Alice in Wonderland – Free – The first-ever film version of Lewis Carroll’s tale. Based on Sir John Tenniel’s original illustrations. (1903)
Anémic Cinéma - Free – Marcel Duchamp’s avant-garde film combines whirling optical illusions, known as Rotoreliefs, with spiraling puns and complex word play. (1926)
Battleship Potemkin – Free
– Directed by the great Russian director, Sergei Eisenstein. One of the
most influential propaganda films of all time. Alternative version here. (1925)
Behind the Screen – Free
– A short film written and directed by Charlie Chaplin, the film is
long on slapstick, but it also gets into themes dealing with gender
bending and homosexuality. (1916)
Broken Blossoms – Free – Silent film directed by D.W. Griffith and starring Lillian Gish. (1919)
City Lights - Free
– The funny and moving tale of a tramp who falls in love with a blind
girl, City Lights is one of Charlie Chaplin’s greatest works. A silent
film released two years after the arrival of “talkies,” it was
nevertheless a huge popular and critical success. Orson Welles, Stanley
Kubrick and Andrei Tarkovsky all placed City Lights on their list of
the ten greatest films ever made. (1931)
Das Wandernde Bild – Free – A silent, black and white film directed by Fritz Lang released in 1920.
Downhill – Free
– In this silent Hitchcock film, a public schoolboy takes the blame for
a friend’s theft and his life falls apart in a series of misadventures.
Also released under the title, When Boys Leave Home. (1927)
Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde -Free – John Barrymore stars in the renowned silent adaptation of the Robert Louis Stevenson classic. (1920)
Easy Street - Free – Charlie Chaplin steps forward and keeps the peace. (1917)
Easy Virtue - Free – Early silent film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Loosely based on a play by Noël Coward. (1928)
Emak-Bakia – Free
– Features filming techniques used by Man Ray, including rayographs,
double exposures, soft focus and ambiguous features. (1926)
Faust -Free-
German expressionist filmmaker F.W. Murnau directs film version of
Goethe’s classic tale. This was Murnau’s last German movie. (1926)
Film - Free – The only film project by Samuel Beckett. It stars an older Buster Keaton, and happens to be silent, though shot in 1965.
Frankenstein -Free- The first time Mary Shelley’s literary was brought to the big screen. (1910)
Ghosts Before Breakfast(Vormittagsspuk) - Free
– Silent avant-garde film by Hans Richter. The nazis destroyed the
sound version of the film, deeming it “degenerate art.” (1928)
La Souriante Madame Beudet – Free – Early feminist film by Germaine Dulac. Features a woman trapped in a loveless marriage. (1922)
Harakiri – Free – Early silent film by Fritz Lang. (1919)
Intolerance – Free – D.W. Griffith’s most ambitious silent film is one of the landmarks in cinematic history. (1916)
Joyless Street – Free – Greta Garbo stars in her second major role. One of the first films of the “New Objectivity” movement. (1925)
Kid Auto Races at Venice – Free – It’s the first film in which Charlie Chaplin’s iconic “Little Tramp” character makes his appearance. (1914)
La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc – Free
– Directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer and starring Renée Jeanne Falconetti,
this film is considered a masterpiece from the silent era. (1928)
Le Retour à la Raison – Free – A film from the avant-garde Cinéma Pur movement shot by Man Ray in 1923.
Making a Living - Free – Premiering on February 2, 1914, Making a Living marks the first film appearance by Charlie Chaplin.
Menilmontant – Free
– When Pauline Kael, longtime New Yorker film critic, was asked to name
her favorite film, this was it. French silent film. (1925)
Metropolis – Free - Fritz Lang’s silent sci-fi classic. The shorter version. (1927)
Nosferatu – Free
– German Expressionist horror film directed by F. W. Murnau. An
unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Alternate version here. (1922)
October: Ten Days That Shook the World - Free – Originally called Oktyabr, Sergei Eisenstein’s film documents the Russian Revolution of 1917. A masterpiece by a pioneering filmmaker. (1928)
Old and New - Free
– Sergei Eisenstein’s has been called a “bucolic epic about the Soviet
struggle to collectivize agricultural production.” (1929)
Pandora’s Box – Free – G.W. Pabst’s tragic melodrama about the fate of a carefree seductress, memorably played by Louise Brooks. (1929)
Romance Sentimentale – Free – Directed by Sergei Eisenstein. (1930) Alternate version here.
