1910s

Paris is prey to an invisible terror against which the police can do nothing: a sinister organization that sows chaos and death. The intrepid journalist Philippe Guérande and his partner embark on a long crusade to put an end to the crimes of the Great Vampire and Irma Vep, his dangerous accomplice. (A ten episode movie serial.)

A young working girl, struggling to support her family on her meager salary, desperately wishes for a new pair of shoes.

1920 film by Louis Feuillade

The love story of an abused English girl and a Chinese Buddhist in a time when London was a brutal and harsh place to live.

A stranger comes to work at widow Halla's farm. Halla and the stranger fall in love, but when he is revealed as Eyvind, an escaped thief forced into crime by his family's starvation, they flee and become two of the many outlaws of Iceland's mountains.

1913 film by Victor Sjöström

Seamstress Mary dreams of a better life outside a sweatshop. Her dreams come true when she draws the attention of the bourgeois Victor. She soon tires of him, and thanks to her, his money is almost gone. When he suggests settling down outside the big city, where his money could be enough for a modest living, she leaves him and picks up a new lover. A year later, he is living in a shabby, cold hovel, still pining away for her.

The story of a poor young woman, separated by prejudice from her husband and baby, is interwoven with tales of intolerance from throughout history.

Frau Bessie, once a madcap, aristocratic and modern Swedish fraulein, has become now a whimsical and conservative Swedish burgess after her marriage to Herr Thomas Graal. The destabilization of the marriage begins right at the wedding (which contains some hilarious incidents) when Frau Bessie announces the first Graal child must be a girl, creating a terrible conflict with her husband who is hoping for a boy. It takes a scandal to finally end the war between man and wife.

1918 film

一部法国无声电影连续剧，讲述了大反派范托马斯在逃避朱夫警官无休止追捕的同时犯下罪行的故事。

based on novel

It is extraordinary that this amazing film is not repeatedly shown. It is possibly the best demonstration of the genius (not an assessment to make casually) of Sjöstrom - with David Griffiths, the first person to demonstrate his brilliance by making films.
The film's aware mix of the naive vision of the ancestors sitting in the lodge in heaven, which Sjöstrom's character reaches by climbing a ladder to the clouds, and the grim, realist material of the unfaithful wife's child, alone would make it outstanding but finding this at a stage where it had virtually nothing in the way of antecedent is staggering.
Modern prints may not do justice to the sophistication of the film making. The performances do survive un-dimmed. Curious that Sjöstrom was able to take his mastery to Hollywood when the Scandinavian industry faltered but not to survive the challenge of sound - something which remains a mystery that could stand investigation.

Three Scottish officers, including Sir Archi, murder Sir Arne and his household for a coffin filled with gold. The only survivor is Elsalill, who moves to relatives in Marstrand. There she meets a charming young officer- Sir Archi- and she soon understands that he was one of the murderers.

A series of family entanglements develop around the changing will of Roger Bernhuses de Sars, who wants his heritage to go to his illegitimate daughter Blenda. But love and fate also plays their cards.

Susie, a plain young country girl, secretly loves a neighbor boy, William. She believes in him and sacrifices much of her own happiness to promote his own ambitions, all without his knowledge. Eventually he rises to a position of success and sophistication, and Susie realizes that she has through her own efforts raised him to a level where he is inaccessible to her.

1919 film by Abel Gance

After a night on the town, Charlie comes home to the house where he is staying, drunk and unable to find his key. For the next twenty minutes he staggers into, out of, and through the house in an inebriated confrontation with the house itself.

Charlie competes with his fellow shop assistant. He is fired by the pawnbroker and rehired. He nearly destroys everything in the shop and and himself. He helps capture a burglar. He destroys a client's clock while examining it in detail.

1918 film by Charlie Chaplin