Flicker Alley

[Gregory]

Yeah, "perfect" may be just a bit of a reach given the notoriously unpopular score and the release's scant 15 minutes of silent film content. And how about that documentary including footage of Tom Hanks playing Georges Méliès?

[What A Disgrace]

I'm plum excited for Behind the Door. Thomas Ince is a figure who has always fascinated me.

[unclehulot]

I'm afraid there's very sad news to report on our friend David Shepard....

From Nitrateville:
Courtesy of Annette D'Agostino Lloyd:

Film preservationist David Shepard is in grave condition, fighting Stage 4 cancer in Oregon. He has chosen hospice care in lieu of chemotherapy and is among family and friends.

See this thread:
http://www.nitrateville.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=23606" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

One post mentions that his son has been reading him comments from that thread.

[Adam]

David passed away last night:
http://www.nitrateville.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=23610" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
He was a really wonderful person.

[FrauBlucher]

Behind the Door (1919) restoration trailer and supps detailed

[Timec]

Flicker Alley just announced a dual format Early Women Filmmakers boxset.

Flicker Alley and Blackhawk Films® are proud to present Early Women Filmmakers: An International Anthology, a landmark Blu-ray/DVD collection of newly restored films by early cinema's groundbreaking women directors. This extensive set of 25 films from 14 international directors showcases the innovative technical and stylistic contributions of women, a vital missing piece in the canon of cinematic history.

More women worked in film during its first two decades than at any time since. Unfortunately, many early women filmmakers have been largely written out of film history, their contributions undervalued. This necessary and timely collection highlights the work of 14 of early cinema's most innovative and influential women directors, re-writing and celebrating their rightful place in film history.

International in scope, this groundbreaking collection features over 10 hours of material, comprised of 25 films spanning 1902-1943, including many rare titles not widely available until now, from shorts to feature films, live-action to animation, commercial narratives to experimental works. Directors include Alice Guy Blaché, Lois Weber, Mabel Normand, Madeline Brandeis, Germaine Dulac, Olga Preobrazhenskaia, Marie-Louise Iribe, Lotte Reiniger, Claire Parker, Mrs. Wallace Reid (Dorothy Davenport), Leni Riefenstahl, Mary Ellen Bute, Dorothy Arzner, and Maya Deren.

Isn't Kino working on a similar set?

[knives]

They at least were, but Kino's was American focused while this sounds like it won't have much overlap.

[matrixschmatrix]

Haha Flicker Alley just sliding Leno Riefenstahl in there like there's nothing especially noteworthy about THAT particular inclusion. Does she have any extant shorts, or is that likely to be something like Olympia?

[Timec]

There's a complete list of the films on their site. Looks like the Riefenstahl is Day of Freedom.

They at least were, but Kino's was American focused while this sounds like it won't have much overlap.

Oh yeah—going back and looking at the Kickstarter for the Kino, it looks like they’re mostly covering different territory. Though even if there is some overlap, I’m always happy to support projects like this.

[vidussoni]

Haha Flicker Alley just sliding Leno Riefenstahl in there like there's nothing especially noteworthy about THAT particular inclusion. Does she have any extant shorts, or is that likely to be something like Olympia?

I believe the ladies are in a particular order for a reason. It starts with early silent film directors and ends with Maya Deren, the youngest of the bunch.

[FrauBlucher]

Wow, this looks like a great set.

[denti alligator]

There's a complete list of the films on their site. Looks like the Riefenstahl is Day of Freedom

That's good, since it's the one short she made after perfecting her style. But I wonder why we are only getting the 17 minute version. It should run 28 minutes, according to wikipedia and imdb.

[swo17]

The two most accurate internet sites.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

There are probably people here who know more about this, but from what I can piece together the 17-minute cut was the only one known to exist for some time. David Hinton alludes to this in the third edition of The Films of Leni Riefenstahl (published in 2000):

Day of Freedom was lost at the end of the war, and remained lost until the mid-1970's when an incomplete print was discovered in the United States ... The central part of the film, which Riefenstahl claims is the only interesting part, is a speech by Hitler, and it is missing from the surviving print.

Evidently the situation has changed since that book was published, since the long version (complete with Hitler's speech) is readily available online. Despite that, it seems only the 17-minute version is on DVD (it's also on Blu as part of Synapse's release of Triumph of the Will). All online copies of the long version have a 2003 copyright for some outfit called "A&M" superimposed over the section missing from the short version; it also looks much, much worse in general. Perhaps there's only one copy of the full-length version and nobody else has access to it.

[Minkin]

Evidently the situation has changed since that book was published, since the long version (complete with Hitler's speech) is readily available online. Despite that, it seems only the 17-minute version is on DVD (it's also on Blu as part of Synapse's release of Triumph of the Will). All online copies of the long version have a 2003 copyright for some outfit called "A&M" superimposed over the section missing from the short version; it also looks much, much worse in general. Perhaps there's only one copy of the full-length version and nobody else has access to it.

Janus should still have the rights to all of her films + whatever negatives, etc that Riefenstahl owned. So I would perhaps wait until Criterion eventually does some sort of boxset/releases of her films before getting your hopes up over the quality of that particular short.

[knives]

Criterion will probably do nothing with her.

[denti alligator]

Criterion will probably do nothing with her.

