Customer Reviews

Landmarks of Early Film, Vol. 1

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Each chapter is a very high quality transfer. Worth much more than the purchase price. All are complete (not just clips) and many preserve the original hand-coloring. Because the list is not above, here's the content: 1. Muybridge series photography 1877-1885, 2.EDISON KINETOSCOPE FILMS 1894-1896: The Kiss, 3. Serpentine Dances, 4. Eugene Sandow, 5. Glenroy Brothers (Comic Boxing), 6. Cockfight, 7. The Barber Shop, 8. Feeding the Doves, 9. Seminary Girls, 10. LUMIERE FILMS 1895-1897 Exiting the Factory, 11. Arrival of Train at La Ciotat, 12. Baby's Lunch, 13. The Sprinkler Sprinkled, 14. Dragoons Crossing the Saone, 15. Promenade of Ostriches, Paris Bot. Gardens, 16. Childish Quarrel, 17. Lion, London Zoological Garden, 18. Demolition of a Wall, 19. Transformation By Hats, 20. Carmaux: Drawing Out the Coke, 21. Poultry-Yard, 22. Snowball Fight, 23. Card Party, 24. New York: Broadway at Union Square, 25. A Trip to the Moon (1902), 26. ACTUALITIES 1897-1910 Pres. McKinley at Home (1897), 27. Pack Train on Chilkoot Pass (1898), 28. Sky Scrapers of New York City... (1903), 29. San Francisco: Aftermath of an Earthquake (1906), 30. The Dog and his Various Merits (1908), 31. Aeroplane Flight and Wreck (1910), 32. The Great Train Robbery (1903), 33. The Whole Dam Family & the Dam Dog (1905), 34. The Golden Beetle (1907), 35. The Policememn's Little Run (1907), 36. Troubles of a Grasswidower (1908), 37. Nero, or The Fall of Rome (1909), 38. Winsor McCay and his Moving Comics (1911), 39. The Girl and Her Trust (1912), 40. Bangville Police (1913).

This package is really a must-have for anyone interested in early film history. The Edison and Lumiere films are fascinating to watch. The two landmark narrative films are presented here: "A Trip to the Moon" includes the original narration as Melies intended, and "The Great Train Robbery" includes the original color tinting. And even though the link for "The Great Train Robbery" at the bottom of this page points to IMDB's page for the 1904 remake, the version on the DVD is Edwin S. Porter's original 1903 version. Among the later films on this DVD, "The Policemen's Little Run" is hilarious, and it offers excellent images from 1907 Paris. I haven't even watched the last two films on this disc. I'm going slowly and savoring each one.....

It's amazing to see what the world looked like at the turn of the century, and you couldn't ask for a more beautiful production. There's great variety in this presentation as you can see from the contents.

It's especially nice to have full films, rather than clips. I also find it very interesting to see what was considered humorous at the time. In the 1905 film, "The Whole Dam Family, and the Dam Dog", for example, there is minimal action, the humor coming from wordplay in the titles which may seem juvenile today, but at the same time show great playfulness. This is just one of the many pleasures to be found on this incredible disc.

Next, move on to Volume 2, for an in-depth look at the films of Melies!

Perhaps it's not fair for me to judge this collection. I'm looking at this DVD with an upscaling DVD player on a High Definition Video Projector on a huge screen, so I'm seeing many more transfer flaws than most people, and really that was my only complaint. I was specifically looking for a good copy of George Melie's Trip to the Moon, and I was certainly happy to also get copies of many famous and Historic films, such as the Lumiere' and Edison films, but I know there can be better transfers of these films. If you are looking at this collection on a standard HDTV or TV, you'll be fine, but if you are using a projector and a huge screen, like me, you'll want to try some other copies of these films. For instance, the new George Melie's collection from David Shepard is stunning in comparison. I'm talking about the quality of the Video Transfer it's self. These films are very old and I know it's hard to find good elements to use when they make DVD's, but I've seen much better transfers. I know it can be done.

I purchased this disk to get a copy of "A Trip to the Moon" and am nothing short of thrilled with the purchase. It is fascinating to see how sophisticated films became in a 15-20 year period. The D. W. Griffith 1912 entry, "A Girl and Her Trust" is a jewel in this collection as well.

