being made 20-25 years later is weird to me.

You might as well say that a movie from the 50's isn't comparable to a modern one because it's in B&W and has crappy visual effects. Lots of people actually think that. For me, the important thing is that A Trip to the Moon uses the resources available to it in the best manner possible.


Except we aren't making comparisons for all films, just those in the silent era. A 1925 film holds up just fine with its contemporaries. Let me put it this way, if Battleship Potemkin or The Big Parade were made in 1902, it would make every other film made the same year, the same decade even, look laughable. What occurs now or 100 years from now has no bearing on a silent film consensus.

That makes no sense. If Avatar was released in 1925, I'm sure it would have blown minds, and not because it's a good movie. A movie like it couldn't have been made in 1925, just like The Battleship Potemkin couldn't have been made in 1902. Like I said, concessions have to be made for older films, not in terms of quality but resources available.

[B-side]

llwGKJYDezo

I love this one. Brimming with wide-eyed enthusiasm for the possibilities of the medium. The colors and sets are terrific.

[soitgoes...]

You might as well say that a movie from the 50's isn't comparable to a modern one because it's in B&W and has crappy visual effects. Lots of people actually think that. For me, the important thing is that A Trip to the Moon uses the resources available to it in the best manner possible.I'm not comparing a 50's film to a modern one.


That makes no sense. If Avatar was released in 1925, I'm sure it would have blown minds, and not because it's a good movie. A movie like it couldn't have been made in 1925, just like The Battleship Potemkin couldn't have been made in 1902. Like I said, concessions have to be made for older films, not in terms of quality but resources available.Again, for the third time, I'm arguing that A Trip to the Moon doesn't compare to films made in the 20's. Why am I arguing this? This thread is a Silent Era Consensus. The point is to compare A Trip to the Moon to other films from the silent era. Avatar has no bearing on this because it isn't silent film. Battleship Potemkin does because it is a silent film. I am asked to compare it with films from 1902, and every other film from every other year before 1930.

[StanleyK]

Again, for the third time, I'm arguing that A Trip to the Moon doesn't compare to films made in the 20's. Why am I arguing this? This thread is a Silent Era Consensus. The point is to compare A Trip to the Moon to other films from the silent era. Avatar has no bearing on this because it isn't silent film. Battleship Potemkin does because it is a silent film. I am asked to compare it with films from 1902, and every other film from every other year before 1930.

And what I'm arguing is that any movie from any era is comparable to any movie from any era. Separating pre-1920's movies from 1920's movies makes as much sense as, say, separating 1970's movies with 1980's movies. Obviously there are going to be differences because of technological limitations, but the quality of the film, which is what counts, is a separate issue. I can say with conviction that A Trip to the Moon is a much, much better movie than Avatar, or The General if you insist on the silent comparison.



And speaking of The General:


This won't go over well, but I was kinda underwhelmed by The General. Probably my least favorite Keaton so far. It's fun, and it goes by quickly, but the romance was hard to get into and the humor was a bit lacking. That's not even to get into the fact that she was vapid and unworthy of Keaton's attention. Less train scenes, more humor and pathos please.

I agree completely.

[B-side]

I agree completely.

Sweet.

I can kinda see both of your points on this issue, so I'm not particularly inclined to jump in.

[Raiders]

http://i52.tinypic.com/2ec191z.jpg

Directed by Robert Weine
1920

Wikipedia says: Pommer put Caligari in the hands of designer Hermann Warm and painters Walter Reimann and Walter Röhrig, whom he had met as a soldier painting sets for a German military theater. When Pommer began to have second thoughts about how the film should be designed, they had to convince him that it made sense to paint lights and shadows directly on set walls and floors and background canvases, and to place flat sets behind the actors.

Pommer first approached Fritz Lang to direct this film, but he was committed to work on Die Spinnen (The Spiders), so Pommer gave directorial duties to Robert Weine. Wiene filmed a test scene to prove Warm, Reimann, and Röhrig's theories, and it was so impressive that Pommer gave his artists free rein. Janowitz, Mayer, and Wiene would later use the same artistic methods on another production, Genuine, which was less successful commercially and critically.

