Silent Film on DVD and BD

[NABOB OF NOWHERE]

I know you guys aren't fond of the EU but are there any shops that ship outside of Norway??? www.discshop.no aren't up for it either. Don't you want our filthy foreign lucre???


I shouldn't be too harsh because I did manage to order the Bjornstad cd.
Thanks for that Knappen.

[Knappen]

Last try: (a friend told me they deliver to all European countries)

http://www.cdon.com/main.phtml?navroot=904

The NFI is a sure bet, but more expensive.

[Tommaso]

A few words of praise for the BFI's new "A throw of dice" disc. This could have also gone into the BFI thread of course, but I decided to put it here because I sincerely think that no fan of silent film should miss this disc.

In short: this is an utterly, utterly beautiful film.Only 12 silent films from India seem to survive according to the booklet, and thankfully this is one of them, actually a coproduction of an Indian and a German company. Given that this was made by a German director, Franz Osten, in 1928, one might perhaps expect all the classic features of late Weimar cinema, such as adventurous camera moves, play of light, melodramatic acting etc. This film doesn't have these for the most part (some superimpositions in places, but nothing extraordinary in that respect), but it is more than competently directed. To put it differntly: the film is an almost unique masterpiece in its own right: absolutely stunning outdoor photography, a luminous quality in the images and compositions that border on the transcendent in places, relatively subdued acting, gorgeous Indian settings and especially COSTUMES. I tended to forget about the narrative (relatively banal anyway) after 15 minutes because I had to actually TAKE
IN all the minute details of the sets in every single shot. The film probably would work its wonders even without music, but the BFI again hit the nail by commissioning an orchestral soundtrack by Nitin Swahney (who has a lot of interesting things to say in the 35 min. interview which is also on the disc). It's a very lyrical, evocative music which greatly enhances the images and always provides just the right tone and feeling. It reminded me a little of In The Nursery's music for "Electric Edwardians" in places, but has the added advantage of being played by a real orchestra. It doesn't stop here, as the print and transfer are on the same level: some damage here or there, but nothing really distracting, and generally in very good condition. The transfer is very sharp, with perfect contrast and greyscale, astonishing detail, and although it has many scenes which are notoriously difficult to render (lots of detailed and intricate costume patterns, for instance) there is not even the slightest hint of flickering, chroma or any other sort of artefact. Not even CC would have rendered this any better.

So I should say: it's hard for me to imagine anyone not liking this film, and for me its 'love at first sight'. Its only shortcoming is that it's over after just 70 minutes. I could have watched this for at least one hour more.And as this is only the third part of a trilogy, and as the other two films "The Light of Asia" and "Shiraz" still exist: can we please have them soon!

[NABOB OF NOWHERE]

I am using this thread because I reckoned I'd zap into the motherlode demographic that'd know about such things and secondly I couldn't think of a zuzzy enough name for a new thread.

Anyway, one of those 4.a.m diddling 'round the brain things started me thinking initially about Kaurismaki's contemporary silent movie 'Juha' and whether anything else like it had been attempted in modern NARRATIVE cinema. This lead me onto other filmmakers that have used tropes and stylistic nods to silent film such as Carax in 'Boy meets girl' and 'Mavais Sang'. (Maybe it's because of a recent viewing but aren't here murmurs of Menilmontant in the fight scene of Mauvais if not downright echoes?)

There are obvious pastiche merchants like Maddin and deconstructivists like Jacobs and Morrison but let's reckon on these being 'hors de combat'. Similarly silent movie making as a subject matter (Attenborough/Tavianis) should be ruled out alongside visual gags rendered in jerky hand cranked style and I include Bergman (other than Wild Strawberries) in this camp.

Anyone out there like to pitch in with some ideas of where the Silents have directly informed contemporary film making??

[MichaelB]

Do you count films that just happen not to have spoken content, like Besson's [i07]Le dernier combat[/i07] or Å vankmajer's [i07]Conspirators of Pleasure[/i07]?

[NABOB OF NOWHERE]

[quoted9="MichaelB"]Do you count films that just happen not to have spoken content, like Besson's [id9]Le dernier combat[/id9] or Å vankmajer's [id9]Conspirators of Pleasure[/id9]?[/quoted9]

Well much as I love the Svankmajer I would (and you could argue against that position I'm sure) not consider it as being directly informed by the aesthetic or tropes of Silent movies - putting it another way, where a film maker openly wears their love for silent cinema on their sleeve like Kaurismaki and Carax for example rather than it being for what ever reason a merely mute film.

[Der Müde Tod]

There already is a thread here with a similar theme, also sparked by [i7c]Juha[/i7c].

