Unseen Cinema Early American
Avant-Garde Film
(1894-1947)
Contents: DISC ONE: Eiffel Tower from Trocadero Palace (1900), Palace of Electricity (1900), Champs de Mars (1900), Panorama of Eiffel Tower (1900), Scene From Elevator Ascending Eiffel Tower (1900), Captain Nissen Going Through Whirlpool Rapids, Niagara Falls (1901), Down the Hudson (1903), The Ghost Train (1903), Westinghouse Works, Panorama View Street Car Motor Room (1904), In Youth, Beside the Lonely Sea (circa 1924-1925), Melody on Parade (circa 1936), La cartomancienne [The Fortune Teller] (1932), Pie in the Sky (1935), Travel Notes (1932), Oil: A Symphony in Motion (1933), Poem 8 (1933), Storm (1943), Portrait of a Young Man (1931); DISC TWO: Jack and the Beanstalk (1902),
Dream of a Rarebit Fiend (1906),
The Thieving Hand (1908),
Impossible Convicts (1905),
When the Clouds Roll By (1919) [excerpt],
A Beggar on Horseback (1925) [excerpt],
The Fall of the House of Usher (1928),
The Life and Death of 9413, a Hollywood Extra (1928),
The Love of Zero (1928),
The Telltale Heart (1928),
Tomato is Another Day (1933),
The Hearts of Age (1934),
Unreal News Reels (circa 1926-1928) [excerpt],
The Children’s Jury (circa 1938),
Thimble Theater (circa 1930s),
Carousel: Animal Opera (circa 1930s),
Jack’s Dream (circa 1930s); DISC THREE:
Le Retour à la raison (1923),
Le ballet mécanique (1924),
Anémic cinéma (1926),
[Looney Lens: Anamorphic People] (1927),
Out of the Melting Pot (1928),
H2O (1929),
Surf and Seaweed (1930),
The Furies (1934),
Manhattan Cocktail (1928) [excerpt],
The Wolf of Wall Street (1929) [excerpt],
Sins of the Fathers (1928) [excerpt],
The Firefly (1937) [two sequence versions],
Maytime (1937) [excerpts],
So This is Paris (1926) [excerpt],
Light Rhythms (1930), Une nuit sur le Mont Chauve [Night on Bald Mountain] (1934), Rhythm in Light (1934), Synchromy No. 2 (1936), Parabola (1937), Footlight Parade (1933) [excerpt], Glen Falls Sequence (1946), Simple Destiny (1940), Abstract Movies (1947), Scherzo (1939), Themis (1940), Contrathemis (1941), 1941 (1941), Moods of the Sea (1942); DISC FOUR: The House with Closed Shutters (1910),
Suspense (1913),
Moonland (circa 1926),
Lullaby (1929),
The Bridge (1930),
Little Geezer (1932),
Black Dawn (1933),
Native Land (1941) [excerpt],
Black Legion (1937),
Even As You and I (1937),
Object Lesson (1941),
Sredni Vashtar (1943); DISC FIVE:
The Blizzard (1899),
Lower Broadway (1902),
Beginning of a Skyscraper (1902),
Panorama from Times Building, New York (1905),
The Skyscrapers of New York City from North River (1903),
Panorama from Tower of the Brooklyn Bridge (1903),
Demolishing and Building Up the Star Theatre (1901),
Coney Island at Night (1905),
Interior New York Subway 14th Street to 42nd Street (1905),
Seeing New York by Yacht (1902),
Looney Lens: Split Skyscrapers (1924),
Looney Lens: Tenth Avenue, New York City (1924),
four scenes from Ford Educational Weekly (1916-1924),
Manhatta (1921),
Twenty-Four-Dollar Island (circa 1926),
Skyscraper Symphony (1929)
Skyscraper Symphony (1929), Manhattan Medley (1931), A Bronx Morning (1931), Footnote to Fact (1933), Seeing the World (1937), The Pursuit of Happiness (1940), The Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935) [“Lullaby of Broadway” excerpt], Autumn Fire (1933); DISC SIX: Seven Theodore Case sound film tests (circa 1924-1925), Windy Ledge Farm (circa 1929-1934), A Day in Santa Fe (1931), four Archie Stewart family home movies (circa 1935-1939), Children’s Party (circa 1938), Cotillion (circa 1938), The Midnight Party (circa 1938), Haiti (1938), Tree Trunk to Head (1938), Bicycle Polo at San Mateo (1942), 1126 Dewey Avenue, Apt. 207 (1939); DISC SEVEN: Seven Annabelle Whitford dances (1894-1897), Davy Jones’ Locker (1900), Neptune’s Daughters (1900), A Nymph of the Waves (1900), Diana the Huntress (1916) [excerpt], The Soul of the Cypress (1920), Looney Lens: Pas de deux (1924), Hände: Das Leben und die Liebe eines Zärtlichen Geschlechts [Hands: The Life and Loves of the Gentler Sex] (1928), Mechanical Principles (1930), Tilly Losch in Her Dance of the Hands (circa 1930-1933), two exerpts from Eisenstein’s Mexican footage (1931), Oramunde (1933), Hands (1934), Joie de vivre (1934), Wonder Bar (1934) [“Don’t Say Goodnight” excerpt], Dada (1936), Escape (1938), An Optical Poem (1938), Abstract Experiment in Kodachrome (circa 1940s), NBC Valentine Greeting (1940), Stars and Stripes (1940), Tarantella (1940), Spook Sport (1940), Danse macabre (1922), Peer Gynt (1941) [excerpt], and Introspection (1941/1946).
