Chaplin's inventive and devastating satire on the woes of modern industrialised life, featuring the last appearance of his Little Tramp character and his first use of sound effects. The classic scene, in which he gets sucked into a production line epitomises this film's clever inventiveness. find out more...

Herbert Marshall (in his first sound film) plays a gentleman and famous actor, Sir John Menier, who has second thoughts about the guilt of a young actress Diana Baring (Norah Baring), whom as a jury member he'd helped convict of murder. So, before she's to be executed for the crime, he works tirelessly to prove her innocence by finding the real guilty party. A memorable scene with Marshall thinking while shaving. find out more...

Based on the expeditions of Robert Flaherty to Northern Ungava, the film follows the journey of Nanook, a "gentle, brave and simple Eskimo", and his band of travellers as they struggle against the harsh forces of nature on the eternal quest for food. This remarkable documentary captures a unique insight into the spirit and culture of the Inuit people and their everyday struggle to survive against the odds. find out more...

Seminal vampire film, the first to be based upon the Bram Stoker tale. An estate agent's clerk from Bremen embarks on a journey to Orlock's castle, where a client of his resides. On arrival, the full horror of the inhabitants confront him. Wonderful imagery and direction. Imitated but never equalled. find out more...

The Soviet Revolution in all its glory as the events of Red October unfold on an epic scale. The storming of the Winter Palace in Leningrad is one of the great set pieces of cinema history. Eisenstien practicaly invented the art of editing and this is the movie in which he did it! Brilliant. find out more...

An awesomely shot, sci-fi-like tableau of the high technologies and production line techniques involved in the modern food production industry. Shot with a Nietzschean eye to the beauty of man's mastery of nature and with a dry Germanic sense of humour "Our Daily Bread" may ignore both the damage to nature and the cruelty involved in these processes, but it sure makes fabulous art and great cinema. find out more...

A huge influence on the New Wave and Italian Neorealist movements, ‘People on a Sunday' offers us a rare glimpse at what life was like for ordinary Berliners between the First and Second World Wars. The film tells the story of four young people enjoying a lazy Sunday by a lake in Berlin. Emotions such as love, flirtation, desire and jealousy are all played out in a milieu of youthful discovery.

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Shosho is a maid in a swanky night-spot when she's spotted dancing by the club's rakish proprietor, Valentine Wilbur. Soon Shosho has usurped Mabel as the star dancer and object of Valentine's affections, setting the scene for a dramatic denouement. A tenderly restored work, with a new musical score by Neil Brand, and a truly hypnotic early screen goddess in the form of Anna May Wong. find out more...

The tale of a country boy out to make it in the big city who makes the suggestion of an outrageous publicity stunt for the store in which he works. One of the best of Lloyd's thrill comedies and an example of his ability to mix suspense and slapstick. Features his most famous scene, hanging off a clock dial. find out more...

Filmed over nearly five years in twenty-five countries on five continents, and shot on seventy-millimetre film, Samsara transports us to the varied worlds of sacred grounds, disaster zones, industrial complexes, and natural wonders.

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Lang's epically stylistic interpretation of the the Nibelungenlied, the same myth that inspired Wagner's ring cycle. Portrayed in the form of a ballad, Lang's remarkable visual style uses fantastic backdrops of forests and castles to tell the story of Siegfried's heroic journey from Iceland to Burgundy. Magic swords, enchanted snoods, and powerful amulets abound at a time when the world is populated by dragons, dwarves, and Teutonic heroes. Siegfried is one tough customer, but he better watch ou find out more...

At the turn of the 20th century, the film industry sought to elevate its lowbrow status by imitating the theatre. While cinemas decked themselves out like theatres, filmmakers signed up stage stars and turned to the classics. Shakespeare provided the greatest challenge, especially since many of the films made before the First World War were only one or two reels long. Plays included on this compilation are The Tempest (1908), King Lear (1910), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1909), Twelfth Night (191 find out more...

Photographed by Frank Hurley and restored by the National Film and Television Archive, "South" records Sir Ernest Shackleton's heroic but doomed 1914 attempt to cross Antarctica. This unique piece of history is also a visually stunning story of strength and survival.

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In its very idiosyncratic way, Spione beats Lang's three Mabuse pictures as his definitive vision of a criminal mastermind, the reason probably being that this film entirely lacks the socio-political overtones of the Mabuse trilogy. The exploits of the evil genius, Haghi, represent criminality almost in the abstract, and plunge the movie into a delirium of disguises, deaths, double-motives, and labyrinthine tricks. The tone is somewhere between true pulp fiction and pure expressionism, and the r find out more...

Adapted from a Novokshenov novel this semi-ethnographic, semi-polemical epic follows a Mongol uprising against British occupiers not long after the communist revolution in Russia. When a young herdsman is captured by the British a twist of fate leads them to believe he is a descendant of Genghis Khan and, hoping that such a presence will pacify the people, he is dully installed as a puppet leader. This as you might expect turns out to be a terrible error of judgement on the part of the interlope find out more...

German folklore pervades this romantic tale of a man deciding to murder his wife and then changing his mind, in the end spending an enjoyable day with her. Dreamlike lyricism underlies the moral fable, achieving images of undeniable emotion and beauty. A silent, perhaps THE silent classic. find out more...

While David Attenborough was still in diapers Painleve was blazing the trial. This mixture of b&w and colour shorts from the 20s on, remain fascinating even now. Sea urchins (1929), vampire bats (1945), seahorses (1934 - 15 minutes), octopuses (1928), shrimps, spider crabs and 'the witches' dance', etc., with music and visuals way ahead of their time. Some of the most magical works of 20th Century cinema. find out more...

A more intimate and low key affair than much of Murnau's other work. Using the technique of film within film, Murnau gives a contemporaneous setting to the classic Molière play. A devious housekeeper sets about persuading her master to re-direct his sizable inheritance away from his loving grandson and instead bequeath his wealth elsewhere. But the lad charms his way into the household disguised as a travelling projectionist and plays Tartuffe in the hope that his Grandfather will see the light. find out more...

A collection of short films made from 1918-1920 from silent film's death defying clown. One of the true greats of early cinema. find out more...

A collection of short films made from 1918-1920 from silent film's death defying clown. One of the true greats of early cinema. find out more...