[carax09]

I have a great fondness for films (and filmmakers) that directly reference the late silents. One example, which hasn't been mentioned is [b3b]Tuvalu[/b3b] by Veit Helmer; a lovely fable which is not "mute", but certainly evokes the aesthetics and tropes of that splendid era.

an excerpt via IMDB:
[i3b]Set in a dilapidated indoor swimming pool (the Central Baths in Sofia), the film details the efforts of Anton, a clueless dreamer who yearns to sail the world, and Martha, the button obsessed cashier, to maintain the illusion for Anton's blind father that business is thriving. Working to sabotage their efforts is Gregor - Anton's brother - an amoral developer who is determined to raze the entire town and construct a sprawling condominium complex. Gregor engineers an accident that seems certain to doom the business and in the process steals away Eva, the beautiful woman of Anton's dreams. Will Gregor's dastardly plan succeed? It is difficult to categorize this film as it refuses to fit neatly within the confines of any particular genre. Taken on its simplest merits it is a slapstick comedy in the tradition of the Marx Brothers, Chaplin and the Keystone Cops. On this level, alone it will satisfy most viewers. A closer examination reveals a beautiful fairly tale with an innocent dreamer fighting to save his world and loved ones from evil. Finally, there is the none- too -subtle rail against the freight train of modernization, particularly relevant in many areas of post-Communist where vast construction projects are radically altering the cityscapes at the expense of history.[/i3b]

Interestingly, I gave the film a spin because of Denis Lavant's involvement (who I knew via Carax).

Helmer's latest project [b3b]Absurdistan[/b3b] seems like it may be of interest as well!

From German Films Quarterly (Feb. '06):
[i3b]Director Veit Helmer hit on the idea for his third feature film Absurdistan after reading a short article in Berlin's Der Tagesspiegel daily newspaper in 2001 about the women in a Turkish village going on strike, refusing sex until their men repaired the water pipe.

"I visited the actual village in Turkey and knew that this story would have to be told in a magical, fantastic way like a fairytale for adults," recalls Helmer who then traveled through Central Asia, the Crimea and the Balkans to find an Oriental-looking village to be the setting for his film. "I found the perfect location in Azerbaijan. We can film there without having to construct any big sets – everything is 'ready to shoot'!”

The romantic comedy centers on two childhood sweethearts who are destined for one another. But when the women of their isolated small village somewhere between Europe and Asia go on a sex strike, their first night of love is in danger.[/i3b]

"Stylistically, the humor is more in the direction of my short Surprise," Helmer explains. "Tuvalu was darker, while this is a much brighter film. And I am trying once more to find a universal language: the actors will not be speaking any lines of dialogue – instead, the story will be recounted by two narrators off camera who will be recorded later according to the respective language version."

[NABOB OF NOWHERE]

[quoteeb="Der Müde Tod"]There already is a thread here with a similar theme, also sparked by [ieb]Juha[/ieb].[/quoteeb]
Yes thanks very much for pointing that out and I'm sorry for not having picked up on that in my search. As fascinating as those mentioned on that thread are, I think I am running on a parallel track and that's why I wanted to discount Maddin type pastiche or just mute/dialogue free films and was thinking more along the lines of people like Kaurismaki and Carax whose sensibility and aesthetic certainly display a great understanding and affection for the era. Particularly in Carax's use of perhaps THE neo-expressionist actor par excellence Denis Lavant.
And thanks to his namesake for joining the party. I knew of Helmer's film but haven't got to see it yet so if any other suggestions tip up I'll be filling my Xmas stocking with that too.

[zedz]

I watched [i08]Boy Meets Girl[/i08] recently and was also struck by the strong references to Impressionist cinema. It's been years since I've seen [i08]Mauvais sang[/i08], so those references eluded me, and I knew Carax was fond of Vigo from [i08]Les Amants du Pont Neuf[/i08], but the references to Kirsanov and Epstein in [i08]Boy Meets Girl[/i08] were a real surprise, and absolutely delicious. It was fantastic to see some long-forgotten tropes blossom anew in a completely different context. How on Earth this guy got mixed up with the [i08]'cinema du look'[/i08] flash 'n' trash is baffling.

Thanks for the prompt to have another look at [i08]Mauvais sang[/i08] - my long-ago first impressions were of a love letter to Godard, but I'll be alert to Kirsanov cribs now.

[carax09]

When you watch [b22]Mauvais Sang[/b22], pay particular attention to the scene in which Alex sees Anna for the first time on the bus. He is trying desperately to get a good look at her, but the bus is crowded and dark. Consequently we get all these beautiful, semi-obscured or distorted looks at her from his POV. The camerawork and editing, combined with the bus sounds and the strange symphonic score ( a whole string section wailing away out of nowhere and then gone again) elevates this scene from something that could have been so banal, to what amounts to a masterclass in Impressionist cinema. It's just staggering...