The producers, who wanted a less macabre ending, imposed upon the director the idea that everything turns out to be Francis' delusion. In so doing they produced the first cinematographic representation of altered mental states, similar to sensory distortions produced by recreational drugs. The original story made it clear that Caligari and Cesare were real and were responsible for a number of deaths.

Match-Cut says: "However, after having seen The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, I always feel slightly let down by the later German Expressionist films. Wiene’s film so violently embraces its Expressionist themes that everything following it seems tamed by comparison. From its beginning, the film breaks down the distinction between the physical world and the world of the protagonist: as he begins to narrate his story, we see images of the story intercut with his visceral reaction to them, as if he is experiencing the story as he tells it. And the story we see is an utterly singular one. With exaggerated makeup and wild gesticulations, the villain of the story, the titular doctor, appears as a grand grotesque around which the story swirls. The set design consists of obviously painted backdrops and fabricated buildings’ facades jutting forth into the frame at wild angles, with (painted-on) tilted windows and doors at odds even with those angles, creating a cramped, cacophonous space in which the villain roams. The set design’s mad geometries disrupt our everyday Cartesian space, conveying a sense of pervasive, nightmarish uncertainty. The effect is akin to Poe’s Tell-Tale Heart, in which the narrator’s madness renders his descriptions uncertain and bizarre. But the medium of film allows for a slightly different effect: by depicting “real” people (or at least nearly-exact visual representations of people) moving through the mad geometries and gesticulations, it insists that this is not a distorted image of the world. It is precisely the real world—the world as the protagonist experiences it."
-Melville

[Raiders]

http://i53.tinypic.com/29opxms.jpg

Directed by Dziga Vertov
1929

Wikipedia says: Working within a Marxist ideology, Vertov strove to create a futuristic city that would serve as a commentary on existing ideals in the Soviet world. This artificial city’s purpose was to awaken the Soviet citizen through truth and to ultimately bring about understanding and action. The kino’s aesthetic shined through in his portrayal of electrification, industrialization, and the achievements of workers through hard labour. This could also be viewed as early modernism in film.

Some have mistakenly stated that many visual ideas, such as the quick editing, the close-ups of machinery, the store window displays, even the shots of a typewriter keyboard are borrowed from Walter Ruttmann's Berlin: Symphony of a Great City, which predates Man with a Movie Camera by two years, but as Vertov wrote to the German press in 1929, these techniques and images had been developed and employed by him in his Kino-Pravda newsreels and documentaries for the last ten years, all of which predate Berlin: Symphony of a Great City. Vertov's pioneering cinematic concepts actually inspired other abstract films by filmmakers like Walter Ruttmann.

Match-Cut says: "I watched The Man With the Movie Camera. It's certainly innovative and striking, sporting 80-minutes of virtuoso montage and well thought-out subtext and self-reflexivity, but... um, thanks movie, but no thanks...

... but it's an experimental silent film, sort of a documentary, sort of just an avant-garde visual tour-de-force, loaded with subtext about Soviet society and industry and movie-making. It's 80-minutes long. I found it disappointingly uninspiring and it tried my patience."
- Bosco B Thug (obviously distancing himself from his Red days)

[Raiders]

http://i53.tinypic.com/34rakis.jpg

Directed by Luis Bunuel
1929

Wikipedia says: The idea for the film actually began when Buñuel was working as an assistant director for Jean Epstein in France. Buñuel told DalÃ* at a restaurant one day about a dream in which a cloud sliced the moon in half "like a razor blade slicing through an eye". DalÃ* responded that he'd dreamed about a hand crawling with ants. They were fascinated by what the psyche could create, and decided to write a script based on the concept of suppressed human emotions. But by the time the film went into production, Buñuel and DalÃ* had had a falling out and DalÃ* actually had nothing to do with the actual making of Un Chien Andalou. The only image of DalÃ*'s that remained was the hand crawling with ants.

