Flicker Alley

[captveg]

Well what sort of announcement is that from Flicker Alley? They've done the same with the 3D Rarities set as well, singling out the short Natural Vision 3-Dimension, when in fact they're releasing a whole set of stuff.

It's an odd way to advertise them, but ultimately it's what is on the discs that count, and now I know I'll be grabbing the Chaplin release as well. I wonder if they'll ever get to upgrading the Keystone Chaplin release to Blu-ray? Also, does Flicker Alley also control the Essanay shorts in the US, or is that another company?

[captveg]

More info on the 3D Rarities set, per Bob Furmanek and 3dfilmarchive.com:

"We also own archival 35mm materials on several hours of shorts, tests, trailers and cartoons dating back to the dawn of stereoscopic cinematography. They include Kelly's Plasticon Pictures: THRU’ THE TREES, WASHINGTON D.C., the earliest extant 3-D demonstration film from 1922 with incredible footage of Washington and New York City; Lumiere’s “L’Arrivée d’un Train” first shown at the Academie des Sciences in Paris in March 1935; NEW DIMENSIONS (aka MOTOR RHYTHM) the first domestic full color 3-D film originally shown at the New York World’s Fair in May 1940; THRILLS FOR YOU, a fascinating promotional film for the Pennsylvania Railroad, first shown in May 1940 at the Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco; BOO MOON, an excellent example of color stereoscopic animation from December 1953; DOOM TOWN, a controversial anti-atomic testing film which was mysteriously pulled from theatrical release after a few play-dates in July 1953; THE MAZE coming attraction trailer with fantastic 3-D production design by the legendary William Cameron Menzies, and many more.

These rare and historic shorts will be released by Flicker Alley on 3-D Blu-ray in 2014!

Please note that none of our films are in the red/blue anaglyph format. They will all be seen in their original and vastly superior Polaroid 3-D versions.

Presented in high quality digital 3-D, all films in the Archive have been restored and mastered in HD from original 35mm elements for optimum quality. Meticulously re-aligned shot by shot for precise registration of the original left/right elements, our historic 3-D films have never looked this good before!"

[Flicker Alley]

Have no worries, everybody! The Mutuals and the 3-D Rarities will be full collections, not individual films. The post from Blu-ray.com that put out the word on our coming releases for this year garnered their information off of our 2014 promotional calendar, in which we pair each month with an image from one of our planned titles. Without discussing with us, they went ahead and assumed that films like THE ADVENTURER were individual releases, causing a lot of confusion. The post has now been amended (http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=13155&u ... um=twitter" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;).

If you have any questions, we'll be sure answer them at info@flickeralley.com. And if you, too, would like a calendar, simply order any one of our Blu-rays or DVDs, and we'll include one free of charge.

Thanks,

Josh

[What A Disgrace]

I am a little saddened that House of Mystery has been relegated to a DVD only release. I still have my 2013 calendar on the wall, and with a frame from the film (tantalizing!) over the month of July, it states quite clearly that it is coming in a Blu-ray edition.

[pro-bassoonist]

Have no worries, everybody! The Mutuals and the 3-D Rarities will be full collections, not individual films. The post from Blu-ray.com that put out the word on our coming releases for this year garnered their information off of our 2014 promotional calendar, in which we pair each month with an image from one of our planned titles. Without discussing with us, they went ahead and assumed that films like THE ADVENTURER were individual releases, causing a lot of confusion. The post has now been amended (http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=13155&u ... um=twitter" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;).

Josh

Hey Josh,

I saw that the additional info you sent was added to the news post you refer to. However, please do not imply that that Blu-ray.com had assumed anything because in the first post, which also happens to be quoted in this thread, it was only mentioned that Flicker Alley has revealed that certain titles will be added to their Blu-ray catalog, one of which was Chaplin's The Adventurer. There was no info posted confirming/announcing that The Adventurer will be an individual release. So, there was no assuming as you put it.

This was the initial post:

Charlie Chaplin's The Adventurer, from Chaplin's Mutual Comedies. A Flicker Alley/Blackhawk Films presentation. Newly restored by Lobster Films, Cineteca di Bologna, and the British Film Institute. Coming soon in a Blu-ray Special SteelBook edition.

Thanks.

[domino harvey]

Seeing as how everyone assumed otherwise after reading the quoted news item, gimme a breaksville

[pro-bassoonist]

Some people assumed things because there was a precedent -- the Trip to the Moon release -- not because there was some sort of an official announcement that had detailed the uipcoming release incorrectly.

I can see where the confusion came from, but it was not because there was an assumption on Blu-ray.com'e end.

[Flicker Alley]

Pro-bassoonist: My apologies. I did not mean to assume you assumed anything. Just trying to clear up confusion!

