Information on Silent Movies

100 Years of Hollywood and the Stars: 1910 to 2010
A new site from William M. Drew, celebrating the upcoming centenary of the impact 100 years of Hollywood and movie stars have had on our society and culture.

Cinema History: Films from the Silent Era
A general overview of early film history.

Early Cinema
Artifacts, factoids, a timeline, biography, encyclopedia, and more memorialized at this wonderful site focusing on early film history.

The European Silent Cinema Project
This site, still a work in progress, is a database of European silent cinema (with an emphasis on German cinema). Plans are to include an alphabetical listing of cinema personalities, an index to the photographs of various personalities in books, synopses of film plots, and list those which are still extant and where to find them. The site tracks the period 1895 to 1945, covering German movies made from the advent of sound to the demise of Ufa in 1945.

The Fantomas
A wonderful site devoted to Fantomas, the Lord of Terror, a/k/a the Genius of Evil, immortalized in the silent French film serials directed by Louis Feuillade from the books by Pierre Souvestre and Marcel Allain. Marvellieuse.

The Film Music Society
The Society for the Preservation of Film Music is now The Film Music Society. Get info on their Film music Preservation Effort at Paramount Pictures, a massive project to organize, box, shelve, and catalog the film music manuscripts on the Paramount Pictures lot. Includes lots of statistics and photos.

Gilda's Blue Book of the Screen
Gilda's site continues to grow, and now includes many terrific articles and a list of links.

GRAFICS
In French. GRAFICS stands for Groupe de Recherche sur l'Avenement et la Formation des Institutions Cinematographique et Scenique (Research Group on the Beginnings and the Formation of the Cinema and Theatrical Institutions). The GRAFICS is a research group about early cinema in Quebec, located at University of Montreal.

Greatest Films of the 1920s
A listing of the 100 greatest films of all times not surprisingly includes many from the 1920s. Also the same site for The 100 Greatest Films , detailed summaries of the greatest films, including silents such as Sunrise, The Birth of A Nation, Sunset Boulevard, Intolerance, and The Great Train Robbery. There are others I didn't include so be sure to check it out.

National Film Preservation Foundation
The NFPF is a new, non-profit organization created by Congress to save America's film heritage. The Foundation raises money for the non-profit and public archives to preserve and make available endangered films that are not protected by commercial interests.

Nitrateville
As described by Bruce Calvert: "If you are interested in the latest news about silent films, check out the Silent Film News at the Nitrateville Forum. We have at least a dozen new articles every week on new discoveries, new restorations and new books. There's also another forum at the same site that lists all upcoming screenings of silent films, worldwide." (The link here goes directly to the Silent Film forum.) A Must-Visit.

Palace: The Classic Film Site
This beautifully done site has photos and more from films from the 20s to the 50s.

Professor Hall's Silent Movies
Explores the roots of film history, beginning as early as Magic Lanterns.

Silent Film FAQ
A great place to start if you're new to silent movies and want basic information.

Silent Film Still Archive
From Bruce Calvert, his site features his wonderful collection of silent film stills, and also includes articles, sheet music, and more. A wonderful visit!

Silent Films
An excellent site by David Pierce, with an excellent resource list and accompanying links.

GLen Pringle's Silent Movies
The first Web site devoted to silent movies, with one of the most extensive set of links to screenings around the world, and featuring the Silent Star of the Month.

Silent Horror
This page, from "The Vault," discusses some of the early classics of the horror genre.

Silent Horrors
Reviews of Nosferatu and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

The Silent Movie Blog
A blog with some great information, photos, and (most important) ways to donate to help preserve silent movies.

The Silent Westerns
A wonderful find, with articles on the genre, The Heros, The Heroines, Early Film, Landscapes, Indians and Mexicans, and The Western Epic.

Silents Are Golden
Includes vintage reviews, new reviews, photos, articles, and more.

Some Miscellaneous Writings on Film
Peter Reiher is a technical manager at UCLA. A film buff, he has written some provocative essays on film and silent film.

Tender is the Night
Devoted to entertainment between roughly 1910 and 1929 with brief bios and some links (some to sites that are already familiar to silent fans). Worth a visit.

The Maverick's Cliffhangers Serial Page
A site devoted to both sound and silent serials. Currently lists serials by title and by studio, with year and number of chapters.

Young Hollywood Hall of Fame
This site chronicling child actors. Of interest to silent fans: The years 1908-1919 and the 1920s. Includes at least one picture, along with nickname(s), film company, notable factoid, and a separate page of additional photos, etc. if available.

Sites On A Particular Movie

Greed
This site dedicated solely to von Stroheim's masterpiece is also still under construction, but what information has been posted is simply amazing. Who knew there was so much information?

Metropolis
To celebrate the upcoming release of its newly-restored version, Kino has a mini-site focusing on Lang's classic 1927 film.
Note: Read the blog entry on the discovery of a complete, uncut version of the film.

Metropolis
This site also looks at the film but with a twist, studying the various incarnations the film has been released in over the years and comparing and contrasting each version.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
A review of Caligari, from Movie Reviews UK - very thorough.

The Electric House
A synopsis, with links to discussions of Our Hospitality, a biography on Keaton, and Keaton's drawings from his movies.

The Oz Filmography
Information on the series, beginning with 1900 and covering the early recordings and motion pictures.

The Passion of Joan of Arc
An article about a revival of Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc with the new orchestral score at Arizona State University. Downloadable QuickTime movies available.