Product Details

• Actors: Violet MacMillan, Frank Moore, Fraunie Fraunholz, Marian Swayne, J. Stuart Blackton
• Directors: Alice Guy, Arthur Ripley, Charles R. Bowers, D.W. Griffith, Earl Hurd
• Format: Box set, Black & White, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 3
• Rating: Unrated
• Studio: Image Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: March 13, 2001
• Run Time: 564 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000059H8O
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #106,398 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

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• For more information about "Origins of Film" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
The Origins of Film doesn't encompass as much as the title might suggest. The 10-hour program showcases some of the first works by African American and women directors as well as early ventures into the genres of animation, fantasy, and gangster cinema from the silent era. It's not so much a definitive look at the origins of film as it is a survey of pioneering works by often overlooked artists and genres, and on those terms it's an invaluable, astounding set.

Divided into six programs on three discs, the set features a handful of landmark features along with collections of shorts. Oscar Michaux's groundbreaking 1919 mixed-race drama Within Our Walls is a powerful portrait of the racism and injustice faced by disenfranchised African America citizens of the time, at times a tangled story but never less than startling and sobering. Maurice Tourneur's assured Alias Jimmy Valentine is a striking 1915 gangster feature with a melodramatic plot (reused in the Disney comedy No Deposit, No Return!), handsome sets, and a graceful, gripping style. Alice Guy-Blache's hilarious and energetic 1913 shorts Matrimony's Speed Limits and A House Divided and Lois Weber's droll 1921 social satire Too Wise Wives are accomplished, sophisticated satires that wryly comment on the relations between men and women. Frank L. Baum himself wrote and produced the whimsical 1914 feature The Patchwork Girl of Oz, an inventive, deftly directed fantasy with delightful costumes and storybook images. Among the other highlights: a brief survey of American animation from primitive proto-cartoons of 1900, some unusually graceful examples of Windsor McCay's work from 1921, D.W. Griffith's 1912 gangster drama The Narrow Road with Mary Pickford, and a 1923 sound short featuring singer Noble Sissle and jazz legend Eubie Blake.

The boxed set comes with a modest but informative 12-page booklet with historical background and preservation notes. All films are accompanied by simple but appropriate piano scores. A welcome complement to the ambitious Treasures from American Film Archives, this more modest set sheds light on cinematic invention and silent film creativity often ignored in the official record. --Sean Axmaker

Product Description
These remarkable silent films are among the first examples of the unique and enduring contribution that Americans have made in the genres of gangster films, fantasy films, and animation art, as well as highlighting the works of early African American and women filmmakers. These timeless classics have been meticulously restored, given new scores and are being offered to the public for the first time on DVD. "The African American Cinema I" - Oscar Micheaux's "Within Our Gates" is the earliest surviving feature directed by an African American. However, the startling film, unseen for 75 years, is far more than a historic curiosity, it is a passionate social history that confronts racism head on. "The African American Cinema II" - "The Scar of Shame" is a rare surviving silent example of what the film industry once labeled "race movies": films with African American casts intended for African American audiences. Also included is an early experimental musical short documenting the team of Nobel Sissle (on vocals) and Eubie Blake (on piano). "Origins of American Animation" - This collection of twenty-one complete films showcases the best of the Library of Congress' animated cartoons from the first decades of the Twentieth century, an era full of surprises and experimentation. "Origins of the Fantasy Feature" - Two rare features from 1914 bring to the screen an imaginative freedom and comic verve rarely duplicated since. Novelist L. Frank Baum himself produced "The Patchwork Girl of Oz," and "A Florida Enchantment" is a wonderful gender-bending comedy of manners. "American's First Women Filmmakers" - Before the consolidation of Hollywood's studio system, women were among the most prominent film directors in America. This program collects four complete works from the silent era's two most accomplished and successful women directors, Lois Weber and Alice Guy-Blache. "Origins of the Gangster" - Long before the James Cagney/ Edward G. Robinson era, American directors and audiences were finding suspense and thrills in the gangster film. Includes "Alias Jimmy Valentine" from 1915 and D.W. Griffith's "The Narrow Road" starring Mary Pickford.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Devilish interface, divine content, July 20, 2001

By	E. A. Montgomery (Florida, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Unlike my equally beloved 'Treasures' box set, this isn't an overview of clips and interesting short moments. 'Origins' offers full length animation and silents. This isn't a slick package, and the interface is so cumbersome as to be annoying, but it's well worth the time.

