THE FILM:

Please Note: The screen captures used here are taken from the DVD version included in the set, not the Blu-ray edition under review.

A cinematic event years in the making, the 2010 restoration of Georges M li s's technically pioneering, thematically prescient, eternally charming 1902 film A Trip to the Moon (Le Voyage dans la Lune) represents, for the contemporary movie lover, a return to innocence of near-mythic proportions. The film's reputation as a masterwork that immeasurably advanced the art and technology of cinema had long been more than adequately supported by black-and-white prints that survived and circulated over the decades, but in 1993, an original hand-colored reel of the film turned up, rem...Read the entire review

THE MOVIE:

Laila is a 1929 silent film for Norway, notable as a writing/directorial effort by George Schn evoigt, who had been Dreyer's cinematographer, and for its lavish scope. Set in the northern wilderness, Schn evoigt and his cameraman Allan Lynge capture beautiful images of the snow-covered landscape, documenting the breadth of the Norwegian countryside. It's a film that is awesome to behold, even if the story doesn't quite match the grandeur of the locale.

Based on a novel by Jens Andreas Friis and set in the late-19th century (contemporary to the book's publication), Laila is the story of a girl born to God-fearing Norwegian merchants but who ends up being raised by a Sami reindeer herdsman. At the start of the picture, baby Laila is los...Read the entire review

THE MOVIE:

Please Note: The screengrabs used here are from the standard-definition DVD included in this set, not from the Blu-Ray.

There's a clich in police stories where every cop has a case that got away, that haunts him or her even in retirement, the one mystery they could not crack. Artists tend to have those, too. Every creative person has the project that just refused to come off the way they wanted it to, that they can't stop tinkering with or just can't seem to finish. Oliver Stone made three different edits of his bloated Alexander, packing it in only after he used every scrap of footage. Orson Welles had multiple movies in various ...Read the entire review

There's a clich in police stories where every cop has a case that got away, that haunts him or her even in retirement, the one mystery they could not crack. Artists tend to have those, too. Every creative person has the project that just refused to come off the way they wanted it to, that they can't stop tinkering with or just can't seem to finish. Oliver Stone made three different edits of his bloated Alexander, packing it in only after he used every scrap of footage. Orson Welles had multiple movies in various states of completion when he died, one of the most famous being an adaptation of Don Quixote--a property ...Read the entire review

THE MOVIE:

Long before Renee Zellweger was singing and dancing her way into an Oscar nomination, the character of Roxie Hart was scandalizing stage and screen alike with her delusions of fame and her way with a gun. The musical Chicago went all the way back to 1926 for its source material--a non-musical play by Maurine Watkins, who had been a journalist reporting on female murderers when she got the idea for her tale of tabloid journalism and Jazz Age virtue. A hit of its time, Chicago was ideal fodder for early Hollywood. Though most people might be more familiar with Ginger Rogers's 1942 bow as the homicidal flapper, Roxie ...Read the entire review

THE MOVIE:

The day starts out innocently enough. On the morning of his nuptials, Fadinard (Albert Prejean) sets out in his carriage to go meet the wedding party, which has gathered around his wife-to-be (Marise Maia). On the way, a distraction causes him to be thrown from his buggy, and when he returns, he finds his horse chewing on a hat made out of Italian straw. A solider, Lieutenant Tavernier (Vital Geymond), emerges from the bushes and demands the hat be returned. Easy enough, except the horse has already eaten half the brim. A woman comes out of the bushes next. She is Anais Beauperthuis (Olga Tschekowa), and it's her hat. She is a married woman, and were she to return without the headpiece, her husband (Jim Gerald) would be suspicious. Lieutenant Tavernier de...Read the entire review

Douglas Fairbanks was one of the biggest movie stars of the silent era. His movies filled theaters around the world. The premiers of hisfilms were huge social events. But he wasn't just a big star; hewas also a shrewd businessman and a visionary when it came to the futureof motion pictures.

