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The Sinking of the Lusitania
Atlantic Ocean The 1910sAnimation, Short — Winsor McCay recreates the sinking of the ocean liner Lusitania by a German U-boat in this propaganda piece designed to stir up anti-German sentiment during World War I.
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The Life Story of David Lloyd George
Wales EnglandA biopic of Britain's Great War Prime Minister.
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Fabiola
🇮🇹 Italy The 4th CenturyIn "Fabiola" (1918) Herr Guarzzoni moved from the earliest days of Christianity when the new faith was struggling to just survive to a later period in the Roman Empire when the religion was a major force and attempting to win over Rome.
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Frate Sole
The 13th CenturyThe intersecting lives of Francis and Claire of Assisi. Claire turns down the proposals of the wealthy and dedicates herself to the Lord. Francis is the son of a merchant who turns from his life of cavorting with courtesans to an ascetic life in service of the Lord-- Who opens up the path to sainthood for the both of them.
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Lola Montez
The 19th CenturyDancer Lola Montez is the star of Madrid's theaters. All the important men are after her, among them the English ambassador. But the leader of the "Carlist - Movement", a gang of desperados, kidnaps her, she falls for him and he proposes. But the English ambassador is trying to improve the Spanish-English relations and sent his spies after her, getting the information about her future groom, and the Spanish government is very interested in getting ahead.
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Cleopatra
The 1st Century BCThe story of Cleopatra, the fabulous queen of Egypt, and the epic romances between her and the greatest men of Rome, Julius Caesar and Antony. (IMDb) Only a fragment of this film is known to still exist.
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A Tale of Two Cities
England 🇫🇷 France The 18th CenturyAt the outbreak of the French Revolution, Charles Darnay goes to Paris to rescue an imprisoned former family servant. He is himself imprisoned and condemned by the revolutionary forces there. His wife, the former Lucie Manette, is secretly loved by a gentlemanly wastrel, Sydney Carton. Carton embarks on a daring plan to save the husband of the woman he loves.
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The Woman God Forgot
Ciudad de México The 16th CenturyCortez sends Alvarado to Montezuma who throws him into a dungeon from which he is rescued by Tecza who loves him. He is recaptured when her lover Guatemoco finds Alvarado hiding in her chambers. Tecza next leads Cortez into the city, thus causing the destruction of her nation and securing the love of Alvarado.
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Barnaby Lee
The 17th CenturyPirate melodrama.
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The Lincoln Cycle
The 19th CenturyThis remarkable series of 10 short silent dramas by John M. Stahl, produced by Benjamin Chapin as a vehicle for his performance as Abraham Lincoln, are structured entirely around memory and recollections of the past.
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The Spirit of '76
Pennsylvania The 18th CenturyCatherine Montour (Adda Gleason), a striking half-breed Indian princess, and mistress of King George III (Jack Cosgrove) aspires to become the first Queen of America when the revolution breaks out.
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Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages
🇮🇶 Iraq 🇮🇹 Italy The 1910s The 1st Century The 16th CenturyThe Cruel Hand of Intolerance — The story of a poor young woman, separated by prejudice from her husband and baby, is interwoven with tales of intolerance from throughout history.
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Joan the Woman
The 1910s The 15th CenturyA WWI English officer is inspired the night before a dangerous mission by a vision of Joan of Arc, whose story he relives.
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The Dumb Girl of Portici
🇮🇹 Italy The 17th CenturyFenella, a poor Italian girl, falls in love with a Spanish nobleman, but their affair triggers a revolution and national catastrophe.
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Winning a Continent
🇿🇦 South Africa The 1830sThis epic film was one of the first South African dramatic film productions. It tells the story of the Boers’ Great Trek at the end of the 1830s, concluding with a hegemonic reconstruction of the 1838 Battle of Blood River, where a few hundred armed Afrikaners defeated several thousand Zulus.
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The Crisis
Mississippi The 1860s The 1850sAmerica's Greatest American Story — Stephen Brice, a young lawyer in Civil War-era St. Louis, falls in love with Virginia Carvel, the daughter of his benefactor. But she is loyal to the South and Brice is committed to Lincoln's cause. In the course of the war, their convictions separate them, and Virginia becomes engaged to her cousin Clarence Colfax, a Confederate officer. Brice becomes an officer under General Sherman, and eventually finds himself faced with the captured Colfax, facing execution for spying. Brice must decide whether or not to intercede in his rival's behalf.
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The Mutiny of the Bounty
The 18th CenturyThe Mutiny of the Bounty is a 1916 Australian-New Zealand silent film directed by Raymond Longford about the mutiny aboard HMS Bounty. It is the first known cinematic dramatization of this story and is considered a lost film. Longford claimed it was the first Australian film to shoot scenes at sea.
