Jonathan Rosenbaum's Essential Cinema

A train arrives at La Ciotat station.

La Sortie des usines Lumière is one of the first films in the history of cinema and a milestone. Three different versions of the film exist.

The plot follows King Edward VII and President Armand Fallières dreaming of building a tunnel under the English Channel.

On a whim, a greedy tycoon decides to corner the world market in wheat. This doubles the price of bread, forcing grain producers into charity lines and others further into poverty. The film contrasts the differences between the lives of those who work to grow the wheat and the life of the man who dabbles in its sale for profit.

A man recognizes the thief who had previously robbed him as one of the men involved in an unrelated mob shootout.

Inspector Juve is tasked to capture the infamous criminal genius Fantômas who, ruthless and particularly elusive, changes his appearance and holds Paris' high society in a crippling grasp.

The creeping black assassin Fantômas, the criminal lord of Paris and master of disguise, has won the first round. But the equally resourceful Inspector Juve swears to win the second.

After his failed attempts to capture the ruthless crook and murderer Fantômas, Inspector Juve becomes the victim of a virulent press campaign which accuses him of being Fantômas himself. Whilst Juve languishes in a prison cell, his friend, the journalist Fandor, attempts to clear his name by tracking the real Fantômas.

Having committed murder in Belgium, Fantômas is sentenced to life imprisonment. Juve conceives the idea that if Fantômas is set free, he can follow him back to France and capture him and the remaining members of his gang once and for all.

Thwarted by his despotic uncle from continuing his love affair, a young man turns to thoughts of murder. Experiencing a series of visions, he sees murder as a normal course of events in life and kills his uncle. Tortured by his conscience, his future sanity is uncertain as he is assailed by nightmarish visions of what he has done.

Seamstress Mary dreams of a better life outside a sweatshop. Her dreams come true when she draws the attention of the bourgeois Victor. She soon tires of him, and thanks to her, his money is almost gone. When he suggests settling down outside the big city, where his money could be enough for a modest living, she leaves him and picks up a new lov...

The young daughter of an army captain missing in action runs away from school and is kidnapped by Parisian lowlifes. When the kidnapper flees to Nice with the child, the kind-hearted employee of one of his accomplices sets off in pursuit.

Giles Bateson gets expelled from college for misconduct. His angry father, the Earl, sends him a message: "Never let me see you again until you have earned a half crown and proven yourself worthy of confidence."

Les Vampires is a 10-part silent film serial. It was written and directed by Louis Feuillade and stars Musidora as "Irma Vep" a femme fatale whose name is a suspicious anagram of "vampire." The serial is set in Paris, France and follows the exploits of a gang of master criminals who call themselves "Les Vampires."

A gypsy seductress is sent to sway a goofy officer to allow a smuggling run.

Four historical tales depict the ongoing human struggle against prejudice and inhumanity.

When an unscrupulous banker ruins his family, a young man swears to bring him to justice, so he adopts a new identity, the mysterious Judex, and ominously disguised and sunk into the muddy path of vengeance, punishes the crooks and protects the innocents. (Originally a twelve-part epic serial.)

A drunken homeowner has a difficult time getting about in his home after arriving home late at night.

Jacques d'Athys, a French adventurer, returns to his home in Nice after an expedition to Indochina where he has picked up a Eurasian fiancée and a book that, unbeknownst to him, contains a coded message revealing the whereabouts of both secret treasures and sensitive government intelligence. This makes him the target of foreign spies, including ...

Rudolph Strelitz, known as 'Barrabas', is the leader of a brutal underground gang causing chaos and destruction in the lives of civilized people. A lawyer, Claude Varèse, is strongly determined to bring Strelitz to justice for the purpose of revenge, after his father was unjustly guillotined for the murder of Laure d'Hérigny, the mistress of an ...

Broken Blossoms is an American silent film from director D. W. Griffith. This melodrama tells the love story of an abused English woman and a Chinese Buddhist in a time when London was a brutal and harsh place to live.

Francis, a young man, recalls in his memory the horrible experiences he and his fiancée Jane recently went through. Francis and his friend Alan visit The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, an exhibit where the mysterious doctor shows the somnambulist Cesare, and awakens him for some moments from his death-like sleep.

A pampered American oyster tycoon decides to buy a husband for his daughter, but things don’t go quite as planned. Along the way there are mishaps, misunderstandings and a foxtrot sequence that must be seen to be believed.