Zedz, I hope you have the wonderful Artificial Eye dvd. It is a very substantial upgrade from the Winstar/Fox Lorber edition...

sevenarts, sorry I see now that you already mentioned [b22]Tuvalu[/b22] on the other side of our split thread

[NABOB OF NOWHERE]

Yes that scene stopped me dead in my tracks when I first saw it too.

In Mauvais Carax seems to be conducting his love affair with Binoche through the camera and Epstein as Cupid, particularly in those compostions that seem to caress her neck. Somewhat irritatingly in the book on Carax by Daly and Dowd that I've just dug out the references to Epstein are slender. On one page he is relegated to a list of secondary influences exalting others like Godard,Garrel and Techiné to first rank whilst 60 pages further there is a reference to "his idol Epstein" that really doesn't seem to get directly explored at all.

By the buy. If you get the Pathé versions you get subs but also Lavant's audtion tape and a couple of deleted scenes. Don't know if this holds true for the AE?

A propos of Epstein, watching the vertiginous fairground sequences in Couer Fidele I was reminded of a wonderful documentary I saw some years back on pre-fire Coney Island with footage of prototype white knuckle rides that would make health and safety officials shit themselves.

Maybe I should address this enquiry to dem guten Herrn Schreck as there has been discussion of the Treasures and Edison sets elsewhere and this may be a likely repository for such stuff.

[colinr0380]

[quote44="NABOB OF NOWHERE"]By the buy. If you get the Pathé versions you get subs but also Lavant's audtion tape and a couple of deleted scenes. Don't know if this holds true for the AE?[/quote44]
According to this review the AE disc has those features.

[Kinsayder]

Boy Meets Girl is my favourite Carax, but feels like a very backward-looking film with all its New Wave and pre-talkie references. When Denis Lavant seats himself between the deaf-and-dumb guy and his interpreter, it's like Carax positioning himself between the silent genre and the hand-waving of the early Nouvelle Vague.

Incidentally, the best edition of Mauvais Sang, I believe, is the French Fox Pathé Europa. It has English subs, a PAL image to match the AE, all the extras from the other discs, plus some contemporary TV interviews with cast and crew that I think are missing from the other editions.

[carax09]

Interesting analysis on Boy Meets Girl, Kin! It always seemed to me that Alex's interactions with Delpy's character in Mauvais Sang had an overtly Nouvelle Vague free-form feel. Then after he falls for Anna, who really has the look (reincarnation of Louise Brooks' neck!--good call, Nabob!) and presence of a silent film star, the aesthetic and narrative choices seem much more derivative of the pre-talkies.

If I'm not mistaken there was an interview of Carax by Kent Jones on the old Fox Lorber edition in which he stated the biggest influence on his filmmaking style was King Vidor...

[zedz]

[quote16="Kinsayder"]Boy Meets Girl is my favourite Carax, but feels like a very backward-looking film with all its New Wave and pre-talkie references. When Denis Lavant seats himself between the deaf-and-dumb guy and his interpreter, it's like Carax positioning himself between the silent genre and the hand-waving of the early Nouvelle Vague.[/quote16]
And there's the explicit reference (same scene?) in his encounter with the focus puller from the silent era. The film is steeped in cinephilia. I got the AE three-film set ridiculously cheap not long ago and can recommend it, though [i16]Boy Meets Girl[/i16] is the only disc I've viewed top-to-tail.

Do we have a Carax thread where these posts can spend their half-life more usefully?

[colinr0380]

[quote52="zedz"]Do we have a Carax thread where these posts can spend their half-life more usefully?[/quote52]
Here

[Keaton]

Ok, back to topic: In France Carotta released "The Cigarette Girl of Mosselprom" ...fnac says it has English sub's. Can someone confirm this?

Thanks!

[Tommaso]

News from arte/absolutmedien here.

Not overly exciting, I'd say. A disc of "Birth of a nation" (and announced there, "Intolerance" for a later date, probably the new version as shown on arte recently), Harold Lloyd shorts, a 2-disc set of Pabst's "Threepennyopera", and Macpherson's "Borderline"(straight from the BFI, I'd say). Which leaves us with one great release already mentioned elsewhere, Kuleshov's "Engineer Prait".

Of course Griffith, Pabst and Macpherson are major releases for the German audience, but obviously I'd hoped they'd release some of the great films arte had shown recently on TV and not available anywhere else, say "Finis Terrae", Pabst's "Abwege", Beknasarjan's "Na Mus", or Wiene's "Rosenkavalier" (which will be on arte TV on December 24, so those who can get it, programme your recorders!!).