[Ashirg]

AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER ONLY. PRE-ORDERS WILL SHIP ON OR BEFORE JUNE 17, 2014.

We're in the Movies: Palace of Silents & Itinerant Filmmaking celebrates the passion of do-it-yourself cinema. This unique Blu-ray/DVD collection features two documentaries never before seen on home video, When You Wore a Tulip and I Wore a Big Red Rose and Palace of Silents, as well as five bonus films from early itinerant and local filmmakers.

Palace of Silents: The Silent Movie Theatre in Los Angeles (2010)

On Fairfax Avenue in Los Angeles there is a 150-seat movie theater that for over sixty-eight years has doggedly dedicated itself to the exhibition of silent films. Built in 1942 by maverick film preservationist and collector John Hampton, the theater championed silent film at the very moment when the Hollywood studios across town were busily destroying their nitrate inventories. With hard chairs, phonograph-record accompaniments, and mostly original vintage prints, the dingy mom-and-pop operation was nonetheless a palace to the fanatical few who became its loyal audience. Through the theater's tumultuous years of operation, its owners and employees have struggled to keep a cherished art form alive, often paying a heavy price in the personal tragedies that have stemmed from this struggle: obscurity, financial ruin, and even murder.

Through interviews, archival footage and detailed research, Palace of Silents reveals the touching, twisted, and bloody history of one independent theater's successful attempt to stubbornly buck every cinematic trend in the hometown of American cinema.

When You Wore a Tulip and I Wore a Big Red Rose (1983)

In the early 1980s, documentary filmmaker Stephen Schaller was instrumental in the rediscovery and restoration of The Lumberjack (1914), the oldest surviving film made in Wisconsin, and produced by a group of itinerant filmmakers who traveled from town to town making "local talent" pictures. Schaller's lovely and sometimes deeply emotional, 63-minute journal/essay film offers a look at the making of the Wausau, Wisconsin classic, including interviews with the one surviving cast member and the relatives of others who appeared in the movie. His investigation includes moving remembrances of the people and town of Wausau as it was, and even reveals the on-set accidental death of one of The Lumberjack's top cameramen. More than just a piece of local history, When You Wore a Tulip is also of interest to anyone who cares about film history and preservation. Discovering Schaller's gentle, artful movie is just as exciting as finding a lost family album.

Bonus materials for We're in the Movies include an original essay by film historian David Shepard. Additionally, this Blu-ray/DVD combo set features five early examples of the cinematic tradition of itinerant filmmaking. The Lumberjack (1914) is the oldest film shot in Wisconsin that still exists in its original, complete form. Produced by an itinerant film company out of Omaha, Nebraska and cast with Wausau, Wisconsin locals, the short, silent one-reeler tells a romantic story set against the backdrop of the city's lumber mills. Our Southern Mountaineers (1918), In the Moonshine Country (1918), and Mountain Life are a trio of shorts that document the lives of some inhabitants living in the eastern mountains of Tennessee and in the 'moonshine country' of northern Georgia and Kentucky. Also included are Huntingdon's Hero (1934), a local talent film made in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, and a newly-restored, 2012 selection for the National Film Registry, Melton Barker's The Kidnappers Foil (1937), which features a local troupe of children from Corsicana, Texas enacting Barker's basic story of child abduction and escape.

All are sourced from original nitrate or preserved 35mm stock, and feature the versatile musical accompaniment of The Ragtime Skedaddlers. The local talent films are presented by courtesy of the Wisconsin Center for Theatre and Film Research, the Academy Film Archive, and the Tennessee Archive of Moving Images and Sound.

[swo17]

PRE-ORDER FOR $20 OFF MSRP. WILL SHIP ON OR BEFORE 7/29/14.

Flicker Alley and The Blackhawk Films® Collection are proud to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of the Little Tramp with the premiere of Chaplin’s Mutual Comedies, a 5-disc Blu-ray/DVD box set, presented for a limited time in a collector’s edition SteelBook case. The collection features 12 newly restored films (The Floorwalker, The Fireman, The Vagabond, One A.M., The Count, The Pawnshop, Behind the Screen, The Rink, Easy Street, The Cure, The Immigrant, and The Adventurer), all scanned under the aegis of Association Chaplin at a resolution of 2,000 lines from original 35mm prints gathered from archives all over the world, then digitally assembled and restored, a collaborative effort of Lobster Films in Paris and L’Immagine Ritrovata in Bologna, Italy. Each film offers the option of either improvised piano accompaniment or a full orchestral score. Among the many well-known composers and musicians featured are Eric Beheim, Neil Brand, Timothy Brock, Antonio Coppola, Carl Davis, Stephen Horne, Robert Israel, the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, Maud Nelissen, Donald Sosin, and Gabriel Thibaudeau.





