Best movies like Silent Britain

Italian immigrant Rudolph Valentino makes it big in silent Hollywood, but he ends up struggling between his career and the woman he loves.

Cameramen and women discuss the craft and art of cinematography and of the "DP" (the director of photography), illustrating their points with clips from 100 films, from Birth of a Nation to Do the Right Thing. Themes: the DP tells people where to look; changes in movies (the arrival of sound, color, and wide screens) required creative responses from DPs; and, these artisans constantly invent new equipment and try new things, with wonderful results. The narration takes us through the identifiable studio styles of the 30s, the emergence of noir, the New York look, and the impact of Europeans. Citizen Kane, The Conformist, and Gordon Willis get special attention.

This pioneering documentary film depicts the lives of the indigenous Inuit people of Canada's northern Quebec region. Although the production contains some fictional elements, it vividly shows how its resourceful subjects survive in such a harsh climate, revealing how they construct their igloo homes and find food by hunting and fishing. The film also captures the beautiful, if unforgiving, frozen landscape of the Great White North, far removed from conventional civilization.

To fulfill a dying mother's bequest for her daughter, the town pastor purchases the daughter a stylish hat, and gossip spreads through the town.

When Allied forces liberated the Nazi concentration camps in 1944-45, their terrible discoveries were recorded by army and newsreel cameramen, revealing for the first time the full horror of what had happened. Making use of British, Soviet and American footage, the Ministry of Information’s Sidney Bernstein (later founder of Granada Television) aimed to create a documentary that would provide lasting, undeniable evidence of the Nazis’ unspeakable crimes. He commissioned a wealth of British talent, including editor Stewart McAllister, writer and future cabinet minister Richard Crossman – and, as treatment advisor, his friend Alfred Hitchcock. Yet, despite initial support from the British and US Governments, the film was shelved, and only now, 70 years on, has it been restored and completed by Imperial War Museums under its original title "German Concentration Camps Factual Survey".

Both Jack Sander and Bob Corby are boxers in love with Mabel. Jack and Mabel wed, but their marriage is flat. The young wife looks to Bob for comfort.

This is the first movie version of the famous story. Alice dozes in a garden, awakened by a dithering white rabbit in waistcoat with pocket watch. She follows him down a hole and finds herself in a hall of many doors.

An elderly gentleman in a silk hat sits on a stool in front of a store on the main street of town. He has a telescope that focuses on the ankle of a young woman who is a short distance away. Her husband catches the gent looking. What will the two men do now?

Betty, the rebellious daughter of a millionaire, decides to marry the penniless Jean—against her father's will—and runs away to France and lives a life of luxury on the profits from her father's business. Pretending his business is crashing, her father finally puts a stop to her behavior, which forces Betty to support herself by getting a job in a night club.

A jealous barber's assistant becomes enraged by the attentions the manicurist he's obsessed with and a repeat customer pay to one another.

Larita Filton is named as correspondent in a scandalous divorce case. She escapes to France to rebuild her life where she meets John Whittaker. They are later married, but John's well-to-do family finds out Larita's secret.

Actor Ned Beatty hosts a look at the genre known as "exploitation" films. Interviews with some of the producers and directors of these films are shown, along with scenes from and trailers for some of these films.

HELEN OF FOUR GATES was made in Hebden Bridge in 1920 by silent film pioneer Cecil M. Hepworth, based on a popular novel of the same name. Reportedly highly successful when it first opened, the film would later fall into obscurity, with all copies believed to be destroyed. In 2007, a print was discovered in a vault in Canada.

Filmmakers discuss the legacy of Alfred Hitchcock and the book “Hitchcock/Truffaut” (“Le cinéma selon Hitchcock”), written by François Truffaut and published in 1966.

After the death in suspicious circumstances of Charles Baskerville, the last descendant of the lineage of the Baskervilles, Henry, returned to the old family mansion. The charismatic detective Sherlock Holmes and his faithful assistant, Dr. Watson, investigating the case, and discover the existence of a supernatural hound that in addition murderer according to history, killed many years ago Hugo Baskerville, the first of the line, and it seems that the curse stalks his descendants.

A British musical comedy film directed by Wilhelm Thiele

Santa arrives at a house on Christmas Eve to deliver his presents for the children.

Filmed in 35mm and in black and white, this short silent film was produced by the English film pioneer R. W. Paul, and directed by Walter R. Booth and was filmed at Paul's Animatograph Works. It was released in November 1901. As was common in cinema's early days, the filmmakers chose to adapt an already well-known story, in this case A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, in the belief that the audience's familiarity with the story would result in the need for fewer intertitles. It was presented in 'Twelve Tableaux' or scenes. The film contains the first use of intertitles in a film.

