Many countries in Europe and Asia were as active in the production of silent movies as the USA. Unfortunately, few major silent films have been restored to date from Italy, Japan and England. Not that many French films either, but Germany and the USSR are well represented here.
EARLY RUSSIAN CINEMA -- Films Before the Revolution
Outstanding ten-tape series of Russian films made before 1918, restored and released by Milestone Video. $29.95 each or the set of ten for $250.
Vol. 1: BEGINNINGS
Documentaries like A Fish Factory in Astrakhan (1908) preceded the first Russian drama Sten'ka Razin (1908).
Vol. 2: FOLKLORE AND LEGEND
Folklore subjects Drama in a Gypsy Camp (1908) and Brigand Brothers (1912) plus national and cultural themes.
Vol. 3: Starewicz' Fantasies
Animator Ladislaw Starewicz: The Ant and the Grasshopper, Christmas Eve and Lily of Belgium, (1911-1915).
Vol. 4: Provincial Variations
Jewish life is one of the exotic subjects covered in provincial films like the Latvian Wedding Day (1912).
Vol. 5: Chardynin's Pushkin
Petr Chardynin adapts Pushkin's Queen of Spades (1910) and The House in Kolomna (1913) with Ivan Mosjoukine in two roles.
Vol. 6: Class Distinctions
The hardship of rural life in Goncharov's The Peasant's Lot (1912) and Evgennii Bauer's Silent Witnesses (1914) about servants' views of their masters.
Vol. 7: Evgenii Bauer
Rediscover the great Evgenii Bauer in his social drama A Child of the Big City (1913), erotic comedy The 1002nd Ruse (1915) and gothic melodrama Daydreams (1915).
Vol. 8: Iakow Protazanov
Director Protazanov did not shirk controversy in The Departure of a Great Old Man (1912) which scandalized the last days of Tolstoy or in The Queen of Spades (1916).
Vol. 9: High Society
Antosha Ruined by a Corset (1916); A Life for a Life (Bauer, 1916); and The Funeral of Vera Kholodnaia (1919).
Vol. 10: End of an Era
Between 1917's two revolutions, cinema reflected new themes, as in Bauer's The Revolutionary (1917) and the more traditional subject of thwarted love in his last film For Luck (1917). Includes a fragment from Behind the Screen with the husband-wife team Mosjoukine and Lisenko on the eve of their departure into exile.
The 1920's
Aelita: Queen of Mars
(1924) 113m., music. A Moscow engineer designs a spaceship and travels to Mars to meet the woman of his dreams in big-budget science-fiction spectacle. $29.95
Arsenal
(1929) 90m., music. D: Alexander Dovzhenko. Brilliant Russian film about their war of 1914 -- misery int he countryside, horrors at the front and revolution and strike. $29.95
Bed and Sofa
(1927) 73m., silent. D: Abram Room. A housing shortage forces a man to room with his married friends. Deals with the modern problems of adultery, abortion and the rights of women! $29.95
Cigarette Girl of Mosselprom
(1924) 78m., music. D: Yuri Zhelyabuzhsky. Delightful comedy satirizing Soviet life and filmmaking in the 1920's. A young woman rises from street vendor to movie actress when she is cast in a romantic melodrama. $29.95
Earth
(1930) 69m., music. D: Alexander Dovzhenko. The people of a small Ukrainian farming village are changed when they decide to collectively purchase a tractor. One of the undisputed masterpieces of cinema. $29.95
The End of St. Petersburg
(1927) 69m., music. D: V.I. Pudovkin. Follows the trials of a common laborer as he struggles for personal freedom, from farm to war. $29.95
Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks
(1924) 88m., music. D: Lev Kuleshov. An American visiting Russia is shown the "mad, savage" stereotype Russians as a joke by his friends. As in a Harold Lloyd film, his wits save him from danger and intrigue. $29.95
Fall of the Romanov Dynasty
(1927) 90m., music. D: Esther Shub. Documentary portrait of the collapse of the Czarist regime and the triumphant rise of communism from 1912 to 1917. Contains remarkable historic footage. $29.95
The Girl with the Hatbox
(1927) 67m., music. D: Boris Barnet. Anna Sten is a working girl who wins the lottery in delightful comedy. $29.95
The Man With A Movie Camera
(1928) 69m., music. D: Dziga Vertov. Using his Kino Eye theory of identifying the camera with the human eye, Vertov attempts to show life as it is actually lived. Tape includes V.I. Pudovkin's Chess Fever. $39.95
Mother
(1926) 88m., music. Pudovkin's Engrossing and touching drama of people involved in the 1905 revolt, told through the eyes of a mother. $29.95
Battleship Potemkin
(1925) 62m., music. Mutiny on the Battleship Potemkin during the 1905 uprising. $29.95
