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...

CONVICT 13 (1920) Keaton goes from a golf game with his girlfriend to death-row in prison through a case of mistaken identity. THE HIGH SIGN Thrown off a train near an amusement park, Buster gets a job in a shooting gallery run by the Blinking Buzzards mob. Ordered to kill s businessman, Buster ends up protecting the man and his daughter. DAYDREAMS (1922) In order to impress the father of a girl he is keen on, Buster goes to the city in search of work. In his letters home he writes of find out more...

A series of early shorts from the master of physical farce, a one man death defying comic genius. find out more...

A fascinating look at some of Charlie Chaplin's early work, a series of shorts (all from 1916), most of which predate America's entry into the First World War. This compilation of Chaplin's performances, which include biographies, stand as a testament not only to the man's genius but also an insight into the nation who adopted him nearly a century ago. find out more...

A fascinating look at some of Charlie Chaplin's early work, a series of shorts, most of which predate America's entry into the First World War. This compilation of Chaplin's performances, which include biographies, stand as a testament not only to the man's genius but also an insight into the nation who adopted him nearly a century ago. find out more...

A fascinating look at some of Charlie Chaplin's early work, a series of shorts, most of which coincide with America's entry into the First World War and the following years. This compilation of Chaplin's performances, which include biographies, stand as a testament not only to the man's genius but also an insight into the nation who adopted him nearly a century ago. find out more...

One of the classic Chaplin feature films in which the little tramp falls in love with a blind flower girl and, through a number of typical exploits, raises the money to pay for an operation. Chaplin's comic genius has rarely, if ever, been bettered and is as fresh now as it was fifty years ago. find out more...