A well-dressed lady thief (Betty Amann) steals a precious stone from a jewellery shop. The aged jeweller prefers to let the young woman go, but the policeman who catches her explains he is obliged to pursue the case further. She tries to seduce the policeman (Gustav Frohlich), and he gradually succumbs to her charms, but her criminal background dooms their relationship when an argument leads to murder. One of the last great German Expressionist films of the silent era, Joe May's 'Asphalt' is a l find out more...

Mind those steps! Perhaps the most famous movie scene in the history of cinema. The documentary style story of mutiny aboard the Potemkin as the sailors fight oppression and fire on Tzarist troops attempting to quell rebellion in the city of Oddessa. Almost every shot is so beautiful it could work as a still. find out more...

The collection opens with Len Lye's modernist abstraction ‘Tusalava’, which, heavily influenced by Maori and Aboriginal art, shares an interest in ‘primitive’ cultures that was typical of the Modernist movement of the time. It was almost refused a certificate by the puzzled British Board of Censors who suspected that the dancing abstract shapes might be about sex. Lye's own explanation was that it showed the beginnings of organic life. ‘Crossing the Great Sagrada’, is a lowbrow spoof on travel find out more...

Two works from the father of narrative cinema. In "Broken Blossoms" (1919); a Chinaman arrives in London to teach the locals the ideals of Buddhism but finds them most unreceptive and, instead, opens a shop which becomes the refuge for a xenophobic boxer's abused daughter. Lillian Gish is brilliant and Griffith poetic. "Abraham Lincoln", (1930), was Griffith's first talkie and is a straightforward biopic from childhood to his premature assassination. find out more...

This classic piece of early silent cinema is noted not merely for its dramatic camerawork and cast of thousands but also for its contribution as a cinematic template, particularly in the genre of horror. Set in 16th Century Prague, a monstrous creature of Jewish myth is unleashed by a Rabbi to save his people from anti-Semitic legislation; unfortunately for all concerned The Golem's taste for destruction is not sated by the demands of his master, and so begins an unstoppable rampage. find out more...

The girl that launched a thousand haircuts stars in this story of riches to rags to riches. Brooks plays Thymian cast out by her family when pregnant, only to be reinstated in society by the patronage of a wealthy count. A classic tale of patriarchy dominating a young girl's struggle to survive. find out more...

Pudovkin's account of the 1917 Revolution was commissioned as part of the celebrations to mark its 10th anniversary and this silent epic stands as an example of the grandiose nature of early Russian film-making. The spirit of the masses is represented by a single, proto-typical worker-hero, and his view of the revolution. find out more...

A silent classic. A temptress toys with three men in a hokey but elegant bit of melodramatic fluff climaxing with death on an iceberg. Renowned for its then electric love scenes the film was a big success because of the off stage Gilbert/Garbo romance. Archive material. find out more...

In this, Lang's final silent epic newly restored to its near original length, the legendary filmmaker spins a tale involving a wicked cartel of spies who co-opt an experimental mission to the moon in the hope of plundering its vast stores of gold. When the crew finally reach their destination, they find themselves stranded in a lunar labyrinth without walls where emotions run scattershot, and the new goal becomes survival. A modern Daedalus, Frau im Mond is as much a warning-sign against human h find out more...

A disturbing Danish film, reanacting witchcraft trials from the 15th and 16th on till the early 20th Century. Mixing scenes of reanactment, animation and illustrated slideshows to depict events of alleged real-life events and possessions, we are shown images of extreme cruelty which smack of the experimental edges of medical research. This must have been tantamount to the work of the devil when it first came out. Sick-minds they had back in 1922! The DVD has a choice of soundtracks, the best of find out more...