Absolutely true, Schreck. I imagine that they do not have any better materials at all, and to restore them to make the print halfway decent would certainly require a Metropolis-style effort. Perhaps someone responsible also still feels uneasy about the films curious combination of bolshevism and pantheism, and would rather not give it too much attention. Even the new music by Popov was not recorded and dubbed in Russia, but is an effort by German TV station ZDF.
Different question: being infatuated with "Earth" at the moment, I thought about checking out some more Dovzhenko. Apparently there's a dvd of "Arsenal" out there. Can anyone comment on the film and the dvd quality? Better than "Earth"?

Far better than EARTH, as far as print quality. As for style, far more complex, mysterious, intriguing, even more exaggerated caricaturing of the human face (to the point of cartooning!).

Buy the disc-- it's an Image disc from Shepards collection. Indespensable. Nice commentary on there too, which explains a lot of otherwise unkowable obscure historical, mythological, and other references in this most complex and obscure--sometimes very difficult, but ever-intriguingly-- of films. Endlessly watchable, very complex visual poetry. Daniel Demyutsky, wow what a cinematographer-- underrated combo, but every bit as powerful as Freund & Murnau at times.

Thanks for the info,sounds great! I'll put it on the next purchase list.

DVDMovieCentralReview

dOC Review

From Digitally Obsessed (re the complexity and how the commentary keeps you from being completely lost in the wilderness of the film's visual density and obscurity of references):

Yep, I read that digobsessed review, too. Sounds very intriguing indeed, especially as I had my difficulties understanding all the background in "Earth" already (what precisely are 'Kulaks', for example). But this did not keep me from enjoying the sheer poetry of the images at all. Still, a commentary track is a good idea, and I wonder why arte edition did not care to provide even this on their barebones disc.

From http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/RUSkulaks.htm

And there it is...

Ah, thanks. I thought something along these lines when I watched the film, but it was unclear to me that some private farm owning was obviously still in existence in 1930 in the Soviet State.

Don't know if this one has been mentioned before but I just saw L' Inferno the other day and it blew my mind! It would've been a perfect experience if I didn't hate Tangerine Dream score so much (in fact, I hate all their scores! And their music too!). Maybe someone can recommend a better sonic background to listen to while the movie plays.

As for the movie, this is the closest western cinema has come to match Nakagawa's reimagining of Hell in Jigoku (itself pregnant of western imagery and theology throughout). Recommended viewing, of course.

Anybody here ever see MACISTE IN HELL?

I have just watched the new German "Man with a movie camera/ Der Mann mit der Kamera" DVD published by absolut medien/arte edition. Hitherto I had only seen the old BFI dvd which is so awful that it would be clear that any other edition would be superior imagewise. But still, this is a very fine edition: the booklet tells me that the print was provided by the BFI, so it may be a port of the newer BFI version with the Nyman soundtrack (which I haven't seen). Apparently it's interlaced, but don't worry: there are only very few instances where it becomes visible, and generally the image is very, very good: surprisingly sharp and detailed, NO contrast boosting. Blacks are blacks, whites are white, and everything in between has been rendered fabulously. The print has quite a few scratches and debris in the opening sequences, but afterwards it becomes quite acceptable. Opening credits are in Russian, German subs are optional, and there are thankfully no subs telling us what is written on the houses etc. during the film itself (as in the Shepard resto).

Best of all is the choice of three music soundtracks here:
1) Michael Nyman's version has already garnered its share of criticism here. Not having known it before, I tentatively agree with the critics: it doesn't fit the images, but I suspect it would perhaps work quite well as a purely musical composition. Have to listen to it without the film sometime soon.
2) A new soundtrack (2005) by Werner Cee, which consists of 'found' sounds (birds, strange russian singing, noises etc.). Well, I briefly checked this one, and also found it did not only do no justice to the images and the rhythms of the film, but in some places made pure nonsense of it (haha...I'm already looking forward to Schreck's comments on THIS one should he see it).. So I found myself switching over - predictably - to option number
3) In the Nursery, which is one of my favourite silent film scores ever, perfectly capturing (for me) the transcendent and utopian aspects of the film. Hitherto only available on the abonimable first BFI edition, I'm so glad to finally have it on this more than decent dvd.