Kelly's employer, Waters, is such a keen golfer that he asks Kelly to help him improve his game at an exclusive country club.

An engineer leads the building of a trans-Atlantic tunnel linking Britain and the United States.

Allied spies and Nazi Agents insinuate themselves at a Scottish cottage (converted to a wartime hospital) with interests on an inventor's nearly perfected bomb sight.

A documentary about the life of Carl Laemmle, early cinema pioneer and founder of Universal Studios, documenting his life in Hollywood and his efforts in the 1930s to save Jewish families in Nazi Germany.

A documentary encapsulating the career and Western films of director 'John Ford' , including clips from his work and interviews with his colleagues.

This documentary traces the history of the B-Western from it's silent movie origins to its demise in the early 1950s. The film contains a large number of scenes from early silents and seldom seen films, as well as old photographs of the stars and one-sheet advertisements for lost films.

Pat Tate embarks on a rampage to avenge his loyal and trusted footsoldier's violent death, venturing beyond his comfort zone of Essex into the dark side of 90s Soho to track down the villain responsible. Set to execute his revenge, Tate will stop at nothing even as the world around him starts to explode.

In pre-Second World War England, a leading film star and his wife attempt to recover a secret carburetor stolen by enemy agents. Based on a popular stage musical starring Hulbert and Courtneidge, a husband-and-wife team who had made a series of successful comedy films during the 1930s.

An inaccurate retelling of the life of silent filmmaker and comedian Buster Keaton.

An intimate portrait and saga of four film pioneers--Harry, Albert, Sam and Jack who rose from immigrant poverty through personal tragedies persevering to create a major studio with a social conscience.

From 1915-1939, Frances Marion was one of the most powerful talents in the movie industry. In one of the most liberating eras for women in film, she wrote more than 200 movies and was the world's highest paid screenwriter - man or woman. Kathy Bates gives voice to Marion's words from her letters, diaries, and memoirs. Includes commentary by silent film historian Kevin Brownlow, critic Leonard Maltin, and Marion's celebrated biographer Cari Beauchamp. Current women filmmakers reflect on the legacy left to them by Marion and the pioneering women of early Hollywood.

This documentary is a fascinating look at the cinematic genius of Alfred Hitchcock. Briefly covering much of his early British works, the film primarily focuses on his American classics, such as "Shadow of a Doubt", "Notorious", "Rear Window", "Vertigo", "Psycho" and "The Birds". The movie also covers his television years and neatly examines the Hitchcock signature touches, from his inevitable brief cameo to his famous MacGuffin.

Documentary about the career of director David Cronenberg, with clips from his films and interviews with friends, colleagues, film critics and Cronenberg himself.

Documentary about the legendary American film director from his introduction to the film industry in its early years to his death in 1959.

Her name conjures up beauty, grace, talent and style. One of the greatest actresses of her time, she is best remembered for a natural and vulnerable persona which was so genuine and alluring. Her cinematic contributions produced such classics as Casablanca, Gaslight, and Anastasia. But Ingrid's story goes deeper than the triumphs of her movie career. Ingrid Bergman Remembered is a loving retrospective of a woman who lived a remarkable life. Ingrid's daughters Pia Lindström and Isabella Rossellini take a personal look back at the life of their mother. Seen from their perspective, this profile of Ingrid goes beyond the acting career and tells the story of her life from her childhood in Sweden to her premature death at age 67 from breast cancer.

Thanks to a remarkable discovery in the BBC's film vaults, the best of David Attenborough's early Zoo Quest adventures can now be seen as never before - in colour - and with it the remarkable story of how this pioneering television series was made. First broadcast in December 1954, Zoo Quest was one of the most popular television series of its time and launched the career of the young David Attenborough as a wildlife presenter. Zoo Quest completely changed how viewers saw the world - revealing wildlife and tribal communities that had never been filmed or even seen before. Broadcast 10 years before colour television was seen in the UK, Zoo Quest was thought to have been filmed in black and white, until now. Using this extraordinary new-found colour film, together with new behind-the-scenes stories from David Attenborough and cameraman Charles Lagus, this special showcases the very best of Zoo Quest to West Africa, Zoo Quest to Guiana and Zoo Quest for a Dragon in stunning HD colour.

