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Pandora's Box [1929]

Childrens Toy Shop > DVD > Silent
starring: Louise Brooks, Fritz Kortner, Francis Lederer, Carl Goetz, Krafft-Raschig
directed by: Georg Wilhelm Pabst

June 24, 2002
This is a movie I've wanted to see for a long time. Yet was always put off when confronted with various edited versions previously available. One of which infamously lasted only 55 minutes! This is the full restored version brought together by Second Sight. And it certainly is worth the wait. Th central character of Lulu is played by Louise Brooks, in her most famous role, as a carefree promiscuous naive waif. She is adored by men, and in a groundbreaking role, by women. In this case played by the reclusive belgian actress Alice Roberts. Unwittingly she brings tragedy and destruction to all those round her, except the repulsive and enigmatic Schigolch, who may be her father or her pimp. Through it all Lulu tries to do only what is the best for ... Read More:

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South [1919]

Childrens Toy Shop > DVD > Silent
starring: Ernest Shackleton, Captain F. Worsley, Lieutenant J. Stenhouse, Captain L. Hussey, Dr. McIlroy
directed by: Frank Hurley

May 27, 2002
After reading the book whatching this documentary makes it all come alive.
Truly a wonderful gemm (Cousteau avant la lettre).
I preferred watching it without sound (so I don't hear the piano) and try to imagine the true sound and atmosphere. Come the think of it I should try crawling into my freezer and watch it from there.

For those who love Antartic and Artic exploring this is a must.

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Diary of a Lost Girl [1929] [2007]

Childrens Toy Shop > DVD > Silent
starring: Louise Brooks
directed by: G.W. Pabst

May 21, 2007
Black and white silent movie with English subtitles. Sound track relevant to the story. Original title "Tagebuch einer Verlorenen"

Thymiane (Louise Brooks) not aware of the relationship her father had with another of his housekeepers Elisabeth (Sybille Schmitz); she is confused as to why the housekeeper had to leave and ultimately why the housekeeper committed suicide. The pharmacist Meinert (Fritz Rasp) downstairs is more than willing to show her what happens when one gets too friendly and does so when Thymiane faints.

This results in an offspring. The father pays the pharmacist's debt in exchange for making an honest woman of Thymiane. However she reneges and holds out for love; naturally this is unacceptable so she and her ... Read More:

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The Adventures Of Prince Achmed [1926]

Childrens Toy Shop > DVD > Silent
directed by: Lotte Reiniger, Carl Koch

July 23, 2001
this film has done a fantastic job, i'd rather raise the kids on this than on Disney's Alladin, so what it's scary in parts but in all honesty Disney just faffs about with having to put rubbish humour all over the large sum of his films; whilst this and the stuff of Tekuza (the japanese equivalent of Disney and 'Father of Anime') just gets on with it.

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October 1917 - Ten Days That Shook The World [1927]

Childrens Toy Shop > DVD > Silent
starring: Vladimir Popov (II), Vasili Nikandrov, Layaschenko, Mikholyev, Smelsky
directed by: Grigori Aleksandrov, Sergei M. Eisenstein

May 08, 2000
Do my eyes deceive me or did reviewers expect to watch this and not see pro-revolutionary content?

This film is unique and stands alone in the history of film-making as the closest thing to a record of one of the most defining moments in the history of mankind. Not only is it groundbreaking in its mechanics and methodology, but it broke all the moulds in cinematic history and formed the template for the next 20, 30 years of moviemaking.

Even watching as a non-committed political animal, you have to agree that the drama and tension transmitted in this document is unsurpassed; the transfer of the considerable lands, wealth and assets of Russia from a handful of privileged aristocrats to the people is a story which even the most seasoned narrator ... Read More:

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Sunrise - Murnau - Masters of Cinema series