"A Florida Enchantment" alone is worth the price of admission, (Although I dispute the claim that it was filmed in Lauderdale. There are several obvious signs that it was filmed in the northern secton of the state.) In this film, a young woman wishes she were a man after finding her fiance unworthy. There isn't space to discuss every film on this set - but with just this example you get a remarkable look at 'hidden' homosexual humour in early film. The actress playing the lead gives a startlingly modern performance in her male guise. The whites in blackface are mesmerizing when you realize they were probably very common roles.

Moments after she makes her trusted maid a man, the blackface actress turns into a violent drunken criminal who attempts to sexually assault another maid. (If your jaw didn't drop before then, it will be hitting the floor now.)Will our heroine enjoy life as a man? Will she get the girl of her dreams? Will she long to return to her life as a woman? Controversial when it was made, controversial today. And it's just one of the remarkable works on this set.

You will not regret this purchase.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truly Outstanding!, August 31, 2004

By	Barbara Burkowsky (Manly, NSW Australia) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

This nice box set of 3 discs surpassed all my expectations and I was thoroughly engrossed for the entire 9 1/2 hours total playing time (though not in one sitting, of course!) The Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institute have chosen an excellent variety of early films to represent the first/best of each genre: Fantasy, Animation, Gangster Film, etc and they are all real gems, in my opinion. The first disc has two feature-length films by African Americans, and both deserve good attention to the story and the messages they get across. Although the first one, "Within Our Gates" is rather complex with a lot of story packed in, it tells a realistic story with a strong message for all people, regardless of race or country.

Then, for a complete change of pace, the Animation section has over 20 short and fun examples of early animation - from simple cartoon line drawings to puppets and a few other tricks. My personal favourites are the two feature-length Fantasy films: "The Patchwork Girl of Oz" is the typical Fantasy as we know it today, from "The Wizard of Oz" and beyond, with magicians, strange creatures and good fun overall, whereas "A Florida Enchantment" is totally different but every bit as fascinating and entertaining. This one appears down-to-earth except for a mysterious box containing magical seeds that can transform women to men and vice versa - a novelty idea and still very effective 90 years later.

The third disc features some good shorts and two feature-length films of the Gangster Film and Women Filmmakers categories with very good stories once again that are presented in different ways. "Two Wise Wives" by Lois Weber has quite a bit of psychology and sociology in it, for those who'd like to dig deeper, and the feature-length Gangster film is anything but bad guys shooting it out in the slums - in fact, it's an idealistic, moralistic story about an ex-con who is motivated to go straight, making the entire box set a wonderful variety of some unusual, surprising and special early films (many being from the years 1914-19) which I think should appeal to anyone interested in good quality films generally, and in what high standards filmmakers were attaining already some 80-90 years ago.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars PC agenda, but a interesting collection nonetheless, January 24, 2002

By	Michael Gebert (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews

When I first saw this set I felt like the title "Origins of Film" was at odds with the p.c.-revisionist film choices-- it was more like little sidepaths in the history of film that left few traces by the sound era. (To take the best known name on the set, Oscar Micheaux is interesting sociologically, and you may be fascinated by the picture of black life he captures, but he's nobody's artistic ancestor, indeed, at best competent in the silent era and rather less than that in the sound era.)

As I watched more and more of the set though-- and as enough other silent films have been released on DVD that this set doesn't have to carry the burden of living up to its title-- it's grown more pleasing. A Florida Enchantment is a jaw-dropper, a good example of how much more daring 1910s films were than 20s, 30s or 40s ones. Alias Jimmy Valentine is a terrific melodrama, with a surefire climax (that must have had them jumping in their seats) and a detached depiction of one crime that anticipates caper movies like Rififi and Heat. The animation/fantasy disc is fun (although the Oz film won't make anyone forget Judy Garland). And if the black-directed films are mainly of historical rather than artistic interest, Lois Weber and Alice Guy Blache well deserve the disc space devoted to women directors. Guy Blache was as good as anyone directing films in the 1905-1915 era, and Weber is a genuine rediscovery who achieved moments of Stroheimian intensity (never an entire movie's worth that I've ever seen, but moments) as well as dealing time and again with provocative, woman's-point-of-view material. (Too Wise Wives' comic tone makes a striking contrast to the utter seriousness of the Weber films you're most likely to have caught elsewhere, Hypocrites or The Blot.) Those three features certainly justify the price, compared to other silent DVDs, so everything else you discover and enjoy along the way is a bonus.