Sunrise and Passion of Joan of Arc are most often named the best silent films ever. What other silent films do you think could claim the crown?
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Is hard to choose only one; it's almost impossible, I may add. It depends on my mood that day.
I'll say Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin is the BEST silent film EVER.
Besides Eisenstein's masterpiece I'll name 3 more:
The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (Fritz Lang), City Lights (Chaplin), Un chien andalou (Buñuel). Un chien andalou is perhaps the only TRUE surrealist movie ever shot. Wonderful and puzzling at the same time.
I do not agree with you on The Testament of Dr. Mabuse. I thought it was just average. And as for Un chien andalou. I think the first half is amazing but it kind of looses it after that, IMO.
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I have not seen many silents, but I think Sunrise is at best a mediocre film.
My favorite silents sofar are:
1. Broken Blossoms or the Yellow Man and the Girl (1919)
2. Orphans of the Storm (1921)
3. City Lights (1931)
4. The General (1926)
5. Metropolis (1927)
6. Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages (1916)
7. Greed (1924)
8. The Big Parade (1925)
9. La passion de Jeanne d'Arc (1928)
...
and The Kid (1921), The Gold Rush (1925), Modern Times (1936) and Way Down East (1920).
Within Our Gates (1920) is not a very good movie, a bad plot with many unnecessary characters. It consists of two poor stories which are loosely tied together to form a complete movie.
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My movie ratings: http://www.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=22350856
I just revisited Sunrise and it still gets a 10 from me.
I haven't seen it lately, but the American silent film that had the biggest impact on me is The Crowd http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0018806/. The film is less romantic and sentimental than Sunrise but is also is a very powerful indictment of urbanization. James Murray gives a masterful performance as the luckless hero and the cinematography is pretty amazing.
It is shocking and a great pity that this movies is still not out on DVD to my knowledge. The VHS tape seems to have gone out of print as well. There are new and used copies available from private sellers on Amazon.
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City Lights.
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My favourite silent film is Fritz Lang's Der Mude Tod, but Sunrise, Metropolis, and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari are all pretty close.
shareThere's still a ton I need to see, especially Passion of Joan of Arc. The best I've seen is a toss-up between The Crowd and Sherlock Jr.
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Firstly, the Battleship Potemkin is much more often named the best silent ever than those two. Secondly, the best silent is, without a doubt, Dr. Mabuse.
black and white movies were better