For many years (and still), published and unpublished reports have circulated that Buñuel had used a dead pig’s eye, or that of a dead sheep, or of a dead donkey, or other animal, in the notorious eyeball-slicing scene. However, in an interview in 1975 or ’76, Buñuel claimed that he had used a dead calf’s eye. Through the use of intense lighting, Buñuel attempted to make the furred face of the animal appear as human skin.


Both of the leading actors of the film eventually committed suicide: Batcheff overdosed on Veronal on April 13, 1932 in a hotel in Paris, and Mareuil committed self-immolation on October 24, 1954 by dousing herself in gasoline and burning herself to death in a public square in Perigueux, Dordogne.


Match-Cut says: "There is no breeze
The cloud is drawn
By a razor’s edge

Ants leave your hand
Before peasants riot
Angels turn geometric
After a woman is struck

Can you play
The meat piano?
I know every
Sinewy chord
The ventricle’s off key
And I cannot find
The ephemeral artery

That butterfly
Has stolen her skull
Doesn’t make her
Less human
It makes him
More insect

Beaches are for
Too young lovers
Springtime is best
To plant the dead

A nude woman
Exists to him
Andalusian dogs
Exist to film"
-Duncan

[Raiders]

http://i54.tinypic.com/ao9hc.jpg

Directed by Buster Keaton
1924

Wikipedia says: Keaton spent more time shooting this film than most of his others, due to the elaborate stunts and effects.

Keaton was also injured while filming one of the stunts in which he hangs from a tube connected to a water tower used for replenishing the steam locomotive's water supply. The water poured out and knocked him on to the track, severely fracturing his neck. It wasn't until the 1930s that a doctor discovered the healed break during a routine examination. At that point, Buster recalled having agonizing headaches for a few days following the accident.

Special effects
Into the film: Keaton "walked" into the movie via the power of suggestion. The scene shifted back and forth several times from the projectionist's booth to the movie that was being shown. But for the last shift, instead of showing the movie, the camera this time showed a stage with live actors, designed to replicate the look of the movie. Therefore, Buster actually climbed onstage, but created the illusion of joining the movie.

Revealing the trick: During the scene following his "entry" into the movie he's projecting, the scenery around him changes abruptly several times. It wasn't until the 1940s that Keaton revealed that he and his cameraman had used surveyor's instruments to position him, and the camera, at exactly the correct distances and positions to provide the illusion of continuity.

Match-Cut says: "Profound expression of cinema, deft use of the artform to critique itself, displays a genuine love of filmmaking"
-Raiders

"Sherlock Jr. was a blast. In addition to another adorable romance, and the typical Keaton shenanigans, we get a bit of a dive into the fantastical and a film that speaks of the transcendent abilities of the medium."
-Brightside

[Raiders]

http://i51.tinypic.com/n6p16d.jpg

Directed by F.W. Murnau
1927

Wikipedia says:
The resulting film features enormous stylized sets that create an exaggerated, fairy-tale-like world; the City street set alone reportedly cost over US$200,000 to build and was re-used in many subsequent Fox productions including John Ford's Four Sons (1928). Murnau manages to use a subtle technique of animal and plant imagery as an important tool to indicate the mood or tone in a particular scene and accent the deconstruction of generic dichotomies.
Titles are used sparingly in the film. Previously, in Germany, Murnau had made a film called The Last Laugh which told its story with only one title card (to explain the ending). In Sunrise, there are long sequences without titles, and the bulk of the story is told through images in a similar style. Murnau makes extensive use of forced perspective throughout the film. Of special note is a shot of the City where you see normal-sized people and sets in the foreground and little people in the background along with much smaller sets.
The film is also notable for its groundbreaking cinematography (by Charles Rosher and Karl Struss), and features some particularly impressive tracking shots that influenced later filmmakers.