Sherlock Jr. – Free – A comic masterpiece from the silent era. Stars Buster Keaton (1924)
Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon – Free – Sherlock Holmes rescues an inventor of an new bomb site before the Nazis can get him. (1943)
Shock – Free – Film noir classic starring Vincent Price. (1946)
The Adventurer -Free – Charlie Chaplin plays an escaped convict who falls into favor with a wealthy family after he saves a young lady. (1917)
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari – Free
– This silent film directed by Robert Wiene is considered one of the
most influential German Expressionist films and perhaps one of the
greatest horror movies of all time. (1920)
The Bell Boy – Free – Featuring Fatty Arbuckle and Buster Keaton. (1918)
The Cure – Free - Chaplin plays a drunk who checks into a health spa to dry out and comedy ensues. (1917)
The Great Train Robbery – Free – Early western film by Edwin S. Porter. A landmark in narrative filmmaking. (1903)
The Floorwalker - Free – Filmed for the Mutual Film Corporation, the film featured the first “running staircase” in cinema history. (1916)
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse – Free – Hugely popular silent film that made Rudolph Valentino a star. (1921)
The General – Free - Orson Welles said that Buster Keaton’s The General is “the greatest comedy ever made, the greatest Civil War film ever made, and perhaps the greatest film ever made. Alternate version here (1926)
The Gold Rush – Free – Charlie Chaplin wrote, produced, directed and starred in The Gold Rush. Chaplin repeatedly said that this is the film he most wanted to be remembered for. (1925)
The Birth of a Nation – Free – Directed by DW Griffith. A landmark work in film history (1915) with racist undertones. (1915) Also see his later movie, Abraham Lincoln, plus many other DW Griffith films here.
The Golem: How He Came Into the World – Free
– A follow-up to Paul Wegener’s earlier film, “The Golem,” about a
monstrous creature brought to life by a learned rabbi to protect the
Jews from persecution in medieval Prague. Based on the classic folk
tale, and co-directed by Carl Boese. (1920)
The Golem: How He Came Into the World - Free – The same film as the one listed immediately above, but this one has a score created by Pixies frontman Black Francis. (2008)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame – Free – With Lon Chaney. (1923)
The Immigrant – Free – Charlie Chaplin plays an immigrant coming to the United States who gets accused of theft along the way. (1917)
The Kid – Free – This was Charlie Chaplin’s first full-length film as a director, and it is still considered one of his best. (1921)
The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog – Free – One of Hitchcock’s silent classics. A landlady suspects her lodger is a murderer killing women around London. (1927)
The Last Laugh - Free
– F.W. Murnau’s classic chamber drama about a hotel doorman who falls
on hard times. A masterpiece of the silent era, the story is told almost
entirely in pictures. (1924)
The Manxman – Free – This was Hitchcock’s last silent film.
The Pawnshop – Free – Rich in slapstick, The Pawnshop was one of Chaplin’s more popular movies for Mutual Film, the producer of some of the greatest Chaplin comedies. (1916)
The Phantom of the Opera – Free – A classic silent film featuring Lon Chaney as the Phantom. (1925)
The Ring – Free – This silent film focuses on a love triangle between two men and a woman. One of Hitchcock’s minor works. (1927)
The Rink – Free – The Rink, Chaplin’s 8th film for Mutual Films, showcases the actor’s roller skating skills. (1916)
The Seashell and the Clergyman – Free – The first surrealist film ever. Directed by Germaine Dulac. (1928)
The Sheik – Free – Silent film with Rudolph Valentino. (1921)
The Wizard of Oz – Free – The earliest surviving film version of L. Frank Baum’s 1900 novel. (1910)
The Wizard of Oz – Free – The first major film adaptation of the classic novel. Features Oliver Hardy as the Tin Woodsmen.
Tillie’s Punctured Romance – Free – Among other things, the film is notable for being the last Chaplin film didn’t write or direct by himself. (1914)
Trip to the Moon / Le Voyage dans la lune – Free – French black & white silent sci-fi film loosely based on two novels: From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne and The First Men in the Moon by H. G. Wells. (1902)
Un Chien Andalou – Free – Salvador Dali and Louis Bunuel’s short, silent surrealist film. (1929)
