St. Gloede's complementary silent selection
The Top 300 Silent Era Films list has a great selection of silents, and I hope it will help many explore deeper into this great and largely forgotten era. However, the list as it stands is highhly Americanized while several countries such as Germany, Sweden, Japan and more were going incredibly strong. So to broaden the perspective here's a selection great non-American silents I hope will leave an impression on you as well. It's ranked in reverse chronological order.
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- DirectorYonggang WuStarsLingyu RuanTian JianZhizhi ZhangStreet walker by night, devoted mother by day, a woman fights to get her young son an education amid criminal and social injustice in China.
- DirectorYasujirô OzuStarsKinuyo TanakaJôji OkaSumiko MizukuboA gangster tries to find redemption with the inadvertent help of an innocent shop girl and his jealous girlfriend will do anything to keep him.
- DirectorYasujirô OzuStarsYoshiko OkadaUreo EgawaKinuyo TanakaRyoichi and Chikako are brother and sister. They live together. Chikako works during the day in an office and at night she prostitutes herself to fund her brother's studies at the university. Ryoichi doesn't know about his sister's secret life, but he is dating Harue whose brother is a policeman.
- DirectorMikio NaruseStarsYoshiko OkadaShin'yô NaraYukiko TsukubaAn actress returns to Tokyo after a successful stint in Hollywood to reclaim - with the help of her gangster brother - the daughter she abandoned years before.
- DirectorMikhail KalatozovStarsAleksandre JaliashviliSiko PalavandishviliAkaki KhoravaSympathetic portrayal of a soldier who inadvertently commits sabotage through his ineptitude on the battlefield.
- DirectorAleksandr SolovyovStarsAleksandr IstominMatvei LyarovRaisa Rami-ShorBandits descend on a Jewish village and threaten to destroy it if they're not given five beauties in wedding dresses.
- DirectorFlorián ReyStarsCarmen ViancePedro LarrañagaAmelia MuñozIn an impoverished Castilian village live Juan, his wife Acacia, their son and Juan's blind father. The harsh weather conditions force the peasants to emigrate to a better land. Acacia goes to the city instead. Time goes by and they will meet again.
- DirectorYasujirô OzuStarsMitsuko IchimuraTokihiko OkadaChishû RyûA desperate man with a sick daughter decides to commit a robbery in order to help her. He begins to feel remorse though, which makes him question his decision.
- DirectorJulien DuvivierStarsDita ParloGinette MaddieAndrée BrabantDenise, an orphaned girl, moves to Paris where she hopes to find work at her uncle's store. But the glamorous department store 'Aux Bonheur des Dames' across the street crunches all the little businesses around. She finds a position there.
- DirectorHumberto MauroStarsMaury BuenoErnani de PaulaPedro FantolIn the beginning of the Twentieth Century, in Belo Horizonte, the industrial Sampaio lives in a manor house with his stepdaughter Carmen, who has a sort of engagement with Roberto. Sampaio's daughter Neusa, of same age as Carmen, was sent to a metropolis to have a modern education and returns to Belo Horizonte. In the São João party in the country of Acaba-Mundo, promoted by the traditional Marta, Neusa has a one night stand with Roberto. Carmen witnesses their affair and decides to commit suicide. Meanwhile, Cristovão and his cousin Max decides to go to a cabaret in town instead of staying in the party,. They find Carmen and bring her to Marta's property, where she stays with the family and Tufy, Max's younger brother. Along this period, Cristovão falls in love for Carmen, and she has to decide between the love of the unfaithful Roberto and Cristovão.
- DirectorWilliam DieterleStarsWilliam DieterleTheodor LoosEugen BurgSecond of two German silents about the life of Bavarian king Ludwig II, a character who would much later also be the center of a film by Luchino Visconti.
- DirectorYasujirô OzuStarsMinoru TakadaHiroko KawasakiSatoko DateA small-time hood wants to go straight for a good girl but finds that starting over isn't as simple as it sounds.
