Compilation of film clips from 1905-1915, found footage of silent movies and documentaries from the Jean Desmet Archive of the Netherlands Film Museum. Jean Desmet was one of the first Dutch film distributors. Lyrisch nitraat is a tribute to the craftsmanship of early filmmakers, but also shows the brittleness of old nitrate films. Composed as an opera about love and death, set to music by Bizet, Masek and Puccini.

Several men have been murdered lately, mostly rich lovers on their way to meet their mistresses with gifts of fine jewelry. To fight this scourge, King Louis XIV decides to create a special court named "La chambre ardente", designed to find and punish the perpetrators of such heinous crimes. An unexpected person, Mademoiselle de Scudéry, the famous poetess, will find herself entangled in the web of a criminal intrigue linked with the jewel murders, along with a a goldsmith, his daughter and her fiancé...

Carola has been running the family-owned circus alone since her husband’s death, but she suddenly finds herself at odds with her three adult sons who are also performance artists and want to have a say in how the business is run. The family discord leads Carola to turn her back on the circus, leaving the three inexperienced sons in charge. This turn of events forces the family to learn to work together or face bankruptcy.

An interfering mother plans husbands for her three daughters as they come of marriageable age. However she pays no attention to her daughters own feeling until the eventual intervention of her husband manages to bring things to a happy conclusion.

Although she is known as a patron of the arts, a graceful duchess nevertheless refuses her nephew to marry an enterprising actress in this German melodrama starring Kathe Dorsch and silent screen legend Henny Porten. When Philine (Hilde Krahl), the troupe's ingénue, is rejected as proper marital material by the Duchess of Weissenfels (Porten), Karoline Neuber (Dorsch) creates such a furor that she is banished from the country. A performance at the court at St. Petersburg also ends in disaster for the unhappy actress and abandoned by all, Karoline dies a suicide.

Consul Petersen and his wife are desperate, because they lost their only child and can’t have another. At the same time, the maid Anna is expecting a child, whose father, Jurgen, works in a sawmill. When both of them lose their jobs, they fear they won’t be able to feed the newborn. Thus, they strike a deal with the Petersens, which works for both couples: Anna and Jurgen will receive a farm from the Petersens, free and clear; and the two will allow the Petersens to adopt the child. Anna and Jurgen marry and are quite happy; but when the child is finally born, Anna doesn’t wish to surrender him and flees with the child into the Wattenmeer.

Vehicle for one of the Weimar era's most beloved actresses: as the popular Prussian queen in 1806-1807, she presides over the humiliating Peace of Tilsit which Napoleon forces on the defeated Germans.

After the tragic death from malaria of her beloved husband his rich widow Helga Vanroh travels restlessly around various Mediterranean countries. In the luxurious surroundings of a hotel in Monte Carlo Mrs. Vanroh keeps apart from society, until one evening she decides to visit the casino. There a young man attracts her curiosity and compassion.

Remake of an Ernst Lubitsch silent comedy about a farm boy who is fond of two sisters, one of whom is beautiful, the other, not so much.

An engaged woman discovers her fiancé has a four year old son. Pretending to take a cure she travels to the boy's foster-parents to make his acquaintance.

An impoverished nobleman would rather chase after the local milkmaid than seek a wealthy match, to the chagrin of his family.

After eight years in exile Martin returns to Berlin. He was involved in the German Revolution of 1918/1919 and had to leave the country as a result. Impoverished and lonely, he struggles on alone until the market saleswoman Hanne offers him shelter, although she does not have much money either. They fall in love and Martin even finds work on the construction site for the subway through Tempelhofer Feld. One day, however, he collapses there, whereupon the pregnant Hanne tries to nurse him back to health.

A lost film.

The only surviving excerpt of a documentary on film production in Weimar Germany, featuring the different personalities of several famous directors of the era at work on the set including Fritz Lang, Robert Wiene, and E.A. Dupont.

From the director of Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, this is the Passion embedded in a contemporary story. An anarchist jailed for an attempted assassination is told the Passion story by the prison chaplain.

Baruch Mayer, son of an orthodox rabbi from a poor shtetl in Galizia, decides to break with the family tradition and leave the shtetl to become an actor.

