20世纪20年代的美国好莱坞，声色犬马，光怪陆离，醉生梦死。你方唱罢我登场，梦里寻欢，不知归处。默片时代造就了杰克·柯那德（布拉德·皮特 Brad Pitt 饰）和华裔女演员朱菲（李丽君 饰）这样风华绝代的明星，也吸引着如墨西哥裔曼尼·托瑞斯（迭戈·卡尔瓦 Diego Calva 饰）、金发女孩内莉·拉罗伊（玛格特·罗比 Margot Robbie 饰）、黑人小号手西德尼·帕尔默（约翰·艾德坡 Jovan Adepo 饰）争先恐后趋向这个物欲横流的名利场。默片时代的最后一抹余晖敛去，有声时代造就了一批批的新星，也在逐渐淘汰如杰克乃至内莉这样一度如日中天的名宿。

鼓乐喧天，歌舞升平，纵情欢歌的人们，永远无法看到那些默默退场的身影……

无声电影时代，演员的形体远远比声音重要。琳娜（简•哈根 Jean Hagen 饰）就是凭着讨好的外形，和唐（吉恩•凯利 Gene Kelly 饰）成为大受欢迎的明星搭档。然而，随着技术的发展，有声电影问世，这就难倒了声音及其难听的琳娜。无论如何训练，她都不能把台词念得漂亮。于是，唐请来了声音甜美的凯西（黛比•雷诺斯 Debbie Reynolds 饰），让她做琳娜音乐剧幕后的配音者，令琳娜的演出声名大振。而走红的琳娜更加目中无人。唐经常与凯西、好友科斯莫（唐纳德•奥-康纳 Donald O'Connor 饰）合作无间，唐更与凯西擦出火花，两人相互倾慕。一场大雨给了唐无限的灵感。然而他如何让才艺俱佳的凯西得到应有的名誉和地位？

1927年，乔治·瓦伦丁（让·杜雅尔丹 Jean Dujardin 饰），是默片的最佳男主角。每次他在舞台上，都会逗得观众捧腹大笑。他的爱犬是黄金配角，其他女演员只有靠边站的份。一次，面对媒体采访，他无意中邂逅了一位表现欲超强的女子佩皮·米勒（贝热尼丝·贝乔 Béré nice Bejo 饰），尽管后者抢镜出风头，但是他还是儒雅以待。不过，这则头条新闻却压过了他的新戏，老板极为不满，老婆也醋性大发。后来，佩皮闯荡好莱坞，恰好与乔治重逢，这令他心神不宁，演戏频频NG。后来，与老板闹僵的乔治，决定自立门户，自编自导自演。与此同时，佩皮却借助有声电影的契机迅速蹿红，成为了首屈一指的明星。最终，他的默片与她的有声片档期撞车，一场在新与旧、情感与票房的争夺战拉开序幕……

在好莱坞的日落大道边，有一个荒废的豪宅，院子进里的游泳池里发现了剧本作者乔·吉利斯的尸体，故事由此展开 ······过气演员诺玛（葛洛丽亚·斯旺森 Gloria Swanson 饰）已经将近50岁，曾经的风华绝代正在她居住的荒废豪宅里慢慢凋谢，身边只有好友马克斯（埃里克·施特罗海姆Erich von Stroheim 饰）伺奉。她没放弃重燃光辉的梦想，《莎乐美》的剧本正待编写，而逃避债务逃至此地的没落编剧乔（威廉·霍尔登 William Holden饰），正是这项事业的最佳候选。诺玛收留他住下，给他提供舒适的环境写作，并慢慢的倾心于他。他们二人都被对方所吸引。乔对大导演马克斯作诺玛的管家侍候诺玛大为不解。剧本完成后，为了要把这本剧本送给老朋友导演塞西尔，诺玛带了乔，叫马克斯开车到摄影场。塞西尔导演只对这部老爷车感兴趣，并不喜欢诺玛的剧本，马克斯和乔都不敢把真像告诉诺玛。这时乔对在摄影场剧本部工作的贝蒂（南希·奥尔森 Nancy Olson 饰）一见钟情，若玛知道这件事后决意要破坏他们的感情，乔非常生气， 现在乔已经不能接受这个青春已逝的妇人。他拒绝了她，并转过身和贝蒂相爱，打得火热。诺玛得知了乔的“背叛”，她卑微地哀求他，却动摇不了他渐行渐远的心，诺玛终于举起枪对准正要离开的乔。

A would-be filmmaker and actress shake up the industry with a trick dog who gets discovered by a studio bus driver in the 1920s.