Match-Cut says: "F.W. Murnau’s Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927) is simplicity anchored by virtuosic artistry. Taking a standard of silent cinema, the country Man who must choose between a moral country Wife and a Woman from the city who cares more for modern licentiousness than for any moral imperative, Murnau transforms this traditional narrative through a reliance on precise, expressionistic images and immaculate mise en scene. Moments of comedy, such as the pig that escapes (as Raiders pointed out at the old site), are ingrained with philosophical parallelism and moments of horror that embody the themes of loss and regret that are so paramount to this work."
-dreamdead

[Raiders]

http://i56.tinypic.com/ffbtpk.jpg

Directed by Fritz Lang
1927

Wikipedia says: Metropolis was cut substantially after its German premiere, and much footage was lost over the passage of successive decades. There have been several efforts to restore it, as well as discoveries of previously lost footage. A 2001 reconstruction of Metropolis, shown at the Berlin Film Festival, was inscribed on UNESCO'S Memory of the World Register in that same year. In 2008, a copy of the film 30 minutes longer than any other known surviving copy was located in Argentina. After a long period of restoration in Germany, the restored film was shown publicly for the first time simultaneously at Berlin and Frankfurt on February 12, 2010. The event of the Friedrichstadtpalast was shown live on a screen at the Brendenburg Gate as well as on TV on ARTE. This version was also shown in New York at the Ziegfeld Theater in the last two weeks of October 2010.

The Maschinenmensch, the robot character played by Brigitte Helm, was created by Walter Schulze-Mittendorff. A chance discovery of a sample of "plastic wood" (a pliable substance designed as wood-filler) allowed him to sculpt the costume like a suit of armour over a plaster cast of the actress. Spraypainted a mix of silver and bronze, it helped create some of the most memorable moments on film. Helm suffered greatly during the filming of these scenes wearing this rigid and uncomfortable costume, which cut and bruised her, but Fritz Land insisted she play the part, even if nobody would know it was her.

Match-Cut says: "For me, my admiration for the film has always been from the art deco standpoint, even more so than Lang's direction or the story. It was beautifully futuristic, and seen in a silent movie context, it was visionary."
-number8

[Raiders]

http://i51.tinypic.com/2f0etms.jpg

Directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer
1928

Wikipedia says:
What especially stood out at the time when Passion was made was the film's camera-work and emphasis on the actors' facial features. Dreyer shot a great deal of the film in close-up and did not allow his actors to wear makeup, the better to tell the story through their expressions—this choice was made possible through use of the recently developed panchromatic film, which recorded skin tones in a naturalistic manner. Dreyer also shot the film "from the first to the last scene ... in the right order."

This was Falconetti's second and last film role. According to film critic Roger Ebert:

For Falconetti, the performance was an ordeal. Legends from the set tell of Dreyer forcing her to kneel painfully on stone and then wipe all expression from her face--so that the viewer would read suppressed or inner pain. He filmed the same shots again and again, hoping that in the editing room he could find exactly the right nuance in her facial expression

Match-Cut says: "The trials are seen reflected off Maria Falconetti's pale makeup-less face as she stares endlessly into the camera with (real) tears running down her face. Calling it the greatest performance ever is an understatement. It's a testimony to pure acting torture as Maria strips down to a raw, naked portrayal of Joan witnessing the end of her days counting slowly down. She controls every frame with just her face. Her gentle smirks and fearless eyes transcends the performance into a intense stare-down between the audience and Joan."
-Watashi

[Raiders]

Easy-to-rate:

1. The Passion of Joan of Arc
2. Metropolis
3. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
4. Sherlock Jr.
5. Un chien andalou
6. The Man With the Movie Camera
7. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
8. Nosferatu
9. The General
10. Seven Chances
11. The Gold Rush
12. A Trip to the Moon
13. Napoleon
14. The Circus
15. Strike
16. Les Vampires
17. The Goat
18. Pandora's Box
19. The Last Laugh
20. The Battleship Potemkin

[StanleyK]

1. The Passion of Joan of Arc - ****
2. Metropolis - N2R
3. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans - ****
4. Sherlock Jr. - ****
5. Un Chien Andalou - ***
6. The Man With the Movie Camera - N2R
8. Nosferatu - ****
9. The General - **½
10. Seven Chances - ****
11. The Gold Rush - N2R
12. A Trip to the Moon - ****
14. The Circus - N2R
15. Strike - ***½
17. The Goat - ***½
18. Pandora's Box - ****
19. The Last Laugh - N2R
20. The Battleship Potemkin - ****

[megladon8]

The lack of The Phantom of the Opera, City Lights and The Man Who Laughs really disturbs me.

