Silent Film on DVD and BD

[goalieboy82]

thanks

[Tommaso]

Sometimes anniversaries are a really good thing. The 300th birthday of the Prussian king Frederick II. this year has already resulted in a few very nice releases, but this one may be the most interesting: Gerhard Lamprecht's 1927 two-part silent "Der alte Fritz" is getting a dvd release by absolut medien in September. Needless to say, it stars the inimitable Otto Gebühr in the role which he played about 20 times in his career.

[TMDaines]

Thanks for sharing. It seems we might have a couple of world first German silents coming out in Germany itself this year - and not from Edition Filmmuseum. If only someone could go back and release everything that was restored for Arte TV.

[markhax]

Thanks for sharing. It seems we might have a couple of world first German silents coming out in Germany itself this year - and not from Edition Filmmuseum. If only someone could go back and release everything that was restored for Arte TV.

Will there ever be a DVD release of E. A. Dupont's Varieté?

[TMDaines]

Who knows? There's a pretty darn good TVrip with fansubs though in the usual places.

[Jonathan S]

Major Max Linder set released in France on Nov 6. Also, a separate Blu-ray release at the same price.

A pity though there are only ten - presumably restored - shorts (disc one). The other two discs appear to be the old Maud Linder compilations of clips and abridgements.

[perkizitore]

Blu-ray already up for pre-order on Amazon.fr

[What A Disgrace]

I hope Flicker Alley or somebody snatches it up for the US market.

[perkizitore]

Fante-Anne (1920) coming from the Norwegian Film Institute

BD+DVD

Has anyone bought this?

[oldsheperd]

If anyone missed the 5 disc Slapstick Encyclopedia the first go round it's been re-released by Image/Madacy. All the same stuff but in a 5 disc video book. I just got mine in the mail and it looks nice. Got it for 9.99 on Amazon.com.

[willoneill]

Big Parade was MGM, but wikipedia confirms that not until The Artist did a silent film gross more than it.

What about Mel Brooks' Silent Movie? ... it grossed $36 million or so.

[knives]

That's not a silent movie though. It has one line of spoken dialogue.

[domino harvey]

SpoilerShow

So does the Artist

[Peacock]

If you adjust for inflation then The Big Parade grossed more than double the amount of The Artist.

[CSM126]

That's not a silent movie though. It has one line of spoken dialogue.

If you aren't joking, this is an astonishingly narrow minded and dumb statement. One spoken line disqualifies it from being a silent? Hell, Jacques Tati movies have sound and I'd still argue them as silent films because none of the spoken word matters to the storytelling. I think a quickly-blurted "Non!" is far from enough to disqualify Silent Movie from being, well, a silent movie.

[knives]

Honestly I think any sort of synchronized soundtrack prevents a film from being a silent film as that goes entirely against the term.

[CSM126]

Even the ones that only synchronized an orchestral score?

[Jeff]

The Tati films are certainly not silents.

[knives]

Even the ones that only synchronized an orchestral score?

I do not get your meaning with this.

[hamsterburger]

I kinda feel that Silent Era'shttp://www.silentera.com/info/top100.html definition in their Top 100 list is a good one to go by:

...while our definition of the silent cinema timeline usually spans from about 1891 to 1929, we accept votes for later true silents like City Lights (1931) or Japanese or Chinese silent films from the early 1930s, for example. (We firmly judge Modern Times [1936] to be a mute sound film.) ... We limit the list to films that were produced to be silent films exclusively (synchronized music tracks are acceptible, but part-talkies and talkies that have only survived as silents are out).

[CSM126]

The Tati films are certainly not silents.

I dunno. The fact that they can work entirely without the dialogue kinda makes it that way for me. Sure, the sound effects are important but I've always considered anything that doesn't require synchronized dialogue as being onto a silent film. After all, I am fairly certain that there were silent films on the cusp of the sound era that were released with synchronized music and sound effects, weren't there? I've seen a version of the silent Robin Hood with sword clangs and arrow thwaps synched to it, for example.

[JonasEB]

I wouldn't equate "sans-dialogue" with "silent film" - most silent films are packed full of dialogue and, contrary to the persisting perception, carry themselves via dialogue, require dialogue, in a way that isn't any different from the average talkie. They just used title cards instead of voices. The Tatis may not have much talking but sound is significant, artistically essential, to them in a way that it isn't for 99% of the late silents.

Honestly I think any sort of synchronized soundtrack prevents a film from being a silent film as that goes entirely against the term.

Well, none of the pre-sound silents were meant to be played silently, they simply required an exterior source to provide it. A lot of them had live sound effects produced as well. Most Movietone or Vitaphone silents from 1926-1931 simply replicate the function of the orchestra and the occasional sound effects people, so they're precisely silent films, exactly the same. It's only the means of delivery that changed.

[Dick Laurent]

I posted a teaser in the screencap section for an upcoming silent..
Some people can probably guess what it's from.

[MichaelB]

I wouldn't equate "sans-dialogue" with "silent film" - most silent films are packed full of dialogue and, contrary to the persisting perception, carry themselves via dialogue, require dialogue, in a way that isn't any different from the average talkie. They just used title cards instead of voices. The Tatis may not have much talking but sound is significant, artistically essential, to them in a way that it isn't for 99% of the late silents.

Indeed - Luc Besson's Le Dernier Combat has no dialogue at all that I can recall, but it would never occur to me to call it a "silent film". Ditto Jan Svankmajer's Conspirators of Pleasure, many of whose set-pieces depend on the witty juxtaposition of sound and image (for instance, the way that opera arias burst forth every time the frottage fetishist notices something with an interesting texture, scenes that would be almost totally meaningless without the sound). And the same is even more true of Guy Maddin's work.

[Dick Laurent]

Guessed correctly in the screencap thread.

Soon to be released by the VDFC (Vlaamse dienst voor filmcultuur) and Cinematek:
The Red Lantern

New restored edition, with new intertitles in english

- 2 different scores
- Many extras including : Nazimova screen test, Nazimova newsreel clippings, Nazimova odes (songs), Boxer war novelties and more
- All in a book-style packaging with lots of information about the film