Considering the age of the source materials, this is an extremely well-produced package. As previous reviews indicate, it's strength is its variety. You'll see rare tinted films and unusual subjects, along with a sampling of D.W. Griffith, Edison and the Lumiere Brothers. All the names you'd be reading about in any beginning film class. I only wish there had been a couple more of the magical "trick" films of Georges Melies! If you have an interest in early film history, this is a great assortment.

For cinephiles, or anyone interested in the history of film, this is an unbelievable collection. In addition to their interest for understanding the development of film "language", it is striking how many of these films I also found tremendously entertaining in their own right. It's really quite amazing to think how, within one or two decades of the introduction of the medium, people like Melier and Griffith had figured out how to use it to tell stories and entertain us in ways that can still be enjoyed almost 100 years later. That first twenty or so years was a wild ride, though, with a lot of amazing innovations happening as to how to use the new medium, and this collection captures that wonderfully.

This is the definitive collection of historically important early silent film archives. This DVD, put out by Image, contains a vast amount of silent shorts, including "The Great Train Robbery," and the first ever animated caroon, "Funny Faces". Some of these shorts are meticulously hand-colored, for instance, the red smoke from just about every gun shot in the sixteen minute, "The Great Train Robbery". There is piano accompianiment that accompanies all of these films, so they aren't really silent. The musical cues of the piano track to the films are perfectly accurate. All in all, Image Entertainment has done a great job with this one. Also check out Landmarks, Vol. 2, and Nosferatu, both silent movie DVDs put out by Image.

I only have one problem with this disc, really - the lack of credits within the notes; without other sources telling you would you know who was responsible for 'Nero, or the Fall of Rome' or who the stars of 'The Girl and Her Trust' were? A minor point with a collection like this, but a definite niggle.

Still - what we have here is a fabulous 2-hour collection. I think only one hiccup in the descriptions has been identified elsewhere (The film billed as 'The Whole Dam Family and The Dam Dog' is actually 'I B Dam and the Whole Dam Family', its remake, but the original title certainly suits this charming little vignette) and this is a rich selection ranging from the earliest attempts by Edison and the Lumieres to capture events and people on film, to more sophisticated stories by Edwin S Porter, Georges Melies, DW Griffith, and others.

There's a lot to see and admire here, and I didn't spot one dud amongst the whole collection. There's so much more that has survived from this era in early film and surely it is time to make more examples widely available?

Although some of the films on here do overlap with some of the other early film DVDs out there (such as the Edison set and 'The Lumière Brothers' First Films'), there are also some films on here that can't be found anywhere else, and it provides a very nice introduction to the subject for someone who's just getting into these very early short films from the dawn of motion pictures. Categories include the Edison films, films by the Lumière Brothers, a Keystone short (featuring the charming Mabel Normand in the leading role), a Biograph short, a Max Linder short, short French films, short documentary-style films, and the two very early film classics 'Le Voyage Dans la Lune' and 'The Great Train Robbery' (the latter with beautifully select hand-coloring). Basically, it gives the viewer a good sampling of the various different types of films being made from the 1890s to the early Teens. These very early films are like literally looking back in time, at this bygone world, a world where the moving image was so new and revolutionary that people didn't care the movies only lasted under a minute and showed things like employees leaving a factory or two babies quarreling, since they'd never seen these miraculously moving pictures before. It also opens with the short 1994 film 'Homage to Eadweard Muybridge,' who invented the zoopraxiscope, which projected a series of pictures in a way that suggested movement. He was one of the pioneers in the invention of the motion picture, even though here we're seeing series photography (from 1877-85), not actual motion pictures. (Those who are offended by such things should be aware that the woman in these series photography "films" is naked, at times partially and at other times fully, though there's absolutely nothing sexual or pornographic here; it's just a series of images of a woman who so happens to not have any clothes on.)

My one complaint about this disc (other than the mislabelling of 'I.B. Dam and the Whole Dam Family' as 'The Whole Dam Family and the Dam Dog') is that most of the films don't have any dates given. Even if one is already familiar with the films from this era instead of a new fan, it's still nice to have them placed into historic context and to see the years they were all made. Some bonus features also would have been nice, to have provided, say, some background to the films, the people who made them, the restoration process, and what film-making was like in these very early days. It's always nice to have supplemental information to enjoy and appreciate these antique films even more.