The best silent films in history: from Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton to “Stan and Bran”

In 2023, silent films no longer seem relevant to audiences. However, any cinema lover will be able to appreciate them at their true value and understand what the “poet meant”.

Silent films were the beginning-the beginning, and without them, obviously, there would be no Avatar 1 or 2 today… nor Teambuilding or… (even worse) Romina, VTM.

Sadly, cinema nowadays seems to be in somewhat of a decline, quality-wise, but of course, again, it depends a lot on who you ask.

While today, state-of-the-art technology is used for special effects that-are-more-than-good, in the alpha stage of filmmaking, the efforts were almost superhuman. Filmmakers were “going out of their way” to make up for the lack of technology we now take for granted.

Imagine a small movie theater, a silver screen, an orchestra providing atmosphere from under the stage, and an audience enthralled by the magical images that unfolded on the screen: it was all magic.

In order to pay homage to the beginnings, but also to the efforts of people who did their best to entertain you more than a century ago, I thought it wouldn’t hurt to introduce you to some of the silent films that made history, as well as a number of details that, for one reason or another, you might have missed.

The silent film era ended for good with the release of the first “talking” film, 1928’s The Jazz Singer. In the spirit of fairness, the demise of silent films wasn’t marked until a year later, in 1929.

However, in 2011, the silent film The Artist won an Academy Award, much to everyone’s amazement.

The first silent film: The Roundhay Garden Scene

The Roundhay Garden Scene is the name by which a 2.11-second sequence considered to be virtually the earliest film in cinema history is known. The marvel was made in 1888 by French inventor Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince and runs at 12 frames per second. Basically, you get about 25-26 frames in total.

Granted, we may not exactly be talking about a full-fledged film, but it’s certainly an essential part of cinema history.

Georges Méliès was indeed a visionary. It is said that the circus film-maker used to make his own film sets and that throughout his career he would use various inventive tricks to “draw” stories in his silent films.

The best example of this is 1902’s Le Voyage dans le Lune, the making of which is even mentioned in Hugo (2011), with Méliès himself (played by Ben Kingsley) as one of the main characters.

The most beloved actors of the silent era

In terms of actors who became famous in the silent era, worthy of mention are, without fail, Greta Garbo, who starred in The Mysterious Lady (1928), The Single Standard (1929), and The Kiss (1929).

Furthermore, the famous “Stan and Bran” (Oliver Hardy and Stan Laurel) delighted audiences around the world for decades. The two were “big sensations” in Romania, even at a time when “talkies” were no longer a novelty. We, however, still loved the childish antics of the two comedians.

I also can’t help but mention Charlie Chaplin, who effectively redefined the notion of silent films. In the same category is Buster Keaton, the actor, director and stuntman who turned the impossible into the possible, according to a former mayor of Bucharest, now behind bars.

