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I think they've done the best they could with the scraps they had. What would have really perked up this edition would have been a new score for The River. The included Movietone soundtrack may be authentic but it's comically inappropriate at times. Why "Flight of the Bumblebee" for the seduction scene? Because there's a crow flapping around in the background?

Kinsayder wrote:I think they've done the best they could with the scraps they had. What would have really perked up this edition would have been a new score for The River. The included Movietone soundtrack may be authentic but it's comically inappropriate at times. Why "Flight of the Bumblebee" for the seduction scene? Because there's a crow flapping around in the background?

I had a moan and groan about the lack of initiative commissioning new scores for silents on another thread dealing with the new Melies set from Flicker Alley.

The very wonderful Harmonie Band (who I initially saw at a live 'Passion of Joan of Arc) have already supplied a score to Seventh Heaven for ‘Giornate del Cinema Muto’ and would probably jump at the chance to come up with something for a release like this. As live events for screening silents gets increasingly more adventurous it seems that dvd publishers are ploughing in the opposite direction.

Maybe it is just that I have come to rely a lot on TV broadcast/VHS/DVDr copies of films lately in order to see some of those really old and rare films, but I was rather jubilant, when I looked at the disc. I think it looks better in motion than the caps suggest (but then that is a typical comment from me). The source material is definitely more visibly damaged than we have come to be used to by other high grade labels, but in this case I still felt it was more in the way of lending the film "patina," than in some films where the wear and tear results in missing frames and jump cuts.

Tryavna, the documentary is by Janes Bergstrom, and for me (having only cursory knowledge of Murnau, Borzage, Fox or the late silent period) it was very instructive. Janet charts the parallel careers of Murnau and Borzage at Fox during the late '20s, beginning with Sunrise and ending with Lucky Star. Credit is given to Murnau for being a huge influence on all of Hollywood; in fact, she suggests that this was a calculated move by William Fox in bringing him to Hollywood. Fox was dominating the industry in those years, and William Fox considered The Last Laugh the greatest masterpiece of the cinema up to that point. Murnau was invited over to Hollywood on a carte blanche deal that sounds incredibly like the one offered to Orson Welles some years later.

Bergstrom shows how specific scenes and technical innovations on Sunrise inspired similar scenes in Borzage's films. However, she also points out the strong differences in the way that the two directors portrayed people (especially couples): Murnau was the director of the mind, and Borzage the director of the heart. She also goes on to discuss, how the two directors literally shared the same technical crew and stars. Sometimes technicians and actors would even work on films for both directors simultaneously.

The documentary runs apx. 35 minutes, and is generally a narrative by Bergstrom set to stills and scenes from the various films. I have not seen the Ford at Fox doc. yet, so I cannot answer the extent to which the two pieces are similar.

A great release!

Le Ballon rouge (Spanish R2)






Crin-Blanc (Spanish R2)

Awww, look at the twins in capture 2 for Le Ballon rouge!

Person wrote:Awww, look at the twins in capture 2 for Le Ballon rouge!

Look out, Donald Sutherland! Now there are two!

Does the snugness of that child's pants in White Mane perturb anyone else as much as it does me?

..looks like he should be next to David Cassidy at a Partridge Family gig.

Riusciranno i nostri eroi a ritrovare l'amico misteriosamente scomparso in Africa? by Ettore Scola 1968
(Nos héros réussiront-ils à retrouver leur ami mystérieusement disparu en Afrique ?)
aka Will Our Heroes Be Able to Find Their Friend Who Has Mysteriously Disappeared in Africa?
From the M6video/SNC series Les maîtres italiens.
Original italian version with optional french subs and additional french audio.

This is sort of a modern take on Heart of darkness ten tears ahead of Coppola about two men looking for their missing friend.

Ben voilà.

The transfer is really very good. I think these post-neorealist italian comedies (by Risi, Comencini, Monicelli, Scola etc) are among the most neglected on this forum. It seems that the directors mentioned have had a very minor reception in English speaking countries.

Knappen wrote: I think these post-neorealist italian comedies (by Risi, Comencini, Monicelli, Scola etc) are among the most neglected on this forum. It seems that the directors mentioned have had a very minor reception in English speaking countries.

Fortunatelly, they have been re-discovered in France and Spain. Don't miss Il federale by Luiciano Salace it's a Spanish and English friendly dvd on Italy and a masterpiece of commedia all'italiana.

in this international forum there's a thread about Dino Risi on dvd.

Do you mean this thread on Studio Canal releases?

Thanks for the tip on Il Federale.

It was "Dino Risi on dvd" but I see it was moved to that one you say.

Losey: A Doll's House, R2 UK.

Oh, yes! Gorgeous cinematography by Gerry Fisher, as ever. Sold!

Love on the Ground (L'Amour par terre, Rivette, 1984) - Bluebell Films, R0 UK
16:9 encoded, optional English subs




Subtitle sample:

Wuthering Heights (Hurlevent, Rivette, 1985) - Bluebell Films, R0 UK
16:9 encoded, optional English subs

Subtitle sample:




Note: The image below has been brightened in Photoshot to reveal some ghosting/interlacing which was hard to capture otherwise:

William Worthington's The Dragon Painter (1919). Released by Milestone.








And, Thomas Ince's The Wrath of the Gods (1914), presented as an extra on The Dragon Painter.

Identificazione di una donna (Antonioni, 1982)

R2, Surf Video/DNC. 16:9 encoded, optional Italian subs

How about some screencaps of the "good" scenes?

Wow, terrific compositions from Antonioni / Di Palma. If only it had english subs. MoC should try for this one.

Two shots from the Arte DVD of Hurlevent:




One shot from the Arte disc of L'amour par terre:

Godard's Weekend, Distinction (Aust / R0)

La Pacifista (Miklós Jancsó, 1970)
R2 Italy (Alan Young Home Video) Italian audio, Italian subtitles

Vizi privati, pubbliche virtù (Miklós Jancsó, 1976)
R0 Italy (Number One Video) Italian audio, no subtitles

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg - Koch Lorber (R1) USA on top / Aztec (R4) AUST down under