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The French set is seven discs, so they seem to have left out a good deal since the American set says three DVDs.

I have the French set, and have systematically been viewing all of it during the winter. It is marvelous!

Without making a detailed comparison, I think they left out quite a few of the featurettes and extras on the French discs (those I actually did not view on the French discs, so I can't comment). As far as the films go, the main omissions seem to be in the material by Perret. Three of the seven discs on the French release are dedicated to his work, and here there is only one short and one feature film. The feature that is missing is actually really good, but the image quality of the presentation was not as high as the most of the rest of the films on the set, so possibly that accounts for it (+ the fact that he is the least known of these three directors to a non-French audience). If I have the time over the weekend, I will come back with a more detailed comparison. In any event, this will be one great set for all the silent film fans.

The booklet in the French Gaumont set is beautiful, and I doubt they'll reproduce that in toto for the Kino condensation.

=D> YES! The Edison box is indispensable, so please Kino, continue to produce/distribute these kinds of releases. I just hope there are enough of us out in the marketplace to keep supporting you in your efforts. But bless you, really. I speak for all librarians when I say, Silents Please!

I take it then that if one is a silents fan that Gaumont box is well worth a blind buy then?

Thomas J. wrote:=D> YES! The Edison box is indispensable

I've been curious about this set and similar ones Kino sales, the Houdini. Could you describe the sort of contents. Is just elephant electrocuting, or something more interesting like primitive documentaries/ ads?

Yeah, it's just elephant electrocuting for 14 hours! You really get into it after some time.

As far as I remember, the Edison box is mostly narrative films, broken up with informative interviews from early film experts. A lot of the films are boring (and were considered so at the time - by 1908 or so, the Edison studio was considered distinctly inferior to, for instance, Biograph), many are wonderful - Apfel's The Passer-By (1912) is a real masterpiece. Overall, the set provides an indispensable 12-hour lecture on the development of early films. If you're at all interested in the history of the medium, or want to understand its fundamental characteristics more deeply, this set will help.

The elephant electroctution film is pretty upsetting, though.

I don't know if this helps anyone (you have to know basic French), but here is a link to the contents of the French box so you can contrast it against those of Kino's box linked above.

If anyone has a better link to use, please post it.

EDIT:

Here's what seems to have been left off the Feuillade and Perret discs (meanwhile, I think all the Guy films are being carried over except for the supplements):

Feuillade

Bébé tire à la cible (7 mn)
La Nativité (14 mn)
Le Nain (17 mn)

Perret

Molière (20 mn)
Le Chrysanthème rouge (13 mn)
L'Automne du Coeur (12 mn)
L'Express matrimonial (13 mn)
Sur les rails (14 mn)
Dents de fer (13 mn)
Léonce cinématographiste (17 mn)
Léonce aime les morilles (15 mn)
Oscar et Kiki la midinette (10 mn)
Oscar au bain (12 mn)
Le Roman d'un Mousse (1h36)

Supplements

Léonce par Léonce (7 mn)
Léonce PERRET 1880-1935 (50 mn)
Is the Feuillade supplement on the Kino newly produced? I don't see it listed on the French box, but I could be mistaken.

I don't want to distract too long from the (entirely justified) excitement over the silents boxset, but the discussion of Nikkatsu studios stirred up by the new Eclipse announcement brought Kino's Nikkatsu noir releases to my attention, as well as Nikkatsu's softcore erotica set and the Resnais 4-pack. Can anybody comment on these respective releases? Worth watching? Buying?

I just got Kobayashi's 3 Seconds Before Explosion and Suzuki's Detective Bureau 2-3 today. I haven't sat down and thoroughly watched them, however, while 3 Seconds Before Explosion looks acceptable it appears a tad fuzzy for my taste with some combing. Detective Bureau, on the other hand, looks a lot crisper but it has tons of combing. I'm not that much of a stickler though, so I'm looking forward to watching these...I'm sure the issues I perceive won't be enough to affect the viewing experience for me.

rodrigokino wrote:FYI: The new Metropolis won't hit U.S. shelves until late 2010, or even 2011. But yeah, we're all waiting for the folks at the Murnau Foundation to update us. RB

According to this week's Answer Man column, one particular scene at the end of a reel is proving to be almost unusable and restoration is still ongoing with the hope that by the end of the year it will be wrapped up.