Fantastic extras, too: first we get a very nice illustrated 20-page booklet (in German), with essays about the film, the man behind it, and about the history of the music written for it (and of course some info about the three soundtracks here). Second, there is an 86 min. documentary called "Im Land der Kinoveteranen: Filmexpedition zu Dziga Vertov", made by Thomas Tode in 1996. The documentary visits modern day Moscow, reflects on the changes since Vertov's time, has interviews with a 92-year old cameraman who worked with Vertov, and in a subtle and somewhat oblique way gives us some good background view of the man and his time (especially about the 30s and 40s and Vertov's problems with Stalin). No subs available for this one, which probably renders it useless for those who don't speak German (although you might even then be happy about the few excerpts from Vertov's 1937 Stalin film "Lullaby").

So, all in all, another excellent job from arte edition, a marvellous package which probably blows away all former editions of the film, although I miss the Tsivian commentary. Don't expect perfect image quality, but as said before, this one is very reasonably rendered. I would recommend it to anyone, even if you don't speak German. The film has no intertitles so you don't need any translations, and it's the only chance to get the ITN soundtrack apart from the terrible first BFI effort.

My speculation is the disc from the print from George Eastman House (which in turn was taken from the nitrate neg), i e a run off of the digi tape used by the Nyman disc & Image disc, with some additional flexibility on the audio (tho at the expense of the fabulous Tsivian commentary). Have you seen the Eastman house discs Tom, and thereby answer this speculation?

It is really really a shame Gary Tooze is not a fan of silent film. So many clutch releases go by him, but generally if it's not part of the Eureka/MoC or CC release calendar, we get no review. No ASPHALT compare, no Stillers, WARNING SHADOWS (no Leni at all!), no Vertov at all. Lord I wish there was a Beev type site for silent fans.

Tom now you've got me dying to watch MAN W/Cam, but I don't have the disc w me (have the Image/Eastman House disc, w the Tsivian commentary, which-- until a progressive bonanza w brand new telecine & extras hits-- I'll probably stick with for the time being.

Reminder-- don't miss Flicker Alley's PHANTOM. A more gorgeous job of telecine & authoring simply doesn't exist on this earth. An amazing amazing disc.

No, I haven't, but you're probably right. The scratches et al looked conspicuously similar to the old BFI Shepard resto, but I did not do a one to one check.

Much in accord with your words on the beaver. There are currently six or seven different "Movie Camera" versions out there, and no one knows whether they are all from the same print, how they look compared to each other, what the different soundtracks are like etc. Same goes for many other review sites, though. I did not find a single review of "Kino Eye/Songs about Lenin" anywhere (apart from some comments on amazon.com, only dealing with the films themselves). I bought the disc nevertheless, and well.... it's not great at all, but I'm glad to have it. "Kino-Eye" may be the more vital and important film, but I was really blown away with the poetry of "Three Songs". One might argue it's a very crude mix of "Earth" and "Bezhin Meadow" together with some 'glorification' footage that might have come straight out of Leni's "Triumph" or "Day of Freedom", but still: Blatant propaganda, but in a perverse way I enjoyed it very much.




Isn't it incredible that that film is so damn moving even after the umpteenth time? It's probably the single film I watched most often of all I have, but still every single frame continues to amaze me as if I was watching it for the very first time. Nothing against "Citizen Kane", but for me THIS is probably the best film ever made.




Ah, Schreck, don't tempt me, I might fall for it (though I swore I would wait for the MoC edition). But it's out of the question at the moment. Having come back yesterday from a few days on the German islands, literally 12 new dvds were waiting at my neighbour's who had dutifully collected them for me during my absence. She asked me whether it was my birthday or something (it wasn't). Some Dreyer, Protazanov, Pasolini, that new French disc of P&P's "49th parallel"... Gee, I had halfway forgotten that I ordered them in the last weeks, and I guess I have to watch them first before getting even more stuff...

