By Peter Skrzypczak, Staff Reporter.
Movies have changed a lot in the hundred years with complicated cutting and moving action. The 1900s was still an early time for movies. Here are the top ten movies that stand out to me from the 1900s to 1930. Stay tuned for more top ten movies throughout history.
1. A Trip to the Moon (1902)
Dir. George Melies, Unrated, 16 m
It is considered one of the earliest science fiction movies. While not the first to have a narrative, it did bring in complicated filming techniques such as stop motion and splicing film together, creating an overlapping effect. It was the longest film of its time and Melies used every technique he had known, such as the stop trick. In this technique the camera is turned off, remains stationary, while the subject either leaves or changes.
2. The Great Train Robbery (1903)
Dir. Edwin S. Porter, Unrated, 12 m
It’s a milestone in American cinema, as the first film to be shot on location and to use moving cameras; Earlier films were shot much like a stage play. It is also the earliest film to use cross cutting, which shows two scenes happening simultaneously.
3. L’assassination Du Duc De Guise (1908)
Dir. Charles le Bargy, Unrated, 15 m
It’s the first film to have a musical score and original screenplay. The film itself takes place over nine shots. The movie was meant to bring cinema to light for the cultural elite while also attracting the growing movie crowd.
4. The Birth of a Nation (1915)
Dir. D.W. Griffith, Unrated, 3 h 10 m
This is the first American epic–a drama about the Civil War. It’s not a film I would recommend due to its subject matter with depictions of the Ku Klux Klan, and white actors in blackface, but it nonetheless has an important place in film history. It’s also the first film to be shown at the White House.
5. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
Dir. Robert Wiene, Unrated, 1h 20m
It’s one of the brightest (or darkest) spots of German expressionist films. Written by two pacifists, Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer, “Dr. Caligari” was meant to be an anti-authority movie. It has haunting visuals and unnerving set up and acting.
6. Nosferatu (1922)
Dir. F. W. Murnau, Unrated, 1h 46m
This is an unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula.” Technically the film shouldn’t have survived the last century as a court ruling was decided in Stoker’s heirs favor and the film was to be destroyed. Luckily, copies survived; otherwise we wouldn’t have one of the best horror movies around. The sight of Max Schreck’s Count Orlock in the doorway will always haunt me.
7. Battleship Potemkin (1925)
Dir. S.M. Eisenstein, Unrated, 1h 15m
This is a dramatization on the real life mutiny of the Russian battleship Potemkin. It’s a revolutionary film in meaning and execution. The steps scene is one of the most prolific scenes in movie history. Even if you haven’t seen it, you’ve almost certainly seen it parodied. Everyone is fleeing down the steps and a baby carriage rolls downward.
8. Metropolis (1927)
Dir. Fritz Lang, Unrated, 3h 3m
An amazing movie even by today’s standards, it was received with mixed reactions at its release. The special effects at the time were groundbreaking and revolutionary, with the cityscape set and the “flying” cars zipping in between the buildings. You won’t have a hard time understanding what themes and messages this movie wants to elicit, and that is one of the things that had critics split.
9. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
Lewis Milestone, Unrated, 2h 32m
An anti-war film following a group of schoolboys joining the army after an impassioned speech by their teacher about the “fatherland”. Based on a book by the same name, they are both anti-war stories. The film even had German veterans from WWI to make sure everything stayed as authentic as possible.
10. Charlie Chaplin
Given his catalogue of films, especially in the 1910s, rather than just single out one of his Tramp shorts I had to give the number ten spot to the man himself. In the early 1900s and all the way through the 1910s, Chaplin made a name for himself starring in short comedic serials. Often portraying his classic character, the Tramp.
