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scotty2 wrote:Sure, Griffith and his inspiration, Thomas Dixon, weren't racist. They were, rather, white supremacists who viewed emancipation as premature and Reconstruction as a tragedy whites had to to overcome, not an era the ending of which was a tragedy for freed people or for American democracy. In this way, the white south lost the battle and won the war--placating the conservative south has been near the top of the nation's agenda ever since, even at the height of the civil rights movement.

The Clansman is certainly worth a read.

Ugh. Really??? I read The Clansman back in college and found it to be rivaled only by The Protocols of the Elders of Zion in terms of its repugnance. (I don't doubt that we could produce a long list of repugnant books/pamphlets, such as Mein Kampf. I'm just going by two that I happen to have read.)

Griffith's film is morally offensive but aesthetically brilliant. As domino points out, Griffith's cutting techniques represent the height of cinematic form in its day. Dixon's screed, on the other hand, is both morally and aesthetically despicable. It reads quickly enough, but the way that the Congressional abolitionist is portrayed in the starkest possible terms indicates that Dixon's position ain't exactly nuanced (to the limited extent that a white supremacist/racist position could even be nuanced). Now, the modern novel had been around for a few centuries at that point, and had a more defined aesthetic(s), but it's not like The Clansman has anything interesting going for it in terms of form, either. At best, you might be able to read it as an example of how an infuriated racist saw the world back then, but if that's your motivation you can put it down after the first twenty or so pages and never look at it again.

And just to add to the earlier discussion about whether or not BoaN was racist by the standards of its day, let's recall that the resulting shitstorm of condemnation played a large role in Griffith's decision to make Intolerance.

More than racist by the standards of its day, BoaN was seen as outright race baiting- but I think Griffith was probably fairly normative within his culture in his racial attitudes.

The Clansman is abominable. That is why it is worth reading. A good selling inspiration to Griffith.

domino harvey wrote:As someone who taught Birth of a Nation in an all-black high school film studies class, I'm a little bewildered that the tired old chestnuts about the "racism" of the film are still being trotted out. None of my students were the least-bit offended by the film, especially since we contextualized the story and discussed Griffith's methodology and editing techniques.

It's interesting to hear that there are high school film studies classes! I'm a little disturbed, though, by your willingness to speak for your students in the first place (how on earth would you know that none of them were the least bit offended? I've seen the film screened for fairly diverse classes at the community college level, and I can assure you that students are very capable of expressing offense in reaction to the film - though ridicule is obviously also a valid defense). I'm also bewildered by what that would prove -- do black students not taking offense establish that the film isn't really racist (anymore)? That it no longer matters? Or simply that racist content isn't as important as an aesthetically innovative editing strategy?

I fully endorse the idea of seeing Griffith both in context and as someone whose social and moral views enjoyed their own complexity (visible, for instance, in his earnest portrayals of alcoholism or social injustice). But his racism is surely part of that complexity, and is a hallmark in his films from The Adventures of Dollie to The Greaser's Gauntlet to The Birth of a Nation, and beyond.

Lang's Scarlet Street and Wellman's A Star is Born (1937) are coming to Blu in February.

Kino also releasing Lang's The Spiders on DVD.

Whoa, Scarlet Street is exciting. I'm a little annoyed at The Spiders, I literally just bought a copy of the Image disc two days ago. I wonder if Kino's will be an improvement?

It probably won't be much of an improvement considering the state the materials are in. The potential for short and early films as extras is more tantalizing.

Jeff wrote:Lang's Scarlet Street and Wellman's A Star is Born (1937) are coming to Blu in February.

Kino also releasing Lang's The Spiders on DVD.

I am aroused.

Not bad, but still hoping for Kino to get around to Mabuse & their Murnau films

Presuming as Die Spinnen is DVD only we can expect Kino to lax back to their previous standards and only give us English intertitles? I'll snap this up if they do it properly - even if they give half the bit rate to an English version also.