Susie secretly loves her neighbor, William Jenkins, but neither, it seems, can confess their feelings for each other.

In the midst of the French and Indian War, the eldest daughter of a British officer develops an attraction towards an Indian ally who is the last living warrior of his tribe, the Mohicans.

A young man is elected by a small village to be its parson. As part of his duties, he is required to marry the widow of the parson before him. This poses two problems--first, the widow is old enough to be his grandmother, and second, he is already engaged to another woman.

The misadventures of an effete young man who must get married in order to inherit a fortune. He opts to purchase a remarkably lifelike doll and marry it instead, not realizing that the doll is actually the puppet-maker’s flesh-and-blood daughter in disguise.

Buster Keaton gets involved in a series of misunderstandings involving a horse and cart. Eventually he infuriates every cop in the city when he accidentally interrupts a police parade.

As a young couple stops and rests in a small village inn, the man is abducted by Death and is sequestered behind a huge doorless, windowless wall. The woman finds a mystic entrance and is met by Death, who tells her three separate stories set in exotic locales, all involving circumstances similar to hers.

The Tramp cares for an abandoned child, but events put that relationship in jeopardy.

Nanook Of The North is Robert J. Flaherty’s beautiful film about an Inuit man named Nanook and his family. Filmed during one year of their life in the icy desolation of Northern Canada. The film was an enormous success and is the founder of the documentary film genre.

Arch-criminal Dr. Mabuse sets out to make a fortune and run Berlin. Detective Wenk sets out to stop him.

"Count" Karanzim, a Don Juan is with his cousins in Monte Carlo, living from faked money and the money he gets from rich ladies, who are atracted by his charmes and his title or his militaric aristocratic behaviour. He tries to have sucess by Mrs Hughes, the wige of the new US ambassador, but he has bad luck.

Although the critics in 1922 didn’t find the film to be anything special, a few years after it’s release it was called innovative and a landmark in cinema history. German director Murnau’s vampire film holds claim to one of the most, if not the most important German expressionist film and a foundation for horror films.

France, on the eve of the French Revolution. Henriette and Louise have been raised together as sisters. When the plague that takes their parents' lives causes Louise's blindness, they decide to travel to Paris in search of a cure, but they separate when a lustful aristocrat crosses their path.

Former student Raskolnikov is pushed to murder when struggling to pay the rent on his apartment. When the murder is being investigated by the police, Raskolnikov struggles between trying to hide his guilt and the pressure to confess.

An unhappily married woman devises a scheme to get rid of her husband.

Two wagon caravans converge at what is now Kansas City, and combine for the westward push to Oregon. On their quest the pilgrims will experience desert heat, mountain snow, hunger, and Indian attack. To complicate matters further, a love triangle develops, as pretty Molly must chose between Sam, a brute, and Will, the dashing captain of the othe...

The misadventures of Buster in three separate historical periods.

Ballet Mécanique is a Dadaist, post-Cubist art film conceived, written, and co-directed by the artist Fernand Léger in collaboration with the filmmaker Dudley Murphy. It has a musical score by the American composer George Antheil.

The sudden fortune won from a lottery fans such destructive greed that it ruins the lives of the three people involved.

Claire Lescot is a famous first lady. All men want to be loved by her and among them is the young scientist Einar Norsen. When she mocks at him, he leaves her house with the declared intention to kill himself.

An aging doorman, after being fired from his prestigious job at a luxurious hotel, is forced to face the scorn of his friends, neighbours and society.

A famed artist fights his passion for a male model, until the young man falls for a woman.

Siegfried, son of King Siegmund of Xanten, travels to Worms, capital of the Burgundian kingdom, to ask King Gunther for the hand of his sister, the beautiful Kriemhild.

After Siegfried's dead, Kriemhild marries Etzel, the King of the Huns. She gives birth to a child, and invites her brothers for a party. She tries to persuade Etzel and the other Huns, that they kill Hagen, the murderer of Siegfried, but he is protected by her brothers. A fierce battle begins to force her brothers to give Hagen to her.

A night watchman on the Eiffel Tower wakes up to find the entire population of the city frozen in place.

Peter Pan enters the nursery of the Darling children and, with the help of fairy dust, leads them off to Never Never Land, where they meet the nefarious Captain Hook.

Sherlock Jr. is an American silent film comedy starring and directed by Buster Keaton from 1924. The film is about a film demonstrator who must fight for his life.