Today Fairbanks is mainly known for his adventure films, a genre hearguably created with films like Robin Hood, The Three Musketeers,and The Black Pirate. Before he drew his first sword howeverhe was known as a comic actor first on Broadway and then on the silverscreen. While these early films of Fairbanks are largely forgottentoday, they are quite enjoyable and well worth searching out. FlickerAlley, along with David Shepard's Film Preservation Associates, has madethat much easier by releasing Douglas Fairbanks - A Modern Musketeer. This five dis...Read the entire review

Flicker Alley and Blackhawk Films have teamed up to release some ofthe classics of early cinema and their association is a blessing for silentfilm fans.   Their latest collaboration is Perils of the NewLand:  Films of the Immigrant Experience 1910-1915.  Thistwo disc set includes two feature films and a trio of Edison shorts thatare concerned with various social problems of the time.  The firstmovie, The Italian, looks at the life of an immigrant and the hardshipsof living in urban New York, while Traffic in Souls examines whiteslavery.  Both are interesting in their own way and offer a uniqueglimpse into life around the turn of the previous century.

The Italian (1915):  This filmhas a framing sequence which is a bit ...Read the entire review

Wow! That was my first impression when I opened up the box containingGeorges M li s: First Wizard of Cinema, a thickboxed set with five DVDs filled with the inovative French director's films! Flicker Alleyin association with David Shepard and Blackhawk Films has scoured the globeto put together an amazing collection of 173 films that M li smade between 1896 and 1913. All told, films from seventeen archivesand collections were used making this as near a complete collection ofexisting M li s works as were ever going to see. Itseems almost impossible to have this many of his films together at onetime. A truly unprecedented endeavor, Flicker Alley has spared noexpense in making this a truly collectible item.

Read the entire review ]]> DVD Video http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=32491 Thu, 28 Feb 2008 04:54:16 PST DVD Talk Collector Series The Films: Serge Bromberg started Lobster Films in 1985 in Paris and since then,along with associate Eric Lange, they've been scouring Europe looking for,and preserving, silent features and shorts and other old film. Theyhave been so successful in their endeavors that M. Bromberg now showcasestheir discoveries twice a year in a performance he's dubbed Retour deFlamme (Back from the Flames.) (He also presented a versionof the show at last year's SF Silent Film Festival.) Most of thefilms screened at these presentations are transfers from the only existingcopy but they aren't only rare, they are entertaining. In regiontwo a series of Retour de Flamme DVDs have been released (they areup to volume six I believe), and at long last some of these rare filmshave made it to region 1. M. Bromberg has partnered with David Shepard and...Read the entire review ]]> DVD Video http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=30945 Thu, 18 Oct 2007 15:21:08 PDT Highly Recommended The Shows: Under a new agreement, Flicker Films is going to be releasing DVDs producedin cooperation with France's Lobster Films and David Shepard's Film PreservationAssociates.  The first such disc is a pair of hour-long documentariesmade by Lobster Films in 2004; Discovering Cinema.  The firstpresentation, Learning to Talk, examines the myriad of methods thatwere attempted to achieve synchronized sound, and Movies Dream in Colorlooks at the difficult paths that were explored while attempting to createrealistic color movies.  These are two excellent shows, but what'smore impressive are the copious bonus features that are included on eachdisc. Read the entire review ]]> DVD Video http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=30939 Thu, 18 Oct 2007 15:21:08 PDT Recommended Even 80 years after his death,Rudolph Valentino is still a household name, a person that symbolizes sexappeal and animal magnetism.  When many of his contemporaries havebeen long forgotten, Valentino still endures.  The fact that he onlymade a handful of films before his untimely death only adds to his mystique. Flicker Films has put together a very impressive collection of the star'swork and released it on DVD.  Valentino:  Rediscovering anIcon of Silent Film is a two disc set the presents four films, twoof which were previously considered lost.  In addition there is anincredible amount of bonus material including stills, songs about Valentino,and several shorts. The Films: Read the entire review ]]> DVD Video http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=30968 Sat, 13 Oct 2007 11:10:52 PDT Recommended Reviewed by Glenn Erickson One of the best documentaries made about the technical side of film is Turner's Glorious Technicolor, an entertaining look at a legendary color process few people understand. Flicker Alley's new Discovering Cinema 2-disc set goes even earlier into film history. Learning to Talk and Movies Dream in Color are French television shows on the genesis of sound and color in filmmaking. Illustrated with full examples, the shows begin long before the 1895 debut of the Kinematograph, amazing us with the ingenuity of movie-mad inventors. Learning to Talk (Les premiers pas du cin ma - la recherche du son) begins with experiments in the 1860s to study audio signals. The show traces three completely different approaches to the problem. Live s...Read the entire review ]]>