The film "Der Kaufmann von Venedig" ( The Jew Of Mestri ) was written, produced and directed by Peter Paul Felner in the silent year of 1923 and is a free adaptation of "Merchant of Venice" written by Herr William Shakespeare. It is an elegant and expensive German film production that was shot on location in beautiful and decadent Venice with some of the most important Teutonic actors of the time: Henny Porten, Harry Liedtke und Werner Krauss and even the mysterious Max Schreck.

In 1766, the young English princess Caroline Mathilde is sent to Denmark to marry the King Christian VII. The marriage is unhappy and Caroline Mathilde finds herself drawn instead to court physician Johann Friedrich Struensee.

An old count has been keeping an eye on the granddaughter of his lock-keeper for quite some time. But the young Maria is in love with the young painter Walter, who is only moderately gifted as an artist. The two marry and become parents of a child. However, the count does not want to let go of his desire for Mary and now chooses another way to gain her favor. Author: Ulf Kjell Gür

In a poor neighborhood of a big city, a crippled mailman is in love with a maid who lives in his building. However, she is in love with a wealthy and handsome young man, who soon disappears. The mailman provides the maid with letters that get her hopes up... but tragedy will soon befall all three.

"The Bear Joseph", so named because of a fight with a bear, is rescued by Wally, a farmer's daughter, from a dangerous situation in a vulture's nest. He then calls her "Geierwally". They fall in love. Wally's father disapproves of this romance. He has other plans for Wally.

The story of the ill-fated second wife of the English king Henry VIII, whose marriage to the Henry led to momentous political and religious turmoil in England.

Somewhere in Southern Bavaria Xaver wants to marry Gretel, but her father Kohlhiesel wants his elder daughter Liesel to marry first. The problem is, nobody wants to marry her, because she is too brutal. Seppel suggests, that he should marry Liesel first, get rid of her and then he can marry Gretel...

An adaptation of the Gerhart Hauptmann play of the same name. A young farmer's daughter is used and abused by the men in her life.

A young academic decides to accept guardianship of the daughter of a late friend. Expecting her to be a young child, the household is shocked to find out she is in fact a young woman. The two marry but more miscommunications cause troubles in their relationship.

An art student in love with her instructor poses for his sculpture. She leaves him and the world of art when she finds out he is married. The statue, created with purpose of symbolizing guilt, comes back to haunt her.

Her Sport is a 1919 German silent comedy film directed by Rudolf Biebrach and starring Henny Porten, Georg H. Schnell and Hermann Thimig. A man-hating young woman tries to break up her friend's new marriage, but while in the Alps she meets her own ideal man.

Based on a novel by Paul Lindau.

Two rich men decide that their son and daughter will marry when they're grown. Now, as adults, the fathers decide the two should meet. It doesn't go quite as planned due to the mischievous ways of the daughter.

Countess Marlene, a young and impoverished widow, is set to marry an old and wealthy count when she falls for a painter.

Henny Porten plays the dual role of a rather indecorous Countess and her kitchen maid Karoline Blum, an amateur actress.

A farmer's wife decides to take her children and leave her gambling addict husband.

Short film produced by Messter-Film for the Seventh War Bond drive.

Billionaire's daughter Ethel Vandergolt has rejected so many lovers that they set up a club to get revenge on her.

a silent movie by Robert Wiene

a silent movie by Rober Wiene

a silent movie by Robert Wiene

a silent movie by Robert Wiene

A patient with chronic anemia marries her doctor, but falls in love with his colleague.

Alessandra, illegitimate daughter of a count, is raised in a circus. Everyone would like her to marry Anton, a rough gamekeeper, but she escapes helped by Count Erwin. The young girl falls in love with her savior but he has no serious intentions.

Klara and her father have been alone since her mother died. Her close friend Hans leaves for the military, and on returning as a fine young man, rushes to see Klara. As their families work to keep them apart, their love grows stronger and stronger.

A production company holds a public competition for film ideas. The winning letter tells of a young woman's lost love in the 1840's. It is, in fact, the true story of a now elderly woman's life.

In the form of a shadow, Death emerges from the sea and convinces an unhappy woman to commit suicide by returning to the sea with him.

A blind patient and her doctor fall in love, but the doctor fears that she will no longer love him if her sight is restored.

First feature film produced by the German pioneer Oskar Messter

Two statues come to live and start to sing.