The 100 best silent movies of all time

1. The General – 1926 – Buster Keaton and Clyde Bruckman
2. Metropolis – 1927 – Fritz Lang
3. Sunrise – 1927 – F.W. Murnau
4. City Lights – 1931 – Charles Chaplin
5. Nosferatu – 1922 – F.W. Murnau
6. The Gold Rush – 1925 – Charles Chaplin
7. The Passion and Death of Joan of Arc – 1928 – Carl Theodor Dreyer
8. Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari – 1920 – Robert Wiene
9. Bronenosets ‘Potyomkin’ – 1925 – Sergei M. Eisenstein
10. Greed – 1924 – Erich von Stroheim
11. Die Büchse der Pandora – 1929 – G.W. Pabst
12. The Crowd – 1928 – King Vidor
13. The Wind – 1928 – Victor Sjöström
14. Napoleon – 1927 – Abel Gance
15. The Birth of a Nation – 1915 – D.W. Griffith
16. Intolerance 1916 D.W. Griffith
17. Sherlock, Jr. – 1924 – Buster Keaton
18. The Big Parade – 1925 – King Vidor
19. Safety Last – 1923 – Fred Newmeyer and Sam Taylor
20. The Phantom of the Opera – 1925 – Rupert Julian
21. Broken Blossoms – 1919 – D.W. Griffith
22. Der letzte Mann – 1924 – F.W. Murnau
23. The Kid – 1921 – Charles Chaplin
24. Steamboat Bill, Jr. – 1928 – Charles F. Reisner
25. Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ – 1925 – Fred Niblo
26. The Thief of Bagdad – 1924 – Raoul Walsh
27. Flesh and the Devil – 1927 – Clarence Brown
28. Our Hospitality – 1923 – Buster Keaton and John G. Blystone
29. Wings – 1927 – William A. Wellman
30. Chelovek s kinoapparatom – 1929 – Dziga Vertov
31. Nanook of the North – 1922 – Robert J. Flaherty
32. Faust – 1926 – F.W. Murnau
33. Way Down East – 1920 – D.W. Griffith
34. Häxan – 1922 – Benjamin Christensen
35. Das Tagebuch einer Verlorenen – 1929 – G.W. Pabst
36. The Unknown – 1927 – Tod Browning
37. The Cameraman – 1928 – Edward Sedgwick
38. The Circus – 1928 – Charles Chaplin
39. Show People – 1928 – King Vidor
40. An Andalusian Dog – 1928 – Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali
41. The Hunchback of Notre Dame 1923 Wallace Worsley
42. Dr. Mabuse: Der Spieler – 1922 – Fritz Lang
43. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse – 1921 – Rex Ingram
44. The Sheik – 1921 – George Melford
45. Die Nibelungen – 1924 – Fritz Lang
46. The Freshman – 1925 – Sam Taylor and Fred Newmeyer
47. The Mark of Zorro – 1920 – Fred Niblo
48. Tol’able David – 1921 – Henry King
49. He Who Gets Slapped – 1924 – Victor Sjöström
50. Girl Shy – 1924 – Fred Newmeyer and Sam Taylor
51. The Wedding March – 1928 – Erich von Stroheim
52. The Man Who Laughs – 1928 – Paul Leni
53. The Lodger – 1926 – Alfred Hitchcock
54. Seven Chances – 1925 – Buster Keaton
55. The Last Command – 1928 – Josef von Sternberg
56. Foolish Wives – 1922 – Erich von Stroheim
57. Orphans of the Storm – 1921 – D.W. Griffith
58. Sparrows – 1926 – William Beaudine
59. The Navigator – 1924 – Buster Keaton and Donald Crisp
60. Zemlya – 1930 – Aleksandr Dovzhenko
61. Tabu – 1931 – F.W. Murnau and Robert J. Flaherty
62. Les Vampires – 1915-16 – Louis Feuillade
63. The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg – 1927 – Ernst Lubitsch
64. Beggars of Life – 1928 – William A. Wellman
65. My Best Girl – 1927 – Sam Taylor
66. Cops – 1922 – Buster Keaton and Eddie Cline
67. Der Golem – 1920 – Paul Wegener
68. The Trip to the Moon – 1902 – Georges Méliès
69. The Son of the Sheik – 1926 – George Fitzmaurice
70. 7th Heaven – 1927 – Frank Borzage
71. It – 1927 – Clarence Badger
72. The Lost World – 1925 – Harry O. Hoyt
73. The Kid Brother 1927 Ted Wilde and J.A. Howe
74. The Immigrant – 1917 – Charles Chaplin
75. Queen Kelly – 1928 – Erich von Stroheim
76. Oktiabr [October] – 1928 – Sergei M. Eisenstein
77. Cabiria – 1914 – Giovanni Pastrone
78. Robin Hood – 1922 – Allan Dwan
79. The Docks of New York – 1928 – Josef von Sternberg
80. Stachka – 1924 – Sergei M. Eisenstein
81. The Great Train Robbery – 1903 – Edwin S. Porter
82. Der müde Tod [Destiny] – 1921 – Fritz Lang
83. Speedy – 1928 – Ted Wilde
84. Sadie Thompson – 1928 – Raoul Walsh
85. Tess of the Storm Country – 1922 – John S. Robertson
86. A Woman of Paris – 1923 – Charles Chaplin
87. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde – 1920 – John S. Robertson
88. The Last of the Mohicans – 1920 – Maurice Tourneur and Clarence Brown
89. The Unholy Three – 1925 – Tod Browning
90. Mat [Mother] – 1926 – Vsevolod I. Pudovkin
91. The Cheat – 1915 – Cecil B. DeMille
92. Variety – 1925 – E.A. Dupont
93. Die Freudlose Gasse – 1924 – G.W. Pabst
94. Big Business – 1929 – James W. Horne
95. The Iron Mask – 1929 – Allan Dwan
96. The King of Kings – 1927 – Cecil B. DeMille
97. The Iron Horse – 1924 – John Ford
98. The Penalty – 1920 – Wallace Worsley
99. Stella Maris – 1918 – Marshall Neilan
100. Underworld – 1927 – Josef von Sternberg