- DirectorGrigoriy KozintsevLeonid TraubergStarsDavid GutmanYelena KuzminaAndrei KostrichkinIn the beginning of the industrial revolution, the Paris Commune was established in 1871 against the rich and the powerful, and violently repressed by the army that remained faithful to a tamer form of Republicanism. How could the love story between a young sales girl and a soldier unable to decide if he was pro or against the radical fashion? Two short months were needed for the answer to be found - in blood and tears, and under rain that washes all past memories. Any day, a New Babylon shop will open with frilly things for the bourgeois girls. The washerwomen will be there to wash them.
- DirectorJean GrémillonStarsPaul FrometGeymond VitalGenica AthanasiouTwo lighthouse keepers (the father and the son) are to spend one entire month in the middle of the sea near the coasts of Brittany; the young man is ill.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsWilly FritschGerda MaurusKlaus PohlA tenacious scientist blasts off for the moon in hopes of riches that may be found there.
- DirectorWilhelm ThieleStarsIgo SymMarietta MillnerLilian Harvey
- DirectorJean GourguetGeorges PécletStarsMona GoyaGeorges PécletMonsieur de VilletteHow a funny Sunday is spent in the area of Paris and its surroundings.
- DirectorMartin FricStarsKarel HaslerOscar MarionSuzanne MarwilleThe old organist unwittingly witnessed the suicide of an unknown man. Before his death, he handed him an envelope with money for his daughter Klara, who lived in the monastery. The organist did not report the case to the authorities, but hid the suicide's corpse in the cellar. Little did he know that he was being followed by his unscrupulous neighbor, a shoe shiner, who then blackmailed him with the threat of a murder charge.
- DirectorArnold FanckGeorg Wilhelm PabstStarsGustav DiesslLeni RiefenstahlErnst PetersenA man climbs a 12,000-foot mountain to search for his wife, who was lost on their honeymoon. Another couple makes the dangerous climb with him.
- DirectorAlberto CavalcantiHenry WulschlegerStarsPierre BlancharLien DeyersCharles BoyerCapt. Fracasse, a down-on-his-luck nobleman, gives shelter at his estate one night to a troupe of traveling actors. He falls in love with Isabelle, an actress with the group. The next day, as they prepare to leave, he decides to join them, seeing as how his future looks none too promising where he is, but mainly to be with Isabelle. Along the way, however, Isabelle is kidnapped by a villainous nobleman who wants her for himself. Capt. Fracasse must ride to the rescue of his beloved.
- DirectorHiroshi ShimizuStarsEmiko YagumoMinoru TakadaMichiko OikawaToshie, a young, conservative secretary-typist has fallen in love with Shozo Narita, a young man she has met through her work.
- DirectorMarco de GastyneStarsSimone GenevoisFernand MaillyGeorges PaulaisBiography of Joan of Arc from her departure from Domremy until her death in Rouen.
- DirectorMarcel L'HerbierStarsBetty BalfourJaque CatelainRoger KarlLudivine Bucaille stupidly wishes that Leherg and his son Delphin both die at sea. Amazingly, Leherg actually is lost at sea but his son somehow survives. His mother subsequently dies of sorrow. Remorseful, Ludivine gets her parents to take Delphin in their care. She makes sure the house is nice and tidy. Delphin and Ludivine grow to love each other and eventually get engaged. But father Bucaille, a drunk, wants Ludivine to marry Lauderin, the owner of a bar. Ludivine, in a moment of jealousy, thinking that Delphin has cheated on her, accepts. As Delpin plans on leaving the country the day after the engagement, Ludivine takes a boat to meet him. Lauderin sneaks into the boat and, as a storm hits it, he attempts to rape her. Delphin comes to the rescue. The two lovers can now unite.
- DirectorGermaine DulacStarsAlex AllinLucien BatailleGenica AthanasiouObsessed with a general's woman, a clergyman has strange visions of death and lust, struggling against his own eroticism.
- DirectorJoe MayStarsLars HansonDita ParloGustav FröhlichFollowing World War I, after a long imprisonment, two German prisoner-of-war soldiers escape from a Siberian lead-mine. Karl manages to reach Germany before Richard, and is sheltered by Anna, wife of Richard. While Richard is still on his homeward trek, Karl and Anna fall in love. And then Richard comes home.