[Knappen]

This is what [b0a]Intolerance [/b0a]looked like on Arte:

[img0a]http://img399.imageshack.us/img399/1064 ... 602yh2.png[/img0a]
[img0a]http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/8167/13m59sha0.png[/img0a]

[Tommaso]

Holy smoke!
Okay, I'm rebuying it....

[SoyCuba]

Ok, I [if0]finally[/if0] got the Swedish silent film box. So it turns out that these all have the problem I've noticed in a couple of my other DVDs: there's too much brightness in the picture. That is why the the picture looks so bright/grey and that is why the grain in the picture looks so intrusive. By lowering the brightness on your DVD player two steps, the image looks remarkably better and you won't lose any detail either.

I would take a screencap, but the lowered brightness won't register WinDVD's captures and it seems that printscreen doesn't work at all. Any suggestions how to take a screencap with lower brightness? Or if someone who has the box would like to take them they're more than welcome.

[zedz]

I've had a quick scan, but couldn't find mention of this imminent release from Flicker Alley. It's called [b88]Saved from the Flames[/b88] and it's a three-disc colelction of early cinema. Sounds like it could be a worthy companion to the [i88]Treasures from American Film Archives[/i88] sets. Contents info below. Note the rare jazz material on disc two!
[quote88][b88]DISC ONE[/b88]

NEW BEGINNINGS: Seven films including the early cinematic experiments of Lumière, Georges Mendel and others, featuring Cyrano De Bergerac from 1900, believed to be the first color and sound film.

MAGICAL MOVIES: Five early fantasy and trick films, including a previously-unseen trick film by Georges Méliès, hand-colored films from Segundo de Chomon and Gaston Velle, and astonishing stop-motion animation from 1911.

SEEING THE WORLD: Among the ten films in this section: A transatlantic crossing in a Zeppelin dirigible, a stencil-colored trek through the Belgian Congo in 1925, Parisian street kids in Montmartre during the first World War, a 1916 visit to Los Angeles, 1927 sound film of Charles Lindbergh embarking on his New York-Paris flight, an early 1930s portrait of New York's Coney Island, and a film promoting Josephine Baker's revue at the Folies-Bergère.

[b88]DISC TWO[/b88]

LAUGHING LIKE WE USED TO: Seven comedies, including four restored from turn of the century Italy and France, a recently-discovered nitrate negative of Chaplin's first appearance in his “tramp” attire, a frenetic Mack Sennett gag fest with tin lizzies galore, and The Pest, starring an early Stan Laurel (before Hardy).

DRAWINGS AND MODELS: Six works of animation: Gaumont's Fantasmagorie (1908), three cartoons from the Fleischer Studios – Cartoon Factory (1924), Ain't She Sweet (1932), and Play Safe (1936) – Ub Iwerks' Balloonland (1935) featuring a new color restoration made from the original negatives, and a filmed performance by puppetry pioneer Tony Sarg.

GRACE NOTES: Rare musical performances: Django Reinhardt with Stéphane Grapelli and the Quintet of the Hot Club of France, Duke Ellington and the Cotton Club Orchestra, Louis Armstrong, and the Utica Jubilee Singers.

[b88]DISC THREE[/b88]

PERSUADE ME: Eleven films designed to influence, including vintage promotional films featuring Laurel & Hardy (dubbed in French), Michel Simon and Jacques Tati, puppet animation by George Pal, three WW-II era musical shorts, two political campaign films, and Master Hands, a paean to the 1936 Chevrolet, selected for the National Film Registry.

TELL ME A STORY: Narratives from 1912-1913 by D.W. Griffith (For His Son), Lois Weber (Suspense), and Thomas Ince (The Heart of an Indian), all mastered from beautiful 35 mm film elements.

SAVED FROM THE FLAMES Booklet: An illustrated history and comments on each film in the collection, written by David Shepard and Serge Bromberg. [/quote88]

[Kinsayder]

Presumably this is an NTSC edition of the Retour de flamme PAL discs?

[djali999]

So the other day my mate and I saw [i71]Wings[/i71] for the first time and I was very impressed - beautifully shot film, and the flying material appears to have been done for real (?).

I doubt there's a DVD or that there will be, but I was curious if Paramount still owned this title? It's a Paramount film and the VHS we watched with organ score by Gaylord Carter was released by them, but the video is dated 1989 and almost any exchange of rights is possible by now. If anybody knows if Paramount still has it then I was going to mail Criterion and suggest it as a possible license now that the two companies have an amicable relationship!