Childrens Toy Shop > DVD > Silent
from: Eureka Entertainment Ltd

October 22, 2005
Film-a masterpiece from(in my opinion)the greatest director of all time;this DVD edition-simply a must have.First of all,excellent print-perhaps even better than the Twenty Century Fox edition(even though they own the original master prints),secondly,a wealth of extra materials-more than on any other DVD edition i know-full length audio commentary,some scenes not included in the original film(real rarity for a work from this period),a 40 minutes long documentary about Murnau's Four Devils-another film he made for Fox,but now lost,150 pages of the original script with Murnau's annotations,and a wonderfully interesting and informative booklet,40 pages long,with ilustrations and texts by,among others,Lotte Eisner,perhaps the greatest authority on Murnau and German Expressionism.This ... Read More:

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The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari [1919]

Childrens Toy Shop > DVD > Silent
starring: Werner Krauss, Conrad Veidt, Friedrich Feher, Lil Dagover, Hans Heinrich von Twardowski
directed by: Robert Wiene

October 15, 1997
Two men are sitting on a cement bench by the garden wall. One casually says there are evil spirits all around. As a woman in white glides by the second man Francis (Friedrich Fehér) says that is my fiancée Jane (Lil Dagover) and let me tell you what happened to us.

As his story begins we are subjected to a weird world of light and twisted shadows. A string Dr. (Caligari played by Werner Krauss) brings a somnambulist (sleeping man played by Conrad Veidt) to a local fair. The somnambulist knows all things and can predict the future; he prophesizes correctly Allan's (friend of Francis and rival for Jane's hand) murder and pilfers Jane from her bed chamber. But how can this be; as Francis has been keeping an eye on the doc and the snoozer all night and they have not moved? ... Read More:

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Masters of Russian Animation, Vol. 1 [1962] (NTSC)

Childrens Toy Shop > DVD > Silent
by: Masters of Russian Animation

April 11, 2000
Two men are sitting on a cement bench by the garden wall. One casually says there are evil spirits all around. As a woman in white glides by the second man Francis (Friedrich Fehér) says that is my fiancée Jane (Lil Dagover) and let me tell you what happened to us.

As his story begins we are subjected to a weird world of light and twisted shadows. A string Dr. (Caligari played by Werner Krauss) brings a somnambulist (sleeping man played by Conrad Veidt) to a local fair. The somnambulist knows all things and can predict the future; he prophesizes correctly Allan's (friend of Francis and rival for Jane's hand) murder and pilfers Jane from her bed chamber. But how can this be; as Francis has been keeping an eye on the doc and the snoozer all night and they have not moved? ... Read More:

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Nanook of the North [1922] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

Childrens Toy Shop > DVD > Silent
starring: Allakariallak, Nyla, Cunayou, Allee, Allegoo
directed by: Robert J. Flaherty

January 26, 1999
"Nanook of the North" was the first film ever to be described as a "documentary" and often appears on lists of the world's greatest films. But has it really stood the test of time? It is, after all, more than an hour long; black & white; silent (providing you turn down the irritating music track which was added later); filmed with a single camera and entirely about the life of an eskimo family nearly a hundred years ago. The answer is that it is visually stunning and emotionally gripping. Even the opening head & shoulders shot of Nanook is intriguing, showing a smile as enigmatic as that of the Mona Lisa.

Flaherty manages to show the people and the landscape as they are, with the minimum of obvious interference. Indeed, although he was really ... Read More:

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Intolerance [1916]

Childrens Toy Shop > DVD > Silent
starring: Mae Marsh, Robert Harron, F.A. Turner, Sam De Grasse, Vera Lewis
directed by: D.W. Griffith

December 27, 2000
Imagine that Steven Spielberg was no longer directing movies and that WAR OF THE WORLDS would be the one film he is remembered for. Would that be a fair assessment of his career? Absolutely not but that is what has happened to cinema pioneer D.W. Griffith. The film he is remembered for today is the 1915 BIRTH OF A NATION which was the first important American epic. Unfortunately its source material THE CLANSMAN (the film's original title) is a Southern view of the Civil War which glorifies the Ku Klux Klan and is extremely racist (although toned down considerably from the book by Thomas Dixon). Griffith made 34 feature films and over 400 shorts between 1908 and 1931. In the overwhelming majority of these he is a social progressive tackling such issues as poverty, political corruption, worker ... Read More: