Humanity was already enjoying motion pictures a century ago. But the ability to do so at home still lay a few decades in the future, and the ability to pull up a movie on demand through a streaming service much further still. Young people in the twenty-twenties may be unable to fathom how previous generations got by without Netflix and the like, but all of us, whatever our age, may be curious about what such platforms would have offered in the nineteen-twenties. Now we can see for ourselves on WikiFlix, a free streaming site that offers more than 4,000 public-domain films for our enjoyment. Currently hot on its front page: Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin, and F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu.
Even casual film-lovers will know those important titles, even if they have yet to watch the pictures themselves. Regular Open Culture readers may also spot more than a few movies previously featured here: Georges Méliès’ A Trip to the Moon; Lotte Reiniger’s The Adventures of Prince Achmed; William Cameron Menzies’ (H. G. Wells-scripted) Things to Come; Ida Lupino’s The Hitch-Hiker.
There’s also Stanley Donen’s Charade, the best film Alfred Hitchcock never made — as well as some of the films he did make, like The Lodger, Jamaica Inn, and Notorious. Hitchcock’s Murder! was one of the works from 1930 that just came available on Public Domain Day at the beginning of this month, along with the likes of the Marx Brothers-starring Animal Crackers and the Best Picture-winning All Quiet on the Western Front.
Not all the movies on WikiFlix are at least 95 years old. Some have fallen into the public domain for reasons other than sheer age. Others, like Nina Paley’s Sita Sings the Blues, were made freely available by their creators upon release; browse the site by year, and you can find plenty of other recent productions. On the list of sections, you can also organize your viewing options by country, frequency of citation on Wikipedia (whose volunteer community created WikiFlix), or genre. How about a film noir tonight? A buddy picture? Some form of exploitation? Perhaps a B western? As TechCrunch’s Amanda Silberling writes, “Why not watch a Soviet musical inspired by Cinderella, a silent film about swashbuckling pirates, or a Japanese post-apocalyptic film that features a guy who somehow played for both the Boston Celtics and the Chicago Cubs?” With It’s a Wonderful Life on there, you at least know you’re set for next Christmas.
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Based in Seoul, Colin Marshall writes and broadcasts on cities, language, and culture. He’s the author of the newsletter Books on Cities as well as the books 한국 요약 금지 (No Summarizing Korea) and Korean Newtro. Follow him on the social network formerly known as Twitter at @colinmarshall.