February 2012 schedule:

2/7 - A STAR IS BORN: KINO CLASSICS EDITION (1937, William A. Wellman, Blu-ray/DVD) - mastered in HD from an original 35mm nitrate print!
SPECIAL FEATURES: Original Theatrical Trailer

2/7 - STORY OF A LOVE AFFAIR: 2-DISC SPECIAL EDITION (1950, Michelangelo Antonioni, DVD only)
SPECIAL FEATURES: Over two and a half hours of bonus features: “Identification of a Masterpiece” documentary (114 minutes), “Story of a Peculiar Night” documentary (29 minutes), “Fragments of a Love Affair” featurette (5 minutes), “Restoring a Masterpiece” featurette (8 minutes), poster gallery, stills gallery, and more.

2/14 - MODUS OPERANDI (2011, Frankie Latina, DVD only) - produced and presented by Sasha Grey

2/14 - SUSPICION (1988, Andrew Grieve, DVD only) - first time ever on DVD!

2/21 - BLANK CITY (2011, Celine Dahnier, Blu-ray/DVD)

2/21 - THE LITTLE DEATH (2011, Bret Wood, DVD only)
SPECIAL FEATURES: Theatrical trailer, “The Other Half” (thematically related bonus short film (17 min) from director Bret Wood, making of documentary, deleted scenes, and more.

2/28 - SCARLET STREET: KINO CLASSICS EDITION (1945, Fritz Lang, Blu-ray only)
SPECIAL FEATURES: Audio commentary from David Kalat, author of “The Strange Case of Dr. Mabuse,” Photo Gallery.

2/28 - SPIDERS: KINO CLASSICS EDITION (1919, Fritz Lang, DVD only)

When I bought The Sacrifice blu last summer, Kino offered a free download of an HD-restored Scarlet Street. Never got around to checking it out and I've since lost the download code, but, given Kino's Blu track record thus far, I'm sure it looks good.

eerik wrote:2/7 - STORY OF A LOVE AFFAIR: 2-DISC SPECIAL EDITION (1950, Michelangelo Antonioni, DVD only)
SPECIAL FEATURES: Over two and a half hours of bonus features: “Identification of a Masterpiece” documentary (114 minutes), “Story of a Peculiar Night” documentary (29 minutes), “Fragments of a Love Affair” featurette (5 minutes), “Restoring a Masterpiece” featurette (8 minutes), poster gallery, stills gallery, and more.

I've got this same package from Surf Video in Italy - that is now OOP I think. Still haven't got round to watching it though.

med wrote:When I bought The Sacrifice blu last summer, Kino offered a free download of an HD-restored Scarlet Street. Never got around to checking it out and I've since lost the download code, but, given Kino's Blu track record thus far, I'm sure it looks good.

I think I did watch that, and it didn't look any different from their DVD- as I recall, it was only about a 700 mb download, so I'm thinking that one wasn't actually in HD.

I managed to find the e-mail with the download link. Turned out the phrase "remastered edition" was used, not "HD," so, yeah, it was probably a rip of the old DVD.

If it really was HD, it must have been compressed to hell and back to squeeze into a 700 meg file - that's small even for an SD feature.

Fabulous news about the Antonioni. I've been searching for the OOP No Shame 2discer for quite a while and haven't been able to find it at any reasonable price.

Lang's "Spinnen" might be theoretically interesting, as I seem to remember that there has been a new resto made after the Shepard one (which dates back to 1979, after all), but as Kino will probably again replace the German intertitles, I assume it'll be a lost opportunity. Though given the replication of silent releases by various labels around the world, the Kino might indicate that it'll perhaps also come from divisa or MoC.

Tommaso -

The news about the Antonioni is possibly fabulous. My big question has to do with the condition of the film. I have the NoShame edition and, while the visuals are acceptable but nothing special, the sound track is excruciating. I recall an early scene, an interior in a street level police station (I'm working off memory), in which noise from the street drowns out the dialogue. It's jarring - even if you don't speak Italian and rely on subtitles! The NoShame version commemorated the restoration of the film, so perhaps this was the best state possible given the source elements. I like the film very much, so have hoped for a better version at some point. Would that it were the Kino (though I am not a big fan, with a few - very few - exceptions, of their DVD work). But the specs on the forthcoming release lead me to think this is the NoShame material. Hope I'm wrong.