Film Preservation Associates /
Anthology Film Archives
2005 DVD edition
Unseen Cinema: Early American Avant-Garde Film (1894-1947), black & white, color-toned black & white and color, 1127 minutes total, not rated.
Film Preservation Associates with Anthology Film Archives, distributed by Image Entertainment,
ID0592DSDVD, UPC 0-14381-05922-9.
Seven single-sided, dual-layered, Region 0NTSC DVD discs, 1.33:1 aspect ratio image in full-frame and windowboxed 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan MPEG-2 format, 5.0 Mbps average video bit rate, 224 Kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 48 kHz 2.0 stereo and mono sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles, chapter stops; seven slimline DVD keepcases in cardboard box; $99.99.
Release date: 18 October 2005.
Country of origin: USA
It appeared to be the year — in 2005 — for avant-garde films on home video with the release of this DVD collection and the Kino International collection. While it is a stretch to call some of the earliest films in this collection avant-garde films (some are at best actuality documentaries, others proto-avant-garde), the now-common availability of the majority of these films is most definitely a cause for celebration. Many of the films, if available at all, have previously been available to collectors on VHS videotape transferred from moderate-quality 16mm reduction prints. This collection now offers these films in high-quality transfers from restored 35mm and 16mm (the original camera negative gauge of some of the films) prints.
Originally a 20-part touring exhibition, the Unseen Cinema retrospective was premiered at the 23rd Moscow International Film Festival in June 2001, followed by its American premiere at The Whitney Museum of American Art (July-September 2001). Anthology Film Archives worked in collaboration with many of the world’s leading film archives to prepare preservation and restoration masters of these rarely-seen films, many of which have not been available to the public since their creation — some never screened in public — until 2001. More than 50 venues worldwide have presented all or part of the Unseen Cinema exhibition.
This collection, curated by Anthology Film Archive’s Bruce Posner and produced for home video by David Shepard, presents more than 150 films with a collective running time of nearly 20 hours, thematically grouped onto seven DVD discs for the collector: 1) The Mechanized Eye: Experiments in Technique and Form; 2) The Devil’s Playground: American Surrealism; 3) Light Rhythms: Music and Abstraction; 4) Inverted Narratives: New Directions in Storytelling; 5) Picturing a Metropolis: New York City Unveiled; 6) The Amateur as Auteur: Discovering Paradise in Pictures; 7) Viva la Dance: The Beginnings of Cine-Dance.
Featured directors include Alexander Alexeieff, Sara Kathryn Arledge, Norman Bel Geddes, Busby Berkeley, Josef Berne, G.W. Bitzer, David Bradley, Francis Bruguière, Rudy Burckhardt, Mary Ellen Bute, Theodore Case, Joseph Cornell, Douglass Crockwell, James Cruze, W.L.K. Dickson, Boris Deutsch,
Sergei Eisenstein, Emlen Etting, Walker Evans, Oskar Fischinger, Robert Flaherty, Victor Fleming, Robert Florey, Dwinell Grant,
D.W. Griffith, Jerome Hill, John Hoffman, Hector Hoppin, Theodore Huff, Leo Hurwitz, Lewis Jacobs, Elia Kazan, Charles Klein, Francis Lee, Fernand Léger, Jay Leyda,
Ernst Lubitsch, Norman McLaren,
William Cameron Menzies, George L.K. Morris, Dudley Murphy, Claire Parker, Edwin S. Porter, Man Ray, Lynn Riggs, Henwar Rodakiewicz, Rrose Sélavy, Charles Sheeler, Stella Simon, Ralph Steiner, Archie Stewart, Paul Strand, Willard Van Dyke, Charles Vidor, Slavko Vorkapich, James Sibley Watson Jr.,
Lois Weber
, Melville Webber, Herman G. Weinberg, Orson Welles, Elizabeth Woodman Wright and others.
