Silent Classics

Telling their stories purely visually and giving us countless unforgettable images.

BFI Restoration

Battleship Potemkin (Music by Pet Shop Boys)

Marking the centenary of Sergei Eisenstein’s landmark film, with thrilling music by Pet Shop Boys.

Historical drama
1925
75 mins
Sergei M. Eisenstein

Sunrise A Song of Two Humans

The Czech archive version of one of cinema's last and most luminous silent masterpieces, an enduring fable of love, loss and redemption.

Drama
1927
75 mins
F.W. Murnau

BFI Restoration

South: Sir Ernest Shackleton's Glorious Epic of the Antarctic

An extraordinary story of Shackleton's survival in the wastes of Antarctica, now considered the world's first documentary feature.

Documentary
1919
81 mins
Frank Hurley

Un Chien Andalou

A scabrous study of desire, the subconscious and anti-clericalism - Buñuel and Dalí’s provocative first film is a classic of Surrealist cinema.

Animation & Artists Moving Image
1928
21 mins
Luis Buñuel

Metropolis

Fritz Lang’s expressionist, dystopian vision is one of the first science fiction feature films, and is arguably the most influential.

Science Fiction
1927
150 mins
Fritz Lang

BFI Restoration

The Epic of Everest

Premiere. A breathtaking and poignant account of the valiant 1924 British assault on the awe-inspiring peak, beautifully restored by the BFI.

Non-Fiction
1924
87 mins
J.B.L. Noel

BFI Restoration

Silent Sherlock: Three Classic Cases

A major BFI restoration starring Eille Norwood as Sherlock Holmes in an adaptation of three classic Arthur Conan Doyle cases.

Detective drama
2025
73 mins
Maurice Elvey and George Ridgwell

The Passion of Joan of Arc

An incontestable masterpiece of silent cinema, Carl Dreyer's moving biopic features one of the most powerful performances ever captured on film.

Biopic
Historical drama
1928
80 mins
Carl Th. Dreyer

Battleship Potemkin

A fixture in the critical canon almost since its premiere, Eisenstein’s film about a 1905 naval mutiny was revolutionary in both form and content.

Historical drama
1925
69 mins
Sergei M. Eisenstein

Within Our Gates

Oscar Micheaux’s startling silent classic – the earliest surviving feature from an African-American director.

Drama
1919
74 mins
Oscar Micheaux

Body and Soul

Paul Robeson's remarkable film debut, the star playing dual roles in this key work of African American cinema from pioneering filmmaker Oscar Micheaux

Drama
1925
93 mins
Oscar Micheaux

Man With a Movie Camera

Dazzling document of Soviet life, by Dziga Vertov, showing a living city and the people and machines that propel it.

Documentary
1929
67 mins
Dziga Vertov

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