True, but it would be nice to have Olympia done well.

[Minkin]

Criterion will probably do nothing with her.

Not after that Guardian article demonizing Criterion for their lack of female directors!

[Glowingwabbit]

I wonder why there is only an excerpt from Dance, Girl, Dance being included in the set (that's really disappointing).

[sabbath]

I wonder why there is only an excerpt from Dance, Girl, Dance being included in the set (that's really disappointing).

Perhaps because Warner Bros. doesn't approve including the entire picture?
BTW, this will be the excerpt, probably : https://youtu.be/Fljry1HocUY" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Janus should still have the rights to all of her films + whatever negatives, etc that Riefenstahl owned. So I would perhaps wait until Criterion eventually does some sort of boxset/releases of her films before getting your hopes up over the quality of that particular short.

Riefenstahl never took out a copyright on Day of Freedom, and as far as I can tell she never attempted to. It's possible she still had some elements for the film, but according to this she had the negatives shipped to Italy near the end of the war and they were never recovered. (The negatives for Triumph of the Will and Victory of Faith were part of the same shipment.) Riefenstahl did eventually recover the negatives for Olympia, but for the others she was evidently dependent on materials held elsewhere; for example, in the late '50s she tried to get a copy of Triumph of the Will from the Imperial War Museum, which apparently set off a minor political fracas. I wouldn't be surprised if the only surviving sources for Day of Freedom are whatever was used for the 17-minute version (which was found in the U.S. in 1971) and the mysterious "A&M" copy kicking around online.

[Satori]

I wonder why there is only an excerpt from Dance, Girl, Dance being included in the set (that's really disappointing).

I was thinking the same thing, although I'd much rather have one of her unavailable earlier films included. Working Girls (1931) is a masterpiece but the only version I've seen circulating is an awful, scuzzy VHS rip. Several of her other films are also unavailable on home video and only circulate via TCM rips (in good enough prints that they could easily be released on DVD). While the importance of Dance, Girl, Dance and the "breaking the male gaze" segment can't be overstated, it is unfortunate that this seems to be the only Arzner that is widely known.

But I don't want my complaints to overshadow the amazing work being done for this box set. I am especially excited for the Dulacs and the Reinigers!

[Glowingwabbit]

Flicker Alley replied to my tweet about it saying "It's a combination of timing, budget, & rights."

It's still an amazing set and I'll definitely get it (I was just curious, slightly bummed, by that one).

[zedz]

Four of the films in this collection arrived after the release of the much larger anthology Masterworks of the American Avant-garde Experimental Film, 1920-1970 had gone to press; they are such beautiful and extraordinary works that deserve to be seen after decades of unavailability. All are brilliant and true color copies mastered in high definition from original Kodachrome master copies or camera films.

Abstract in Concrete (1952). John Arvonio shot footage for this stunning pattern film of New York City at night over a five-year period. The music by Frank Fields is a movement of his 1931 suite Times Square Silhouette. Although it was quite successful and widely shown in the 1950s, Arvonio never released another film.

Analogies #1 and Color Dances #1 are both by Jim Davis (1952-53). Painter, sculptor and a major figure in '50's avant-garde film, Davis is represented in the Masterworks anthology by Evolution. "Abstract and mysterious to many spectators, these waves and studies of light were for Davis images if the causative forces of nature." - ReVoir

Treadle and Bobbin by Wheaton Galentine (1954). The Singer treadle sewing machine stars in this rhythmic and imaginatively photographed work. "A distinguished visual analysis of moving parts, well exploited for beauty and interest and notable for its fresh observation." - Melbourne (Australia) Int'l Film Festival. Galentine collaborated with other major independent filmmakers of the period including Francis Thompson, Shirley Clarke and Alexander Hammid, but this is his only released solo work.

N.Y., N.Y. by Francis Thompson (Filmed 1949-57, released 1958). Thompson shot the vibrant fractured images with a Kodak Cine-Special camera specially rigged with "secret" mirrors, kaleidoscopes and even reflective car hubcaps. The experience remains an exquisite time capsule that not only documents Manhattan during the 1950s but also, in the words of the New York Times, proffers "one of the few genuine masterpieces" of the burgeoning experimental film movement in the United States.

This is a great disc, and a welcome addendum to the fabulous Masterworks set. It's a really well-compiled programme, with connections running from film to film.

Abstract in Concrete I'd already seen (on one of the Centre Pompidou discs?) and it's great. It's a moody study of neon reflected in rain-slicked streets, like old jazz album covers come to vibrant life.

Analogies #1 follows up on the reflections theme by pairing real world reflections on water with Davis's light-bending abstract images. It's attractive enough, but the slightest film in the programme.

Color Dance #1 uses the same technique to much more striking effect, building into brilliantly orchestrated fluid neon spashes cascading across a black background. An unexpected masterpiece arising from what initially seemed like a rather constrained image-making apparatus.

Bobbin and Treadle is a whole lot of arty close-ups of an old Singer sewing machine, and it's surprisingly compelling. Evocative of the Quay Brothers' more abstract work.

N.Y., N.Y. reappears from the Masterworks set. Great film anyway.

[Saturnome]

Seems like Marie Epstein's La Maternelle isn't included in the upcoming Early Women Filmmakers set anymore... Too bad, I was really happy about this one.