After years of seeing many of these films in substandard 16mm reduction prints and on low-budget VHS videotape, this collection is welcome high-quality access to these experimental and sometimes brilliant short films. The majority of the films are presented from the best surviving 35mm prints, and are presented with high-quality musical accompaniment.
Our progressive review of this seven-disc set is as follows:
DISC ONE: The Mechanized Eye: Experiments in Technique and Form [not yet reviewed].
DISC TWO: The Devil’s Playground: American Surrealism compiles a number of fantasy films produced from 1902 through the late 1930s. Edison’s Jack and the Beanstalk (1902) has been transferred at slightly faster than natural speed from a very-good paper print held by the
Library of Congress, which is a bit jittery and moderately scuffed in sections but is sharper here than in previously-available home video editions. The film is quite advanced in production techniques for its time (although the giant isn’t much of one at all) and features a number of special effects, dissolves and stop-action transitions. The presentation is accompanied by a piano score composed by performed by
Donald Sosin. 8 minutes.
Edison’s Dream of a Rarebit Fiend (1906), based on the comic strip created by Winsor McCay, features a character that first gorges himself on his evening meal, alcohol and the famous cheese, then attempts to get a good night’s sleep. Of course, as in the comics, he is troubled by unsettling visions and dreams. The film has been transferred from a very-good color-toned, moderately-speckled print held by
Film Preservation Associates that appears to be 35mm. The presentation is accompanied by contemporary Edison music recordings that were suggested by the company as appropriate for theatrical sound synchronization. 8 minutes.
Vitagraph’s The Thieving Hand (1908) is a surreal comedy of a beggar who is gifted an artificial arm that turns out to be a kleptomaniac. Transferred from an very-good to excellent 35mm print held by
Film Preservation Associates. The film is accompanied by a vintage jazz band gramophone recording. 6 minutes.
Biograph’s Impossible Convicts (1905) shows us four prison convicts that mysteriously fly backwards into their cells, then effect an escape only to be caught up with the guards in a Twilight-Zone-ish struggle. Transferred from a good paper print held by the
Library of Congress. The film is accompanied by a digital piano music score performed by
Eric Beheim. 3 minutes.
An excerpt from
Douglas Fairbanks’When the Clouds Roll By (1919) is included to underscore the similarity and advancement of special effects from its inspiration film,
Dream of a Rarebit Fiend. Doug eats onions, lobster, Welsh rarebit and mince pie before bedtime and is plagued by nightmares. A funny, entertaining sequence. Transferred from what appears to be a 16mm reduction print of very-good quality held by
Film Preservation Associates. The film is accompanied by a music score performed on synthesizer by
Eric Beheim. 8 minutes.
An exerpt from Paramount’s Beggar on Horseback (1925) presents another bizarre and fun dream sequence. Edward Everett Horton is haunted by his impending marriage for money. Transferred from an excellent 35mm print held by the
Library of Congress. The film is accompanied by a music score performed on synthesizer by
Donald Sosin. 7 minutes.
The Fall of the House of Usher (1928) is an avant-garde take on the Edgar Allan Poe tale made by amateur filmmakers Melville Webber and James Sibley Watson Jr. The film’s striking visual design is its greatest asset. Windowbox transferred from what appears to be a 16mm reduction print of excellent quality held by
Anthology Film Archives. The film is accompanied by an orchestral music score composed by Alec Wilder, transferred from the film print’s optical soundtrack in fluttering mono. 13 minutes.
The Life and Death of 9413, a Hollywood Extra (1928), directed by Robert Florey and Slavko Vorkapich, is also known as $97 since the film was allegedly produced for that amount. Miniature sets and spare production design by Vorkapich kept costs low, while a wry, cynical humor buoys the message of the film — that dreams of becoming a star in the dehumanized Hollywood system are empty and prone to disappoint. Transferred from an excellent 35mm print held by Film Preservation Associates. The film is exceptionally accompanied by a digital piano music score performed by Donald Sosin. 13 minutes.