Thornton Sayre, a respected college professor - secretly formerly a silent films romantic action hero - is disturbed, feeling his privacy has been violated, and his professional credibility as a scholar jeopardized, when he learns his old movies have been resurrected and are being aired on TV. He sets out to demand this cease. However, his former co-star is the hostess of the TV show playing the films, and she has other plans.

提到默片年代的喜剧泰斗，很多人记得差利，其实冷面笑匠巴士达基顿同属殿堂级高手，对后来者一样影响深远。奥逊威尔斯直言钟爱《将军号火车》 （1926）。《七个机会》（1925）被一大群新娘狂追不舍，还有连环闪避巨石的画面，至今仍令人叹为观止。以《最后一场电影》（1971）名留影史的波丹诺维奇，回顾基顿一生起落，从他小时候跟父母表演杂耍说起，再细数其辉煌岁月十部经典杰作，重温那些历久不衰的惊险搞笑绝技。

An account of the rise and fall of a silent film comic, Billy Bright. The movie begins with his funeral, as he speaks from beyond the grave in a bitter tone about his fate, and takes us through his fame, as he ruins it with womanizing and drink, and his fall, as a lonely, bitter old man unable to reconcile his life's disappointments. The movie is based loosely on the life of Buster Keaton.

Carter DeHaven announces that he will perform a series of "impressions." For each we see him applying makeup and changing the combing of his hair or putting on a wig. When he tilts his head down during each supposed makeover, up pops the actual celebrity (Keaton, Lloyd, Arbuckle, Valentino, Fairbanks, Coogan) he appears to have been making himself up as.

In 1924, stage-struck Boston blueblood Hannah Adams picks up musical star Tim O'Connor and takes him home for dinner. One thing leads to another, and when Tim's show rolls on to Chicago a new Mrs. O'Connor comes along as incompetent chorus girl. Hollywood beckons, and we follow the star careers of the O'Connor family in silents and talkies.

Funloving Pearl White, working in a garment sweatshop, gets her big chance when she "opens" for a delayed Shakespeare play...with a comic vaudeville performance. Her brief stage career leads her into those "horrible" moving pictures, where she comes to love the chaotic world of silent movies, becoming queen of the serials. But the consequences of movie stardom may be more than her leading man can take

A look back at Charlie Chaplin's early life and career, from his rough childhood and music hall success in England to his early Hollywood days and the development of his enormously popular character, the Little Tramp, also called Charlot.

A film about the career and methods of the master silent comedy filmmaker.

张成弼（吴达洙 饰）一直以来希望能够成为一名话剧演员，可惜天不遂人愿，在演艺圈混迹了二十余年，但张成弼依旧只能在儿童剧中谋得一个毫不起眼的小角色，然而，张成弼并没有被残酷的现实打到，依然在极为险恶的环境中苦苦支撑。

55-Minute BBC Arena documentary on the film actress Louise Brooks

Actor and writer Mark Gatiss embarks on a chilling journey through European horror cinema, from the silent nightmares of German Expressionism in the 1920s to the Belgian lesbian vampires in the 1970s, from the black-gloved killers of Italian bloody giallo cinema to the ghosts of the Spanish Civil War, and finally reveals how Europe's turbulent 20th century forged its ground-breaking horror tradition.

Documentary about an extraordinary lady, Diana Serra Cary (born Peggy-Jean Montgomery). In the early 1920s she was one of Hollywood's first major child stars, Baby Peggy.

In this short film, an elderly cameraman and his camera reminisce about their days shooting silent films and news stories.

Documentary about the life of silent film star Francis X. Bushman