To watch silent film in a live setting with a live audience in the SF Bay Area you can go to Niles Canyon Essanay Silent Film Museum in Fremont, CA. They apparently still have live film screenings on the weekends. I used to go once in a while when I lived in the area.
The Niles Canyon section of Fremont was an early nucleus of the film industry in the USA, before Hollywood. Charlie Chaplin's "The Tramp" was filmed there. During WW1 the film industry shifted to Hollywood.
I really like Safety Last! - many people here recommended Buster Keaton and I’m here to say “don’t overlook Harold Lloyd!”.
I also enjoyed People On Sunday, if only to see what Berlin was like in the 20s. It was Billy Wilder’s early works, before he made some waves in Hollywood.
There are already mentions of all the greats in other comments: Keaton, Lloyd, Chaplin, as well as Lang, Murnau, Griffith and others.
I wanted to mention a silent film I watched recently, Lonesome (1928) https://letterboxd.com/film/lonesome/
Although it includes added dialogue (and color!) for a few scenes, it is still considered a silent black-and-white movie. You get a wonderful view of life in a big American city almost a century ago. It is amazing what still remains the same...
If you get the chance, it can be quite the experience to watch a screening of a silent movie where the music is played live, like they did back in the day. Sometimes they are played with newly-composed scores.
Some directors/movies that can be worth checking out are:
I remember watching Intolerance (1916) by D.W. Griffith at the Avignon festival as a teenager in 1986, with a score interpreted by a live symphonic orchestra (https://festival-avignon.com/fr/edition-1986/programmation/i...). The movie in itself is definitively a masterpiece for its ambitious structure, innovative editing and grandiose production design (it was a flop at the box office in 1916.)
(Warning: Intolerance was Griffith's response to the widespread criticism of his earlier work, The Birth of a Nation (1915), considered "the most controversial film ever made in the United States" and "the most reprehensibly racist film in Hollywood history" - so we're stepping into controversial territory here).
Definitely an early entry in the “cancel culture is out of control” genre. The subtext is essentially “can’t even cause a revival of a racist paramilitary organization anymore, because of woke”
I remain haunted by the new score that Gabriel Thibaudeau created for the 2010 restoration of Metropolis. I saw it performed live in Toronto and I'm still desperate to hear it again someday, but there's never been any home media release (official or unofficial) so far as I know.
Readit News
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolis_(1927_film)
The Niles Canyon section of Fremont was an early nucleus of the film industry in the USA, before Hollywood. Charlie Chaplin's "The Tramp" was filmed there. During WW1 the film industry shifted to Hollywood.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niles_Essanay_Silent_Film_Muse...
[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzspLWK9FEc
I also enjoyed People On Sunday, if only to see what Berlin was like in the 20s. It was Billy Wilder’s early works, before he made some waves in Hollywood.
I wanted to mention a silent film I watched recently, Lonesome (1928) https://letterboxd.com/film/lonesome/ Although it includes added dialogue (and color!) for a few scenes, it is still considered a silent black-and-white movie. You get a wonderful view of life in a big American city almost a century ago. It is amazing what still remains the same...
Abel Gance - Napoleon (1927) 562 Minute epos
Buster Keaton - The General (1926) as many have already pointed out
Robert Siodmak - People on Sunday (1930) Captivating images of Berlin pre war
The Brilliant Biograph: Earliest Moving Images of Europe (1897-1902) - Collection of Mutograph (68mm non perforated) films https://player.eyefilm.nl/nl/films/the-brilliant-biograph
Some directors/movies that can be worth checking out are:
Victor Sjöström – The Phantom Carriage
Mauritz Stiller – The Saga of Gösta Berling
Charlie Chaplin – The Kid
Fritz Lang – The Testament of Dr. Mabuse
(Warning: Intolerance was Griffith's response to the widespread criticism of his earlier work, The Birth of a Nation (1915), considered "the most controversial film ever made in the United States" and "the most reprehensibly racist film in Hollywood history" - so we're stepping into controversial territory here).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pushpaka_Vimana_(1987_film)