Tomasso, thanks for the review. My copy shipped a couple weeks ago from amazon.de, but to save money I had it shipped to my sister's place in Germany. Now I either have to convince her to mail it to me (no luck), or wait till the next time I see her... Looking forward to this.

Tom, what Protozanov did you get-- was it something other than AELITA?

No, it was Aelita. One of the sore gaps in my collection. I don't think there's any other Protazanov out there :-(

I thought you might be grabbing this questionable-quality release.

Thanks, Schreck, I had never heard of "Father Sergius". But judging from the comments I'd better take my fingers off it. As to "Aelita", I had seen it about 10 years ago on German TV, and at that time (knowing next to nothing about silent films and their history) it failed to impress me , probably because I had hoped for a more straightforward sci-fi-spectacle and was disappointed that so much of it was set in Moscow. But I have a guess I might like it now very much, the connections to "Metropolis" et al pointed out in the thread here seem to be very promising. Hope I find the time to watch it in the next few days.

Speaking of Russian/Soviet silents, has anyone here seen Abram Room's BED AND SOFA? Any recommendations?

I've seen it and I recommend -- with the caveat that Soviet comedy is quite different from Soviet epic. (I've no doubt that you already know that, Schreck.) It's a fascinating domestic comedy because the ménage à trois is depicted in the film in a much more direct way than in pre-code U.S. films. (Think Design for Living.) It's also a very pro-feminist film, which sets it apart from most other silent Soviet cinema (that I've seen).

The DVD is quite nice -- one of Shepard's better efforts. It also boasts an informative and insightful commentary track.

Talked me into it... off I go wallet in hand.

I have not seen that particular film, but it seems the Shepard man is getting better slowly. I recently saw his edit of Dreyer's "The Parson wife", and was truly amazed how good it looked (probably due to the DFI rather than to him). That film came as a pleasant surprise, anyway. I did not expect that this no-nonsense director was able to produce such light-hearted and genuinely funny comedy (whereas I found "Master of the house", also billed as comedy, quite unengaging).

If I'm not mistaken that print came from "The Blackhawk Films Collection" (you see the logo on the back of most, though not all, his discs from Image), which means he didn't license it from anyone. The story behind that is Shepard used to work for Blackhawk which was a large library of mostly silent (and very old talkie) films.. but he used to, while working for & with Blackhawk, acquire films on his own seperately by keeping his ear to the ground about cans found here and there.. abandoned buildings, old cinemas getting condemned, etc. That co was known as "Film Preservation Associates". Then for one reason or another they asked him if he wanted to take over the Blackhawk library-- he said he "reluctantly" did. So technically the films so-labelled are those either pre-existing in the library or those from Film Pres which he merged together creating one sum library now.

Sometimes however he simply produces discs by licensing the material for distribution, as he's done with the older pre-FWMS Murnau & Dreyer, the SEX IN CHAINS & DIF FROM OTHERS (muncih filmmuseum I think), the VAMPIRES by Feulliade licensed from Water Bearer, etc. The content in that PARSON'S WIDOW disc is copyrighted to Blackhawk, so that-- like his godawful print of SATANS BOOK (vs DFI or Svensk, whichever has that glorious nitrate)-- came from his library. It's probably just pd, and sometimes you luck out having excellent elements coming out of his collection.

PS: THE PARSON'S WIDOW

ahem...sorry

I have been going on about Marcel L'Herbier's L'Inhumaine for ages and it looks like it's finally going to get a dvd release courtesy of Films sans Frontieres. This is one of my absolute favourite silent films and I've been waiting for this for a long time. It looks like it's the tinted version as well which is good because it has a particularly impressive tinting scheme.

It stars Jaque Catelain who directed La Galerie des monstres and it also features art direction by Claude Autant-Lara, Alberto Cavalcanti and Fernand Léger. An avant-garde masterpiece. I can't find any details of when this will be released though - hopefully sooner rather than later.

EDIT: It's not really a dvd release, don't get excited - see below.