Happiness

A semi-documentary experimental 1930 German silent film created by amateurs with a small budget. With authentic scenes of the metropolis city of Berlin, it's the first film from the later famous screenwriters/directors Billy Wilder and Fred Zinnemann.

A classic of the silent age, this film tells the story of the doomed but ultimately canonized 15th-century teenage warrior. On trial for claiming she'd spoken to God, Jeanne d'Arc is subjected to inhumane treatment and scare tactics at the hands of church court officials. Initially bullied into changing her story, Jeanne eventually opts for what she sees as the truth. Her punishment, a famously brutal execution, earns her perpetual martyrdom.

Bear (10 minutes, 35 seconds) was Steve McQueen's first major film. Although not an overtly political work, for many viewers it raises sensitive issues about race, homoeroticism and violence. It depicts two naked men – one of whom is the artist – tussling and teasing one another in an encounter which shifts between tenderness and aggression. The film is silent but a series of stares, glances and winks between the protagonists creates an optical language of flirtation and threat.

Two old tars, retired from service, live alone in a cottage by the sea. They sail along on an even keel, until a buxom and comely widow projects herself on the scene when one old tar breaks one of their unwritten laws and falls in love with her. The other old fellow objects strenuously.

When her grandson is kidnapped during the Tour de France, Madame Souza and her beloved pooch Bruno team up with the Belleville Sisters—an aged song-and-dance team from the days of Fred Astaire—to rescue him.

When her cotton crop is burned, Barbara Pelham, a beautiful southern girl, comes to New York to find work as a fashion designer, staying with Mrs. Kemp, a woman she meets on the northbound train. In Mrs. Kemp's house, Barbara encounters Peter Heffner, a wealthy stockbroker, and discovers from him that she has taken up residence in a whorehouse. There is a police raid, but Barbara escapes arrest and returns home. Heffner's son, Neil, goes south to inspect some family property and there meets Barbara, with whom he falls in love. They decide to be married, and she accompanies him to New York, where she meets the elder Heffner for a second time. He denounces her as a whore, but Barbara goes to Mrs. Kemp, who explains the misunderstanding to everyone's satisfaction.

God and Satan war over earth; to settle things, they wager on the soul of Faust, a learned and prayerful alchemist.

In 1921, we follow two women - Marie and Grete - from the same poor Viennese neighborhood, as they try to better the lives of themselves and their families during the period of Austrian postwar hyperinflation.

Two young men serving at the front. One comes from a good family, the other's family is poor. But the sister of the middle-class son falls in love with his poor comrade when he returns home for Christmas.

The young Anselmus Aselmeyer fulfilled a long cherished dream: He travels to Venice, the city of his dreams. Once there, the porter Pipistrello directs him immediately to the hotel of his boss, and Anselmus lands in the middle of a wedding party. Mestre Mangiabene, a wealthy oilman, marries the beautiful but completely depleted Marchesina dei Bisognosi. But the secretly loves an officer.

Wanting his son to get away from his many girlfriends and buckle down to work, the New York industrialist father of a playboy sends him to an obscure village in Spain to find samples of a rare mineral. When the son gets to Spain, he runs afoul of the local police chief - who has a secret that he tries to keep the young man from discovering.

A tramp cares for a boy after he's abandoned as a newborn by his mother. Later the mother has a change of heart and aches to be reunited with her son.

Adrift in the vast expanse of the ocean, a solitary boat carries three castaways—a man and two women. Stranded and devoid of any glimmer of rescue, they find solace in recounting the tales of their lives to one another. As they delve into their personal narratives, reminiscing about the circumstances that led them to this desolate predicament, they navigate through the depths of three distinct destinies. Bound by the confines of their shared space, every aspect of their existence becomes a boundary, underscoring their plight.

Anita and Marion realize that an abandoned baby they sneaked into an orphanage was kidnapped from a millionaire. For the reward, they proceed to break into the institution at night, dressed as men to beat curfew, to get the kid out again. This film survives only in very fragmentary form.

Sitcom for 1920s cinemas about the Winter family.

German silent film

Aspiring filmmakers Mel Funn, Marty Eggs and Dom Bell go to a financially troubled studio with an idea for a silent movie. In an effort to make the movie more marketable, they attempt to recruit a number of big name stars to appear, while the studio's creditors attempt to thwart them.

As a practical joke, an actor impersonates the screen monster he made famous. A lost film.

Irohagana Yotsuya Kaidan

Found recently and restored in 2019 this short silent film tells the story of an artist and his model. One day she's getting seriously ill ... .