The Love of Zero (1928), directed by Robert Florey with expressionistic production design by William Cameron Menzies, is a simple tale of lost won and lost — but presented in a totally avant-garde fashion. Joseph Mari’s performance as the pathetic Zero is haunting. Transferred from a very-good to excellent 35mm print held by the
British Film Institute. The film is accompanied by a digital piano music score performed by Donald Sosin. 15 minutes.
Charles Klein’s The Telltale Heart (1928) is a two-reel expressionistic telling of Edgar Allan Poe’s story of murder, heavily influenced by the production design of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920). Transferred from what appears to be a 35mm print of very-good quality from the
British Film Institute, with a little more speckling and dust than prints in the collection. Accompanied by a synthesizer music score performed by Donald Sosin. 24 minutes.
James Sibley Watson Jr.’s Tomato is Another Day (1933) is minimalist parody of early sound films that will play to some like biting satire, to others like an Ed Wood film at its campy worst. Transferred from a very-good to excellent 35mm sound print from the Watson collection. 7 minutes.
The Hearts of Age (1934), directed by William Vance and a 20-year-old Orson Welles, was originally intended as a component of a summer theatre production. The film also features Welles’ first wife, Virginia Nicholson. Transferred from a very-good print that appears to be 16mm (probably the original film gauge). The film was shot minus-optical-sound and so is accompanied here by a piano score performed by Donald Sosin. 8 minutes.
The disc is wrapped up with a series of montage films by or attributed to Joseph Cornell. Unreal News Reels (circa 1926-1928) is a compilation of film clips from mid-1920s comedies assembled by Cornell into a mock newsreel for Kodak Cinegraph nontheatrical distribution. Clips from films featuring Al St. John, Chester Conklin and many others are used. Transferred from a very-good 16mm print from the Larson-Casselton film collection. Accompanied by a piano and violin music score by Robert Israel. 6 minutes. A film attributed to Cornell, The Children’s Jury (circa 1938) juxtaposes silent and golden era footage from comedies, travelogues, industrials and newsreels to make a surreal whole. Transferred from a very-good 16mm print (or prints?). 9 minutes. Thimble Theater, Carousel-Animal Opera and Jack’s Dream (all circa 1930s through 1950s?) compile footage that Cornell assembled from multiple sources over the years. The films were completed (in the 1970s?) by Lawrence Jordan. From very-good 16mm prints. 15 minutes.
DISC THREE: Light Rhythms: Music and Abstraction presents a number of films that emphasize avant-garde abstract forms of texture and shapes, light and shadows. Le Retour à la raison (1923), Man Ray’s first motion picture, was quickly completed after being informed that he had been scheduled as a contributor of a new experimental film to be presented at a Dadaist gathering — a film that hadn’t yet been made. Editing live footage with exposed raw stock covered with springs, sand, thumbtacks and nails, Man Ray created a spontaneous avant-garde masterpiece. Transferred from an excellent 35mm print once held by Douris UK (now held by the Cohen Media Group). The film is accompanied by a contemporary George Antheil music score performed by Guy Livingston. 3 minutes.
Le Ballet mécanique (1924), created by Fernand Léger and Dudley Murphy, has been restored from the definitive color-toned 35mm print from the Frederick Kiesler film collection, with color inserts from the color-tinted 35mm print held by the EYE Film Instituut Nederland. The film has been synchronized for the first time ever with the experimental George Antheil music piece in its original instrumentation of 16 player pianos, airplane propellers, electric bells, sirens, etc. Absolutely one of the highlights of the DVD collection. 16 minutes.
Anémic cinéma (1926) directed by Marcel Duchamp (Rrose Sélavy) alternates between entrancing revolving spirals and French wordplay. Within the context of its title, the film is a brief wry comment on avant-garde film itself and an excuse (and perhaps an apology) for graphical experimentation. Transferred from a very-good to excellent 35mm print from Det Danske Filminstitut. Accompanied by an amusing synthesizer and digital piano music score by Donald Sosin. 7 minutes.
[Looney Lens: Anamorphic People] (1927) is unreleased footage by Fox Newsreel cameraman Al Brick shot through distorting mirrors. La folie du Docteur Tube (1915) is far more interesting. Transferred from a very-good 35mm print held by the University of South Carolina Newsfilm Archive. Accompanied by digital Rhodes-piano music by Shane Ryan. 2 minutes.
Out of the Melting Pot (1928) is a series of reverse-motion melted film frames that transition into motion footage of zoo animals. Ho-hum. Transferred from a very-good sepia-toned 35mm print from the Larson-Casselton film collection. Accompanied by synthesizer music performed by Eric Beheim. 2 minutes.
