I already have plans to (eventually) get these films:

Faust (Murnau)
Die Nibelungen Saga (Lang)
Metropolis (Lang) (being released next year in a restored edition!)
Nosferatu (Murnau)
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Wiene)

Any suggestions/recommendations from the silent film-buffs?

Thanks,
SFT

NP: Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, Patrick Doyle ****/*****

Mark of Zorro with Douglas Fairbanks (1920) is the first screen appearance of the tale and one of the best. Although I have to admit I prefer the Tyrone Power/Basil Rathbone version from 1940.

I am rather new to silent films as well, but I am a big fan of this era of filmmaking and it's marvelous to see that so many have been popping up on video and dvd, several courtesy of the company KINO INTERNATIONAL. I would certainly recommend the films of F.W. Murnau for your inspection. I have read of his film "The Last Laugh" in which Murnau tells the entire story with his camera using only one title card during the film. It's a drama told in a wonderfully stylized fashion. Photos and clips I've seen reveal great expressionistic sets and lighting. I saw a couple of behind the scenes photos published in a book on art direction that revealed the sets to be built in a forced perspective for a strange dramatic effect. I haven't seen it in it's entirety yet, but it's one we both should check out. I have seen it out on DVD. Also of great interest is Murnau's telling of FAUST. There's a sequence in FANTASIA that owes much to the way Murnau visualized his Devil rising up over a town. I'll be getting FAUST for sure this Christmas (it's already come in the mail, along with Caligari, Orson Welles' Ghost Story, and the Brothers Quay black and white film...my parents put it away because they're Christmas presents). I've only seen some of FAUST, but it is excellent, and I can't wait to see it in it's entirety. There's also Murnau's 'Sunrise', which I actually don't know an entire lot about, except for that it's a masterpiece.

I just got a newsletter from KINO stating that the restoration of METROPOLIS is due out February 18th 2003. I can't wait to pick that up.

A fun silent film is WITCHCRAFT THROUGH THE AGES, made in 1922 in Sweden. It features excellent make-up (even better considering how long ago it was made) and even a stop-motion animated critter. Speaking of stop-motion, if you like that look, I suggest you look for Ladislaw Starevich's half hour silent film "The Mascot", which is a masterpiece of animation.

One last recommendation would be Charlie Chaplin's film "Modern Times", which is actually both a silent film and a talkie.

I'm fairly new to silents as well, but I have read a lot on it, and I look forward to seeing a lot more of these. Take care.

Best Regards,

I'm curious, Dylan, are you getting the Faust and Caligari versions scored by Timothy Brock? If so, please let me know what you think of them, once you've seen them. I've been wanting to get them, but I'm not sure if they are the best editions.

And yes, it is great to see a revived interest in silent films these days, with companies like Kino International and Image Entertainment releasing high quality DVDs.
I've done some reading on the genre as well, and if you haven't read it, I recommend Lotte Eisner's "The Haunted Screen", about german expressionism in the silent era.

Also, for those interested there is a wonderful site on silent films at www.silentera.com

Once again thanks!

SFT

Basically German Expressionism means Lang, Murnau, G. W. Pabst, E. W. Dupont, Joe May, and a few others.

All the silent Langs are good: I'd try and find Spies, Woman on the Moon, Spiders, and Destiny.

For Murnau the key film is Sunrise one of the best films ever made silent or otherwise. But I also like Faust, City Girl, Tabu, and Nosferatu.

Pabst means the 2 Louise Brooks films Pandora's Box and Diary of a Lost Girl but also the wonderful White Hell of Pitz Palu, The Joyless Street with Greta Garbo,and The Love of Jeanne Ney which stars Brigite Helm of Metropolis fame.

Other German films that fill out the list are Variety, The Indian Tomb, Homecoming, The Golem, and Waxworks. There are still others but I'm drawing a blank.

Following along similar lines you get Americans like Josef Von Sternberg and Erich Von Stroheim. So we're talking films like The Docks of New York, Underworld, The Last Command, Greed, The Wedding March, Queen Kelly, and The Merry Widow.

Ernst Lubitsch made both German and US silents. The German silents are hard to find and I'm unfamiliar with them. Lubitsch made one amazing silent film and that is The Marriage Circle, a real masterpiece.

You can't go wrong with Chaplin, Keaton, Harold Lloyd, or most D. W. Griffith films from the period. The 1925 version of Ben-Hur is pretty solid.

Don't overlook Raoul Walsh and King Vidor silents like The Crowd, Sadie Thompson, and What Price Glory? as these are great.

Elsewhere, I second Witchcraft Through the Ages though it is a strange film. Also Epstein's Fall of the House of Usher and a whole slew of experiemental silent weirdness with Un Chien Andalou at the very top.

Russian films from this period can be interesting if you don't mind getting hit with a lot of pro-Red propaganda: Mother, Earth, Storm Over Asia, Bed and Sofa, October, Chess Fever, Alieta Queen of Mars and others are worth the look.

Just bringing this back up to the top in order to ask you guys if you could comment on the 1924 American production of Peter Pan. It is available on what appears to be a very good DVD from Kino International
(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00001YXE2/ref%3Dnosim/silenerafilmsond/103-8724710-4491858)

Worth the cash? How does it compare to modern versions?

I just wanted to tell you that I strongly recommend the Kino DVD editions of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Faust. The score Brock wrote for Faust is wonderful, as is the film itself. Caligari, which I'd only seen clips of, was marvelous. The Kino edition features two musical selections...The Donald Sosin one is very fitting, as it features some wonderful carnival music (it also has some wonderful synth/orchestra themes...this score very nicely captures the mood of the film). The so-called 'contemporary' score track included doesn't fit the film at all IMO, but Sosin's is great. The print of Caligari on the Kino DVD is also currently the best out there, as it was recently restored from a 35mm print by a team in Germany. I've heard that the Image DVD and several earlier video incarnations had a big line running through the entire film...I didn't notice a line here and the picture is beautiful.

One question for silent film buffs: I immensely want to see F.W. Murnau's 'Sunrise', but I don't beleive it's ever been released on video and it's not on DVD (a shame that a film regarded as a classic by so many only surfaces in the 'public domain'...though Metropolis was like this for many years {can't wait for that DVD}). Anyway, does anybody know where I can find a copy of this classic? Thanks.

Best Regards,
Dylan