I have the Mr Bongo edition, and the soundtrack is truly appalling - though at the time I put it down to encoding issues, as there's an electronic tinniness that I find very hard to believe is inherent in the original materials. But I remember finding it borderline unwatchable at times.

Damn, that doesn't sound good indeed. But if it's really a fault of the materials, then it can't be helped. I didn't buy the UK version because I wanted the 2 1/2 hours of extras on the No Shame, though. So at least Kino will deliver these.

I just posted over in the Koch Lorber thread as Amazon list this as a Lorber Films release, but now see Kino is Kino Lorber, so here goes again...

The forthcoming 2 disc SE DVD is welcome, with the caveat and concern that it should be an improvement on the OOP NoShame 2 disc SE version where the main feature was interlaced, possibly from a video source, with combing apparent....

The package & extras billed for the new SE match the NoShame more or less identically, probably being offered by the same Italian distributor/sales agent...

Most of these probably only exist on video masters, so not much will be changed there...

However, we can live in hope that the main feature will receive a quality progressive transfer... The French Carlotta COFFRET ANTONIONI already contains a nice progressively scanned transfer of CRONACA DI UN AMORE, obviously in PAL, but hopefully it can be matched or even improved by a similar new progressively scanned NTSC transfer from film...



Just checked both the Carlotta & the No Shame are licenced from Surf Films SRL... The No Shame refers to 'a brand new digital master from the newly created 35 mm fine grain print struck from the restored negative by Giuseppe Rotunno'... Possibly the problem was that it was a SD digital transfer, which then underwent PAL-NTSC conversion...

On a positive note, Surf Film s. r. l. are also the licensors of Criterion's IDENTIFICATION OF A WOMAN, which turned out so well..

isakborg wrote:Tommaso -

The news about the Antonioni is possibly fabulous. My big question has to do with the condition of the film. I have the NoShame edition and, while the visuals are acceptable but nothing special, the sound track is excruciating. I recall an early scene, an interior in a street level police station (I'm working off memory), in which noise from the street drowns out the dialogue. It's jarring - even if you don't speak Italian and rely on subtitles! The NoShame version commemorated the restoration of the film, so perhaps this was the best state possible given the source elements. I like the film very much, so have hoped for a better version at some point. Would that it were the Kino (though I am not a big fan, with a few - very few - exceptions, of their DVD work). But the specs on the forthcoming release lead me to think this is the NoShame material. Hope I'm wrong.

I have no idea if that is intended or not but it's the same on the Surf Video edition: I just checked. I don't understand the problem though. The dialogue is pretty clear to me and I'm no where near fluent in Italian!

Again, while from the same essential source, the Carlotta sound is superior.... The 2004 restoration was a major undertaking backed by Associazone Philip Morris Progetto Cinema in association with Cinecitta Studios, Centro Sperimentale & Surf Film... A 210 page book was also published alongside the restoration, which appears to have been done digitally and on film, with the audio also worked on... But possibly not in high definition and sufficiently uncompressed...

There was something very weird indeed about the Mr Bongo transfer that I was never quite able to put my finger on - but I do remember being reasonably convinced that it was as much a by-product of incompetent encoding as of a dodgy source. Still images looked pretty good: it was when they moved that the problems arose.

Sadly (or fortunately), I can't take another look at it, as I managed to sell my copy to someone who clearly missed my review.

There are audio problems with most (all?) of the Antonioni restorations coming out of Italy. Heavy handed audio DNR to remove hiss has also damaged the atmos and deadened the sound. This can be heard on the No Shame and Mr. Bongo releases of Story of a Love Affair and also the Australian DVD release of Red Desert from the same period. Aware of the problem, the BFI rejected this 'restored' audio for their blu-ray release of Red Desert and used instead their own 35mm achival print - this is the reference for how an Antonioni film should sound! The Masters of Cinema blu-ray of Lady Without the Camelias has too much audio DNR as well, therefore sounding a bit weak and flat, although it has been applied with far more skill than the earlier restorations. With luck, Kino are aware of the problem and for this release will either demand access to the unrestored audio or attempt to source their soundtrack from an archival print.