H2O (1929) by Ralph Steiner presents a wide variety of shots of water that, nonetheless, are edited together at an interest-maintaining pace. A beautiful film and a good thematic complement to Regen (1929). Transferred from a very-good 35mm print held by Anthology Film Archives. Accompanied by a digital piano music score by Donald Sosin. 11 minutes.
More wet Ralph Steiner work is represented by Surf and Seaweed (1930), which is not as visually stimulating. Transferred from an excellent 35mm print from the Museum of Modern Art. Accompanied by music composed by Marc Blitzstein and performed by Eric Beheim. 13 minutes.
Followed by a series of Slavko Vorkapich montage sequences from a variety of Hollywood films: The Furies (1934), transferred from an excellent 35mm print from Film Preservation Associates (3 minutes); sequences from Manhattan Cocktail (1928), The Wolf of Wall Street (1929) and Sins of the Fathers (1928), transferred from very-good to excellent 35mm prints provided by Paramount Pictures Corporation and Film Preservation Associates (3 minutes); the original Vorkapich and final release versions of a sequence from The Firefly (1937), transferred from excellent 35mm prints held by Film Preservation Associates and Turner Entertainment Company (3 minutes); two sequences from Maytime (1937), transferred from an excellent 35mm print from Turner Entertainment Company (4 minutes).
Along a similar line is an energetic Charleston montage sequence from So This is Paris (1926), directed by Ernst Lubitsch. Transferred from a very-good to excellent 35mm print from Turner Entertainment Company. Accompanied by synthesizer music performed by Eric Beheim. 5 minutes.
Light Rhythms (1930) by Francis Bruguière and Oswell Blakeston is pure cinema abstraction, being abstract paper sculpture sparingly lit by roaming light. Transferred from an excellent but speckled 35mm print from Anthology Film Archives. Accommpanied by music composed by Jack Ellitt and performed by Donald Sosin. 5 minutes.
Une Nuit sur le Mont Chauve (1933), an always astounding pinscreen animation film, is transferred from a very-good 35mm print from the Archives du Film du Centre National du Cinema (8 minutes); the abstract films Rhythm in Light (1934) by Mary Ellen Bute, Melville Webber and Theodore Nemeth (5 minutes), Synchromy No. 2 (1936) by Bute and Nemeth (6 minutes), and Parabola (1938) by Rutherford Boyd, Bute and Nemeth (9 minutes) are transferred from excellent 35mm prints from Anthology Film Archives; the “By a Waterfall” sequence from Footlight Parade (1933), designed by Busby Berkeley, is transferred from an excellent 35mm print from Turner Entertainment Company (11 minutes); Glens Falls Sequence (1946) by Douglass Crockwell, intentionally presented silent, is transferred from a very-good color (apparently) 16mm print from George Eastman Museum (7 minutes); Simple Destiny (1940) by Crockwell is transferred from what appears to be a 16mm print of very-good quality from Anthology Film Archives (2 minutes); Abstract Movies (1947) by George L.K. Morris is transferred from an excellent color (apparently) 16mm print from Anthology Film Archives (10 minutes); Scherzo (1939) by Norman McLaren is presented from an excellent 35mm print from the National Film Board of Canada (1 minute); the abstract films Themis (1940) and Contrathemis (1941) by Dwinell Grant (4 minutes each), intentionally presented silent, are transferred from a very-good to excellent 35mm color prints from Anthology Film Archives; 1941 (1941) by Francis Lee is transferred from an excellent color 16mm print from Anthology Film Archives (4 minutes); and Moods of the Sea (1942) by Slavko Vorkapich and John Hoffman is transferred from an excellent 35mm print from Film Preservation Associates (10 minutes).
DISC FOUR: Inverted Narratives: New Directions in Storytelling presents a number of films that experimented with narrative techniques to expand the film audience’s comprehension of abstract concepts. The House with Closed Shutters (1910) is a D.W. Griffith Civil War short film on cowardice that accelerates the passage of time toward the end of the story through expository intertitles and subtle visual changes to the settings (and not-so-subtle makeup changes). Transferred from a very-good 35mm print from Film Preservation Associates. Presented with a music score performed by Eric Beheim on synthesizer. 17 minutes.