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The Birth of a Nation
South Carolina The 1870s The 1860sThe Fiery Cross of the Ku Klux Klan! — Two families, abolitionist Northerners the Stonemans and Southern landowners the Camerons, intertwine. When Confederate colonel Ben Cameron is captured in battle, nurse Elsie Stoneman petitions for his pardon. In Reconstruction-era South Carolina, Cameron founds the Ku Klux Klan, battling Elsie's congressman father and his African-American protégé, Silas Lynch.
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Martyrs of the Alamo
Texas The 1830sThe story of the defense of the mission-turned-fortress by 185 Texans against an overwhelming Mexican army in 1836.
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The Coward
Virginia The 1860sSet during the American Civil War, Keenan stars as a Virginia colonel and Charles Ray as his weak-willed son. The son is forced, at gunpoint, by his father to enlist in the Confederate army. He is terrified by the war and deserts during a battle. The film focuses on the son's struggle to overcome his cowardice.
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Jane Shore
EnglandThe life and loves of Jane Shore, mistress to Edward IV. An early British epic.
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Cabiria
🇹🇳 Tunisia 🇮🇹 Italy The 3rd Century BCAll Nations Bow to This - The Greatest Spectacle the World Has Seen! — Young Cabiria is kidnapped by pirates and sold as a slave in Carthage. Just as she's to be sacrificed to Moloch, Cabiria is rescued by Fulvius Axilla, a good-hearted Roman spy, and his powerful slave, Maciste. The trio are broken up as Cabiria is entrusted to a woman of noble birth. With Cabiria's fate unknown, Maciste punished for his heroism, and Fulvius sent away to fight for Rome, is there any hope of our heroes reuniting?
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Cajus Julius Caesar
🇮🇹 Italy The 1st Century BCA colossal epic film like this that tries to depict the life and glory of Julius Caesar, must have a variety of scenery appropriate to the film's hero. This includes the Senate and its conspirators..or .. strange places beyond Rome full of barbarians that must fall under the Rome yoke. Let's not forget the sequences depicting the masses mentioned before.. or.. the human side of Caesar and his troublesome relationship with his son Brutus.
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For Ireland's Sake
🇮🇪 Ireland The 18th CenturySet in the late 1790s, a depiction of Irish villagers rebelling against British occupation (Red Coats) over the right to bear arms.
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Richelieu
🇫🇷 France The 17th CenturyBased on a play by Edward Bulwer-Lytton. Originally released in six reels, but later cut to four due to poor reviews. A lost film.
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Quo Vadis?
🇮🇹 Italy The 1st Century"Quo Vadis?" was a landmark in early Italian historical epic films, and certainly Enrico Guazzoni’s grand scale masterpiece laid the foundations for what genuine colossal Italian spectacles should be. It had a great deal of influence on Giovanni Pastrone’s "Cabiria" (1914) and D.W. Griffith’s "Intolerance" (1916).
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1812
The 1810sMade in 1912, this film has become known as one of the greatest pieces of pre-Soviet cinema. The silent film tells the story of the Patriotic war of 1812 when Napoleon attempted to invade Russia. This joint French and Russian film sparked major excitement in Moscow at its premier screening and continues to entertain audiences throughout the world today. The 32-minute silent film was the point of origin for some of the more advanced camera techniques used today. Sirotin of the Voice of Russia said that, “The film is interesting to spectators even today and is frequently shown both in Russia and abroad.”
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Cleopatra
The 1st Century BCThe fabled queen of Egypt's affair with Roman general Marc Antony is ultimately disastrous for both of them.
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His Trust Fulfilled
🇺🇸 United States of America The 1860sContinuing where His Trust (1911) leaves off, George takes care of his deceased master's daughter after her mother's death. He sacrifices his own meager savings to give the girl a good life, until the money runs out and he tries to steal money from the girl's rich cousin.
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The Battle
🇺🇸 United States of America The 1860sUnion soldiers march off to battle amid cheering crowds. After the battle turns against the Union Army, one soldier runs away, hiding in his girlfriend's house. Ashamed of his cowardice, he finds his courage and crosses enemy lines to bring help to his trapped comrades.
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Swords and Hearts
🇺🇸 United States of America The 1860sA poor girl is secretly in love with a wealthy young planter.
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The Hunchback of Notre Dame
🇫🇷 FranceEsmeralda, a beautiful gypsy street dancer, arouses the desire of men, especially of Claude Frollo, the archdeacon of Notre Dame. The latter asks Quasimodo, the deaf and deformed bell-ringer of the cathedral, to kidnap the girl. Quasimodo, who has been adopted by Frollo and obeys his every word, captures the gypsy but she is saved thanks to Phoebus, a handsome captain, and his archers. Arrested by Phoebus, the hunchback is condemned to be flogged at the pillory. When Esmeralada, moved to pity by his lot, gives him water to drink, Quasimodo falls in love with her. Later, Phoebus is stabbed to death and Esmeralda is wrongly accused of the murder. Sentenced to hang, she is saved by Quasimodo who offers her asylum and... the love of his heart.