PRE-ORDER FOR $10 OFF MSRP. WILL SHIP ON OR BEFORE 7/29/14.

The Keystone Film Company, under the guidance of pioneering producer and director Mack Sennett, was the birthplace of classic American slapstick comedy. This historic studio was at one time home to a staggering number of silent screen luminaries including Mabel Normand, Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, Harold Lloyd, Gloria Swanson, Wallace Beery, Harry Langdon, Marie Dressler, Ben Turpin, The Keystone Cops, Ford Sterling, Charley Chase, Al St. John, Mack Swain, Edgar Kennedy, Billy Bevan, Louise Fazenda, Eddie Quillan, and countless others. Even Hollywood icon Charlie Chaplin, still the world’s most recognized actor, introduced his beloved Tramp character under the auspices of Keystone. Later, under the Mack Sennett Comedies banner, Sennett went on to produce a new generation of sound comedies, some in early color, featuring the likes of W.C. Fields, Bing Crosby, Lloyd Hamilton, Andy Clyde, and more.

Now, for the first time, thanks to Flicker Alley, CineMuseum, and Keystone Films, over 100 of the best surviving Sennett comedies have been gathered from around the world, fully restored, and digitally re-mastered in HD for Blu-ray home video. The Mack Sennett Collection, Vol. One features the first 50 of these films presented on a 3-disc Blu-ray set.

These new editions have been painstakingly reconstructed by CineMuseum and Keystone Films using original 35mm nitrate, archival negatives, preservation materials, and sometimes the lone known surviving film print, from the collections of the Library of Congress, the Museum of Modern Art, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Blackhawk Films®, Lobster Films, the Richard M. Roberts Collection, Gierucki Studios, and dozens of privately held archives.

[captveg]

Awesome news!

[domino harvey]

Oh my God, 50 Sennett shorts?! Wow, thank you Flicker Alley

[whaleallright]

n/a

[EddieLarkin]

100 shorts in total across what will presumably be a 2 volume collection. Amazing!

For the next 2 weeks FA are offering both the Mutual set and the Sennett set in a combo pack for $81. I wonder if the BFI are even doing a release of the former over here?

[What A Disgrace]

Criterion, Flicker Alley, and Arrow Video have all announced details on what are likely to be the three best video releases of the year within a 24 hour span.

[swo17]

And all of them plus the BFI/Shout Herzog sets are coming out within a few weeks of each other. *gulp*

[Cash Flagg]

why does the seemingly formless proliferation of whatever-they-are make me think of hockey pucks indifferently scattered on a patch of ice?

Remember the Keystone players? They're back...in Pog form!

[matrixschmatrix]

And all of them plus the BFI/Shout Herzog sets are coming out within a few weeks of each other. *gulp*

At least I've already paid for the Arrow set...

[knives]

Not to be an ungrateful jerk, but I am curious what the overlap between the Sennett and other slapstick sets is going to be?

[EddieLarkin]

Not to be an ungrateful jerk, but I am curious what the overlap between the Sennett and other slapstick sets is going to be?

Full listing here. I'm not familiar enough with other slapstick sets to gauge how much crossover there is (though I'm sure all of these are Blu-ray debuts regardless), but I do recognise A Submarine Pirate from American Slapstick 1. A great two reeler that Kalat did a great mini-commentary for which I hope is carried over.

[swo17]

The two best films from Criterion's W.C. Fields disc are among the 50.

[EddieLarkin]

The full interview hints at similar upcoming sets (hopefully all on BD!) for Harry Langdon, Roscoe Arbuckle and Buster Keaton!

[What A Disgrace]

There are a couple of Langdon shorts there (including Saturday Afternoon, my favorite), the aforementioned Fields films, and even, if I'm not mistaken, a feature length film in The Extra Girl. What a great collection.

[EddieLarkin]

I've just reviewed Arte's four-DVD set of the Chaplin Mutual restorations, and a side-by-side comparison with the old (2003) BFI discs reveals improvements ranging from clear to dramatic. They should look sensational on Blu-ray.

Noticed this comment from David Shepard on these new sets:

The French release of the new Chaplin Mutuals was rushed at the insistence of the distributor and to take advantage of a subsidy that expired at the end of last year.

Much more work has been/is being done on these films prior to the Flicker Alley release, that will be a dual Blu-Ray/DVD steelbook package with a fifth disc of supplements.

I would suggest that U.S. buyers wait until the set from Flicker is available; it will be much more than a domestic version of the French release.

They're sounding better and better!

[captveg]

Well, even though I've never seen any of the Sennett films I took a chance and ordered the special combo deal of the two sets. Pretty confident there will be plenty on there for me to enjoy. Also took the opportunity to finally order Nanook of the North and A Trip to the Moon.