Experts Talk Silent Films

In the aftermath of the silent film “The Artist” winning Best Picture at Sunday night's Academy Awards ceremony, many movie fans are looking to watch more silent films.

film professor Matthew Bernstein and Ron Carter, house organist at , offered these suggestions to Atlanta Journal-Constitution readers.

Professor Bernstein's picks

Charlie Chaplin films: "Chaplin was the movies’ greatest, most expressive performer and the easiest of silent stars to relate to," said Bernstein, who recommends "City Lights" (1931), "The Gold Rush" (1925), "The Circus" (1928) or "Modern Times" (1936).

Buster Keaton comedies: Bernstein favors Keaton's comedies to Chaplin's and suggests "Steamboat Bill, Jr." (1928), "Sherlock, Jr." (1924), "Our Hospitality" (1923) and "The General" (1926). He calls these "films of stunning ingenuity as well as humor, for Keaton used all the resources of filmmaking to create absurd and often surreal fictional worlds that continue to speak to us today."

Organist Carter's picks

"Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans" (1927): Carter has accompanied this F.W. Murnau drama about a married farmer who falls for a city woman a half-dozen times and watched it at least a dozen more, still amazed at its "visual and emotional impact. ... So many patrons have come up to me afterwards and said they had gotten completely lost in the film."

Get the full list of suggestions on Access Atlanta.

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