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May revolution
The 1810s¡Argentina rises! — La Revolución de Mayo (in Spanish, The May Revolution) is an Argentine silent movie made in 1909 and premiered in 1910. As the name denotes, it is focused on the events of the May Revolution, whose centennial took place by then. It was directed by Mario Gallo, and it was the first Argentine film made with professional actors.
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A Sixteenth Century Russian Wedding
The 16th CenturyA dramatization of a wedding in 16th-century Russia, between members of two prominent boyar families (based on paintings by Konstantin Makovskii): Three matchmakers first visit the family of the prospective bride, and then do the same with the prospective bridegroom's family. Later, as the time of the wedding draws near, the bride is dressed with great formality and prepared for the ceremony, as the guests get ready to celebrate the upcoming wedding.
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The Assassination of the Duke de Guise
🇫🇷 France The 16th CenturyThe film portrays the events on the day King Henri III of France arranged for Duke Henri de Guise to be murdered.
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Humanity Through the Ages
🇮🇹 Italy The 1st CenturyAn episodic narrative displaying examples of humankind's brutality, from the story of Cain and Abel through the Hague Convention of 1907.
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Ben Hur
🇮🇱 Israel 🇮🇹 Italy Ancient HistoryThe first adaptation of Lew Wallace's novel, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ.
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The Story of the Kelly Gang
🇦🇺 Australia The 19th CenturyThe Most Sensational, The Most Thrilling and Interesting LIVING PICTURES EVER TAKEN. — Just as Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927) is testimony to German silent film art, The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906) symbolises both the birth of the Australian film industry and the emergence of an Australian identity. Even more significantly it heralds the emergence of the feature film format. The Story of the Kelly Gang, directed by Charles Tait in 1906, is the first full-length narrative feature film produced anywhere in the world. Only fragments of the original production of more than one hour are known to exist and are preserved at the National Film and Sound Archive, Canberra. (unesco.org)
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Execution of Czolgosz with Panorama of Auburn Prison
New York The 1900sThis early docudrama shows Auburn Prison and recreates the electrocution of Leon Czolgosz, the assassin of President McKinley of the United States.
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Attack on a China Mission
🇨🇳 ChinaThe titles tell us this film is based on an incident in the Boxer Rebellion. A man tries to defend a woman and a large house against Chinese attackers. They attack with swords, guns, and paddles. He's over-matched. What will become of the mission, its defenders, and its occupants?
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The Surrender of Tournavos
🇬🇷 Greece The 1890sThree military men, seen inside a fortification, are firing on an unseen enemy force. The call for reinforcements but ladders appear signalling the enemy is about to overrun this position.
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Naval Combat in Greece
🇬🇷 Greece The 1890sAn officer calls his sailors to the deck. They assemble around the canon while the officer scans the horizon. They all turn in the direction of the camera to look in the distance. At the same time the ship is hit! This scene is a filmed reconstruction of the 1897 Greek-Turkish war.
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The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots
The 16th CenturyA short film depicting the execution of Mary, Queen of the Scots. Mary is brought to the execution block and made to kneel down with her neck over it. The executioner lifts his axe ready to bring it down. After that frame Mary has been replaced by a dummy. The axe comes down and severs the head of the dummy from the body. The executioner picks up the head and shows it around for everyone else to see. One of the first camera tricks to be used in a movie.
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Medieval
🇨🇿 Czechia The 15th Century The 14th CenturyThe story of 14th century Czech icon and warlord Jan Zizka who defeated armies of the Teutonic Order and the Holy Roman Empire.
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Major
🇮🇳 India The 2000sAttacks are always dangerous not safe — Based on the life of Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan, who was martyred in action during the November 2008 Mumbai attacks and was consequently awarded the Ashoka Chakra, India's highest peacetime gallantry award, on 26 January 2009.
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Marakkar - Arabikadalinte Simham
🇮🇳 India Indian Ocean The 16th CenturyThe Lion of the Arabian Sea — ‘Marakkar Lion of the Arabian Sea’ portrays the courageous life-events of a rebellious naval chief, Kunjali Marakkar the fourth, who fought against the Portuguese in the ancient times. He was the fourth naval chief of the Calicut Zamorin. The film revolves around him who was also the first Indian Naval Commander and Indian freedom fighter for the war against the Portuguese. He is said to have won 16 such battles with his impeccable strategies and fighting skills.
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Reagan
District of Columbia California Illinois The 1980s The 1950s The 1940sA drama based on the life of Ronald Reagan, from his childhood to his time in the oval office.
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