The General Line
(1929) 90m., music. Aka "The Old and the New." Sergei Eisenstein film about a rural cooperative organized in a Russian village where farming conditions are poor. $29.95
October
(1927) 104m., orchestra score. Aka. "Ten Days That Shook the World." The fall of the Kerensky Government and the storming of the Winter Palace, filmed on location. $29.95
Strike
(1924) 66m., music. Experimental milestone of montage editing uses the worker's strike in Czarist Russia as his story. $29.95
Berlin, Symphony of a Great City
(Germany, 1927) 53m., music track. D: Walter Ruttman. The life and rhythm of a spring day in Berlin, from dawn to midnight, is a symphony of visual impressions. $24.95
Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
(Germany, 1919) 52m., music, color tints. D: Robert Wiene. Werner Krauss and Conrad Veidt in the expressionist classic. Includes scenes from Wiene's rare Genuine -- A Tale of a Vampire. $24.95
The Golem
(Germany, 1920) 70m., music. D: Paul Wegener. Rabbi animates a clay monster to save the Jews of Medieval Prague. $29.95
The Last Laugh
(Germany, 1924) 75m., music. D: F.W. Murnau. Emil Jannings is ageing hotel doorman. $24.95
Nosferatu
(Germany, 1922) 63m., music. D: F.W. Murnau. Celebrated, creepy first Dracula film. Kino restoration. $24.95
The Student of Prague
(Germany, 1913) 60m., music, NO subtitles. D: Paul Wegener. A student accidentally makes a pact with the devil. $29.95
The Student of Prague
(Germany, 1927) 80m., music. The rare Conrad Veidt/Paul Wegener versions. A student accidentally makes a pact with the devil. $39.95
Variety
(Germany, 1925) 57m., music. D: E.A. Dupont. Emil Jannings and Lya de Putti are trapeze artists in a most popular and entertaining melodrama. $29.95
Diary of a Lost Girl
Joyless Street
(Germany, 1925) 96m., music track. Expressionist film about poverty and degradation in post-WWI Vienna featuring, Asta Nielsen and Greta Garbo. $29.95
Love of Jeanne Ney
(Germany, 1927) 113m., music. G.W. Pabst classic with Brigitte Helm, Fritz Rasp. $24.95
Pandora's Box
(Germany, 1928) 110m., music. D: G.W. Pabst. Louise Brooks in her most infamous role as Lulu! $29.95
Spiders
(Germany, 1919) 137m., music. Exciting adventure tale about a gang of criminals out to conquer the world, complete with Inca treasures, human sacrifices and hair-breadth escapes. $29.95
Spies
(Germany, 1928) 95m., organ track. Exciting thriller about international espionage, starring Rudolf Klein-Rogge as master spy Haghai. $29.95
Woman in the Moon
(Germany, 1929) 112m., music track. Fritz Lang's trip to the moon. $29.95
The Crazy Ray and Entr'Acte
(France, 1925) 60m., music track. Two early films by Rene Clair. In Entr'acte inanimate objects come to life. In The Crazy Ray a scientist makes time stand still for all but a select few who were on the Eiffel Tower during his experiment. $39.95
The Italian Straw Hat
(France, 1927) 75m., music. D: Rene Clair. "Very simply one of the funniest films ever made and one of the most elegant as well. It is so expertly timed and choreographed that farce becomes ballet." -- Pauline Kael $39.95
Cyrano De Bergerac
(France, 1925) Orchestra score and hand-painted! The classic story, recently discovered and restored by Kino in full color! $29.95
Jean Renoir Shorts
(France, 1927) 50m., music track. Two early shorts from the great director Jean Renoir: The Little Match Girl and The Charleston. $29.95
J'Accuse
(France, 1937) 95m. Abel Gance's great anti-war film, focusing on an exploited war veteran. In the most famous and vivid sequence he calls on fallen war dead to rise from their graves. $29.95
Man Ray Films
55m., music. The artist Man Ray helped found surrealism and dadaism. Here are all four films he made in the 1920's: Retour a la Raison, Emak Bakia, L'Etolie de Mer, Mysteres du Chateau du De. $29.95
Napoleon
(France, 1927) 235m., orchestra score. D: Abel Gance. The early career of Napoleon, played by Albert Dieudonne. One of the landmark epics of film. $29.95.
The Passion of Joan of Arc
(France, 1929) 82m., organ track. Carl Theodor Dreyer's remarkable filmic study of the trial and death of Joan of Arc. $29.95
The Outlaw and His Wife
(Sweden, 1917) 73m., music. D: Victor Sjostrom. In 19th c. Iceland, a man and wife must flee the police to live in the wild. $29.95
The Phantom Carriage
(Sweden, 1921) 70m., music. Directed by and starring Victor Sjostrom. A simple moralistic folk tale about a drunkard's reform when the chariot of death comes for him. $39.95