A light-hearted celebration of British sex films from the 1950s to the early 1980s. Presented by Angus Deayton, the programme includes interviews with movie veterans Robin Askwith and Pamela Green, as well as featuring clips from popular X-rated movies like “Come Play with Me” (1977). (IMDb)

Among the pieces featured in Fragments are the final reel of John Ford's The Village Blacksmith (1922) and a glimpse at Emil Jannings in The Way of All Flesh (1927), the only Oscar®-winning performance in a lost film. Fragments also features clips from such lost films as Cleopatra (1917), starring Theda Bara; The Miracle Man (1919), with Lon Chaney; He Comes Up Smiling (1918), starring Douglas Fairbanks; an early lost sound film, Gold Diggers of Broadway (1929), filmed in early Technicolor, and the only color footage of silent star Clara Bow, Red Hair (1928). The program is rounded out with interviews of film preservationists involved in identifying and restoring these films. Also featured is a new interview with Diana Serra Cary, best known as "Baby Peggy", one of the major American child stars of the silent era, who discusses one of the featured fragments, Darling of New York (1923).

A look at the history of British B-movies.

Paul Merton goes in search of the origins of screen comedy in the forgotten world of silent cinema - not in Hollywood, but closer to home in pre-1914 Britain and France. Revealing the unknown stars and lost masterpieces, he brings to life the pioneering techniques and optical inventiveness of the virtuosos who mastered a new art form. With a playful eye and comic sense of timing, Merton combines the role of presenter and director to recreate the weird and wonderful world that is early European cinema in a series of cinematic experiments of his own.

The evolution of the zombie from its roots in Haitian voodoo to its coveted role as the world's most popular monster: from being a clumsy corpse to becoming a cannibal killer and the main agent of every infectious pandemic, the zombie has come a long way in seventy years. A look at the rising tide of zombie culture examining why something so dead has so much life in viewers' nightmares and at the box office.

Neil Oliver is given exclusive access to a team of historians and scientists investigating the final resting place of Alfred the Great. Alfred's bones have been moved so many times over the centuries that many...

A working-class love story set in and around the London Underground of the 1920s. Two men – gentle Bill and brash Bert – meet and are attracted to the same woman on the same day at the same Underground station. But the lady chooses Bill, and Bert isn't the type to take rejection lightly...

In 1913, Carl is released from prison, where he served a sentence for stealing. Spurned by his circumstance, Carl rejects God and resumes his fast life of crime. Before long, his fate intersects with that of Mary, a devout orphan, prompting a romance and a reevaluation.

A professional footballer attempts to recover a winning pools ticket.

Doctor Lambert takes his wife west to a mining town, where he can both minister and doctor. His wife is not happy and upon discovering she is pregnant, runs away with a gambler. He soon dumps her, and she comes back and dies giving birth to a baby girl. Lambert, out of his mind with rage, leaves the baby on a doorstep and vows to never have faith again. He returns to the mining town fifteen years later a drunkard. He meets young, kind Lily Sawyer and is greatly impressed by her compassionate nature. Meanwhile, the gambler has returned and decides to abduct Lily, but his partner recognizes Lambert and tells him Lily is his daughter. He kills the gambler before he can harm Lily and soon his faith returns.

'A good-looking chauffeur, employed by an aristocratic married lady is tempted to misconduct. His indifference arouses her wrath and he is charged with assault at the Assizes. ' (British Film Institute)

An exiled Prince living in Paris, begins a dalliance with an opera singer before returning to his wife.

Big Bill Branigan, one of the tough characters of London's Limehouse district, falls in love with Curlytop because of her sweet innocence. He leaves his sweetheart, Bessie, for her and resolves to go straight. When he sets out to find a job, the jealous Bessie gets Curlytop drunk and hacks off her long curls.

Early silent Sherlock Holmes adventure

In the racially turbulent UK of the early 70s, a group of black musicians came together in South London with a common love of rhythms and a message of peace. Cymande – with the dove as their symbol – combined jazz, funk, soul and Caribbean grooves to form a unique sound. Despite success in the USA they faced indifference in their native Britain, becoming disillusioned and disbanding. But the music lived on, as new generations of artists imbibed and reworked their pioneering sounds in fresh ways. From Soul II Soul to De La Soul, MC Solaar to The Fugees, the Dove had spread Cymande's message far and wide, prompting their return after forty years. This is their story.

This documentary goes beneath the surface of our favorite films, seeking to better understand the way we view love, relationships, and romance. From clumsy meet cutes to rain-soaked declarations of love, these films reflect our experiences but are often just as problematic as they are comforting. Helped by a chorus of critics, actors, and filmmakers, and original songs by her band Summer Camp, director Elizabeth Sankey embarks on a journey of investigation and self-discovery.