But otherwise, a pretty accurate portrayal of the "best of the best" of one of my favorite cinematic periods.

[Russ]

I would heartily recommend Lloyd's masterpiece, The Kid Brother, as an equal to Keaton's Sherlock, Jr and Chaplin's The Gold Rush, and (for the purposes of this list) certainly over The Goat (w/apologies to Keaton).

[Mysterious Dude]

The list is a little too Keaton-heavy. I've never understood the love for Seven Chances; it seems very slight to me.

[Raiders]

1. The Passion of Joan of Arc [10.0]
2. Metropolis [8.0]
3. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans [10.0]
4. Sherlock Jr. [10.0]
5. Un chien andalou [7.5]
6. The Man With the Movie Camera [9.0]
7. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari [7.0]
8. Nosferatu [8.5]
9. The General [9.0]
10. Seven Chances [8.0]
11. The Gold Rush [9.5]
12. A Trip to the Moon [7.5]
13. Napoleon [N/A]
14. The Circus [8.0]
15. Strike [N/A]
16. Les Vampires [9.5]
17. The Goat [9.5]
18. Pandora's Box [10.0]
19. The Last Laugh [9.0]
20. The Battleship Potemkin [7.5]

[Raiders]

City Lights

Check the 30s list.

Also, with regards to Lloyd, only Girl Shy has been beyond very good to me, but all with the exception of Why Worry? have been very worthwhile.

[soitgoes...]

And what I'm arguing is that any movie from any era is comparable to any movie from any era. Separating pre-1920's movies from 1920's movies makes as much sense as, say, separating 1970's movies with 1980's movies. Obviously there are going to be differences because of technological limitations, but the quality of the film, which is what counts, is a separate issue. I can say with conviction that A Trip to the Moon is a much, much better movie than Avatar, or The General if you insist on the silent comparison.
Still comparing early films is more difficult than films from the 70's and 80's or even 50's to now. So much was learned in the first 30 years making films across that period that is vastly different than any other 30 year period. Since the 30's, film technique has remained relatively the same. Digital cameras and computers changed things somewhat, but not nearly as much as the discovery of camera movement, camera placement, mise en scène, complex storytelling, plot development, character growth, editing techniques past simple cuts (intercutting, film transitions, differing shot types, etc.), intertitles giving way to dialogue in sound films, lighting techniques and on and on. All of this was established by the 1920's, and has remained relatively unchanged since. All of that wasn't found in 1902.

My first line of my first post on the matter stated my concerns with voting within the parameters of this thread, emphasis on my. The first line of my second post stated that I can't argue your inclusion of A Trip to the Moon because it entertained you. I have since stated why, multiple times, I can't vote for the film. I'm not really sure what else there is to say on the matter.

[Bosco B Thug]

I found it disappointingly uninspiring
- Bosco B Thug (obviously distancing himself from his Red days) BOREsheviks, is what they were.

I was a bit harsh on MWaMC. I admire it, but that's all it elicits from me.

1. The Passion of Joan of Arc - N2R
2. Metropolis - N2R
3. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans - n/a
4. Sherlock Jr. - 8.5
5. Un chien andalou - 7
6. The Man With the Movie Camera - 6
7. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari - 6.5 (yeah, wasn't too into it...)
8. Nosferatu - 8.5
9. The General - N2R
10. Seven Chances - n/a
11. The Gold Rush - N2R
12. A Trip to the Moon - N2R, I guess, but ~6; don't think of it as "Just a 6?" think of it as "6 degrees of liking." (Didn't really like it though...)
13. Napoleon - n/a
14. The Circus - n/a
15. Strike - n/a
16. Les Vampires - n/a
17. The Goat - n/a
18. Pandora's Box - n/a
19. The Last Laugh - n/a
20. The Battleship Potemkin - 7