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Silent Classics

The first three decades of cinema gave us some of the greatest films ever made, which had to tell their stories purely visually, giving us countless unforgettable images.

Thanks to excellent preservation and restoration efforts, these films are now available to watch in pristine condition, often with new scores by world renowned musicians.

The Passion of Joan of Arc The Passion of Joan of Arc

Biopic 1928 80 mins Silent Director: Carl Th. Dreyer

An incontestable masterpiece of silent cinema, Carl Dreyer's moving biopic features one of the most powerful performances ever captured on film.

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Metropolis Metropolis

Science Fiction 1927 150 mins Silent Director: Fritz Lang

Fritz Lang’s expressionist, dystopian vision is one of the first science fiction feature films, and is arguably the most influential.

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Battleship Potemkin Battleship Potemkin

Historical drama 1925 69 mins Silent Director: Sergei M. Eisenstein

A fixture in the critical canon almost since its premiere, Eisenstein’s film about a 1905 naval mutiny was revolutionary in both form and content.

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Decasia Decasia

Documentary 2002 67 mins Director: Bill Morrison

Decasia is an artful collage of found archival footage, shot pre-1950 on a cellulose nitrate base and most of it in advanced stages of decay.

Rent for £3.50

London Symphony London Symphony

Documentary 2017 72 mins Director: Alex Barrett

A poetic journey through the capital, presenting an artistic snapshot of London as it stands today, and a celebration of its rich diversity of culture, architecture and religion.

Rent for £3.50

Blancanieves Blancanieves

Drama 2011 105 mins Director: Pablo Berger

Pablo Berger’s imaginative black-and-white ‘silent’ movie relocates the story of Snow White to 1920s Spain – complete with bullfighting dwarfs

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Un Chien Andalou Un Chien Andalou

Animation & Artists Moving Image 1928 16 mins Silent Director: Luis Buñuel

A scabrous study of desire, the subconscious and anti-clericalism - Buñuel and Dalí’s provocative first film is a classic of Surrealist cinema.

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The Phantom of the Opera (1925) The Phantom of the Opera (1925)

Period drama 1925 91 mins Silent Director: Rupert Julian

'Man of a thousand faces' Lon Chaney stars in the first version of Gaston Leroux's oft-filmed novel.

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Nosferatu Nosferatu

Horror 1922 89 mins Silent Director: F.W. Murnau

This influential Dracula adaptation contains some of the most famous images of expressionist film, and remains shocking and stylish after 100 years.

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The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog

Crime 1926 91 mins Silent Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Ivor Novello plays a strange lodger who may be behind a number of Jack the Ripper-style killings in Alfred Hitchcock’s silent thriller.

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Downhill Downhill

Drama 1927 105 mins Silent Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock’s fifth film features an early variation on his fabled ‘wrong man’plot, as Ivor Novello stands accused of getting a girl pregnant.

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The Battles of Coronel and Falkland Islands The Battles of Coronel and Falkland Islands

War 1927 106 mins Silent Director: Walter Summers

This dramatic reconstruction of two decisive naval battles from the First World War is one of the finest films of the British silent era.

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The Birth of a Nation The Birth of a Nation

Historical drama 1915 191 mins Silent Director: D.W. Griffith

D W Griffith's highly controversial and abhorrently racist, yet historically significant American silent epic about the American Civil War and its aftermath.

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The Master of the House The Master of the House

Drama 1925 107 mins Silent Director: Carl Th. Dreyer

Carl Theodor Dreyer’s richly detailed tragicomedy of domestic manners is by turns funny, intensely emotional and deeply affecting.

Rent for £2.50

Turksib Turksib

Documentary 1929 75 mins Silent Director: Viktor Turin

With bold and exhilarating flair, Turksib charts the monumental efforts to build a railway linking the regions of Turkestan and Siberia in 1920s USSR.