Yotsuya Kaidan

The Birth of a Nation(en)

Two families, abolitionist Northerners the Stonemans and Southern landowners the Camerons, intertwine. When Confederate colonel Ben Cameron is captured in battle, nurse Elsie Stoneman petitions for his pardon. In Reconstruction-era South Carolina, Cameron founds the Ku Klux Klan, battling Elsie's congressman father and his African-American protégé, Silas Lynch.

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans(en)

A married farmer falls under the spell of a slatternly woman from the city, who tries to convince him to drown his wife.

The Way of the Strong(en)

A gangster falls for a blind violinist, only for his mobster rivals to kidnap her.

The Last Cartridge, An Incident of the Sepoy Rebellion in India(en)

Caught off-guard by Indian mutineers, a British soldier saves his last bullet for his daughter, lest she be taken.

The Kid(en)

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.

La lumière et l'amour(fr)

Bake Jizo(ja)

One of the two earliest horror films ever made. This film is presumed lost.

Resurrection of a Corpse(ja)

One of the two earliest horror films ever made. This film is presumed lost. In this black comedy scene, the bottom falls out of a coffin, the corpse tumble out, and is jolted back to life. Short sequences like this, as well as street scenes and dancing geisha girls were the main subjects of early Nippon cinema, pioneered by Shiro Asano and Shibata Tsunekichi from 1897 onwards. In creating dramatic, scenes, film-makers naturally chose the most striking or bizarre. Another undocumented film, recalled by cameraman Shiro Asano.

Ballads of the Exodus(en)

The life of Moses as told through the Book of Exodus, the imagination of a dying boy, and the ballads of his father.

The Arab(en)

Jamil, a soldier in the Bedouin defense forces during a war between Syria and Turkey, deserts his regiment but later returns to save children of a missionary’s orphanage who are at risk of being enslaved or killed by the Turks.

The Passion of Joan of Arc(fr)

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.

Battleship Potemkin(ru)

A dramatized account of a great Russian naval mutiny and a resultant public demonstration, showing support, which brought on a police massacre.

Nosferatu(de)

The mysterious Count Orlok summons a happily married real estate agent to his castle, located up in the Transylvanian mountains, to finalise a terrifying deal.

Nanook of the North(en)

This pioneering documentary film depicts the lives of the indigenous Inuit people of Canada's northern Quebec region. Although the production contains some fictional elements, it vividly shows how its resourceful subjects survive in such a harsh climate, revealing how they construct their igloo homes and find food by hunting and fishing. The film also captures the beautiful, if unforgiving, frozen landscape of the Great White North, far removed from conventional civilization.

October (Ten Days that Shook the World)(ru)

Sergei M. Eisenstein's docu-drama about the 1917 October Revolution in Russia. Made ten years after the events and edited in Eisenstein's 'Soviet Montage' style, it re-enacts in celebratory terms several key scenes from the revolution.

Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl(en)

The love story of an abused English girl and a Chinese Buddhist in a time when London was a brutal and harsh place to live.

City Lights(en)

A tramp falls in love with a beautiful blind flower girl. His on-and-off friendship with a wealthy man allows him to be the girl's benefactor and suitor.

Pandora's Box(de)

The rise and inevitable fall of an amoral but naive young woman whose insouciant eroticism inspires lust and violence in those around her.

The Gold Rush(en)

A gold prospector in Alaska struggles to survive the elements and win the heart of a dance hall girl.

The Phantom of the Opera(en)

The deformed Phantom who haunts the Paris Opera House causes murder and mayhem in an attempt to make the woman he loves a star.