Tribe wrote:I just got Kobayashi's 3 Seconds Before Explosion and Suzuki's Detective Bureau 2-3 today. I haven't sat down and thoroughly watched them, however, while 3 Seconds Before Explosion looks acceptable it appears a tad fuzzy for my taste with some combing. Detective Bureau, on the other hand, looks a lot crisper but it has tons of combing.

Is it possible these are improper PAL->NTSC ports? I believe there's a French DVD of the Suzuki, but I'm not sure about 3 Seconds.

Ashirg reviews Kino's Murnau's Schloss Vogelod, and Finanzen GrossH for DVDBeaver.

i've done a "good faith" search through the forum but haven't found anything on this:

does anyone have a preference for "man with a movie camera" between image entertainment's 2002 release (with the alloy orchestra score) and kino's 2003 release (can't find any notes on what score is used)?

dvd beaver reviews four different versions, none of which are the above.

and, yes, i'm only region 1.

Amazing Goose wrote:i've done a "good faith" search through the forum but haven't found anything on this:

does anyone have a preference for "man with a movie camera" between image entertainment's 2002 release (with the alloy orchestra score) and kino's 2003 release (can't find any notes on what score is used)?

dvd beaver reviews four different versions, none of which are the above.

and, yes, i'm only region 1.

I haven't seen the Image release, but the Kino release has a score by Michael Nyman and performed by the Michael Nyman Band. If I recall correctly you can't shut the soundtrack off on the Kino (of course, one could just lower the volume way down and not listen to it), but I happen to like it. Nyman's score was influenced by his work in connection with The Commissar Vanishes (which in turn had something to do with some work on Soviet pre-photoshop photo alteration and the resulting issue of "truth" during the Soviet era). I think it would be very interesting to listen to it with a different track.

The Kino also has a BFI logo on the cover.

I like the Image release better-- just my take on things. It also attempts to follow the notes Vertov left behind.

I prefer the Image release as well, but some people hate everything the Alloy Orchestra does, so don't say I didn't warn you. I'd say it's one of their best scores.

The Alloy Orchestra score can be a little grating at times but it does really fit the rhythm of the film, and in fact, I can't imagine watching it without it.

Also, if you have Netflix, you can stream the Image version of the film (assuming the cover art they show is to be trusted) for free.

I'm mystified by the adulation heaped on the Alloy score, which is one of the most irritating scores I've ever heard - I could only bear about fifteen minutes of it before starting again with In the Nursery, who for my money did a great job (this was on the old BFI release; don't know if it's available on any other edition). I'm not a huge fan of Michael Nyman, but I would imagine his approach would be quite suited to the material in this case.

Anyway, I sincerely hope the Alloy score doesn't reflect Vertov's wishes; but because of that 'authorial' sanction, and since it seems to be the most popular, it probably is the one to go for, at least initially.

I'm the only one who likes the Nyman score? Surely there has to be someone who at least hates it...

Amazing Goose - preview the Alloy score if you want to here

nsps wrote: some people hate everything the Alloy Orchestra does,

I'm pretty much one of them. I could imagine there being a better score for the film using the notes Vertov left behind, but for now and for what I've heard, I prefer the Image release.

Otherwise, in most other scores, I simply can't stand Alloy's sound, which is based on that setup on sampling/synth and a drumset, with that ridiculous hyperemphasis on a swish cymbal (for those not keyed into percussion terms, thats the cymbal that sounds like he's rapping on the lid of an old tin garbage can with a tire iron).

for those not keyed into percussion terms, thats the cymbal that sounds like he's rapping on the lid of an old tin garbage can with a tire iron

And all this time I just thought they let their kids play with pots & pans in the studio ...

I think they do do that in addition to the drummer leaning so heavy on his swish cymbal.