The short thriller Suspense (1913), directed by Lois Weber and Phillips Smalley, features impressive shots that were uncommon in 1913 to tell its concurrent timeline tale, a la Griffith, of a tramp breaking into a home while a wife is frantically relaying to her husband via telephone his progression into the house. As noted by Kevin Brownlow, the triptych shot used to show concurrent action had been developed earlier in Denmark, but the film also features a number of striking high-angle and mirror shots to indicate first and third-person perspectives. Transferred from an excellent 35mm print from Film Preservation Associates, and accompanied by a music score performed by Eric Beheim on synthesizer. 10 minutes.
Also among the highlights of the collection is Twenty-Four-Dollar Island (1927) is presented from the most-complete known version of the film, restored from excellent 35mm film elements held by the Gosfilmofond archive of Russia and EYE Film Instituut Nederland, with introductory titles taken from Flaherty’s personal notes.
[More to come.]
Anthology Film Archives provided films by Rudy Burckhardt, Jerome Hill, Lewis Jacobs, Henwar Rodakiewicz, Seymour Stern, Christopher Young and others. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., Turner Entertainment Company, and Paramount Pictures Corporation provided excellent 35mm archival prints of works by James Cruze, Busby Berkeley, Oskar Fischinger, Ernst Lubitsch, Paul Burnford and Slavko Vorkapich. The British Film Institute, The Library of Congress, The Museum of Modern Art, and George Eastman Museum provided pristine preservation prints of a variety of late 19th-century and early 20th-century pioneer film titles by Edison Manufacturing Company and American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, as well as many one-of-a-kind 35mm and 16mm films by avant-garde filmmakers Dudley Murphy, Robert Florey and Ralph Steiner. Archival prints were also supplied by The American Film Institute, The Case Research Lab Museum, Centre National du Cinéma, Det Danske Filminstitut, Douris UK, EYE Film Instituut Nederland, Film Preservation Associates, Gosfilmofond, Harry Ransom Center University of Texas Austin, Institut Valencia de Cinematografia le Filmoteca, Lawrence Jordan, Jugoslovenska Kinoteka, The Larson-Casselton Collection, Lobster Films, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Archives and Records Administration, The National Film Board of Canada, New Mexico State Records Center and Archives, Northeast Historic Film, Orgone Archives, and The University of South Carolina Newsfilm Archive.
Unless the filmmakers expressly stated that their work was to be shown without music, all of the silent films — approximately two-thirds of the collection — are accompanied by music composed and/or performed by George Antheil, Eric Beheim, Marc Blitzstein, Jack Elliott, Louis de Francesco, Jerome Hill, Robert Israel, Irving Kaufmann, Neal Kurz, Paul D. Lehrman, Guy Livingston, Shane Ryan, Rodney Sauer, Donald Sosin, Lew White and Alec Wilder.
Notes on the films have been written by Dominic Angerame, Aram Boyajian, Kevin Brownlow, William Butler, Terry Cannon, Harold Casselton, David Curtis, Susan Delson, Douglas Dreishpoon, Deke Dusinberre, R. Bruce Elder, Bradley Eros, Walker Evans, Gregory Jay Galligan, Robert A. Haller, Jan-Christopher Horak, Rogger Horrocks, Lewis Jacobs, David James, Lawrence Jordan, Paul D. Lehrman, Jeanne Liotta, Janis Londraville, Scott MacDonald, Bruce Posner, Stephanie Przybylek, Karan Sheldon, David Shepard, Paul C. Spehr, Cecile Starr, Marguerite Tazelaar and Jennifer Wild. The discs include still picture galleries of more than 250 rare production and filmmakers photos.
More information on the original Unseen Cinema retrospective and this DVD boxset can be found at www.unseen-cinema.com
.
USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports the Silent Era website.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports the Silent Era website.
Film Preservation Associates /
Anthology Film Archives
2005 DVD edition
Unseen Cinema: Picturing a Metropolis (1899-1940), black & white, 152 minutes, not rated.
Film Preservation Associates with Anthology Film Archives, distributed by Image Entertainment, ID2874DSDVD, UPC 0-14381-28742-4.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Region 0NTSC DVD disc, 1.33:1 aspect ratio image in full-frame and windowboxed 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan MPEG-2 format, 5.0 Mbps average video bit rate, 224 Kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 48 kHz 2.0 stereo and mono sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles, chapter stops; slimline DVD keepcase; $24.99.
Release date: 18 October 2005.
Country of origin: USA
The fifth disc from the Unseen Cinema collection is also available separately.
Of course, the disc’s quality is consistent with the full boxset.
USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports the Silent Era website.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports the Silent Era website.