Reviews of silent film releases on home video.
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and the Silent Era Company.
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Jean Epstein
(1924-1948)
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Contents: Le Lion des Mogols [The Lion of the Mongols] (1924), Le double amour [Double Love] (1925), Les aventures de Robert Macaire [The Adventures of Robert Macaire] (1925), Mauprat (1926), La Glace à trois faces [The Three-Sided Mirror] (1927), Six et demi, onze [Six-and-a-Half Times Eleven] (1927), La Chute de la maison Usher [The Fall of the House of Usher] (1928), Finis terrae (1929), Mor-Vran (1930), Les Berceaux (1931), L’or des mers (1933), Chanson d’Ar-Mor (1935), Le Tempestaire (1947) and Les Feux de la mer (1948).
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 Potemkine Films / Agnès B. DVD
2014 DVD edition
Jean Epstein (1924-1948), black & white, color-tinted black & white, and color-toned black & white, 945 minutes total, not rated, including Le Lion des Mogols [The Lion of the Mongols] (1924), color-tinted and color-toned black & white, 100 minutes, not rated, Le double amour [Double Love] (1925), black & white, 105 minutes, not rated, Les aventures de Robert Macaire [The Adventures of Robert Macaire] (1925), black & white, 200 minutes, not rated, Mauprat (1926), black & white and color-tinted black & white, 89 minutes, not rated, La Glace à trois faces [The Three-Sided Mirror] (1927), black & white, 38 minutes, not rated, Six et demi, onze [Six-and-a-Half Times Eleven] (1927), black & white, 83 minutes, not rated, La Chute de la maison Usher [The Fall of the House of Usher] (1928), black & white, 61 minutes, not rated, Finis terrae (1929), black & white, 82 minutes, not rated, Mor-Vran (1930), black & white, 25 minutes, not rated, Les Berceaux (1931), black & white, 6 minutes, not rated, L’or des mers (1933), black & white, 69 minutes, not rated, Chanson d’Ar-Mor (1935), black & white, 43 minutes, not rated, Le Tempestaire (1947), black & white, 22 minutes, not rated, and Les Feux de la mer (1948), black & white, 21 minutes, not rated.
Potemkine Films / Agnès B. DVD, EDV2390, UPC 3-545020-028278.
Eight single-sided, dual-layered, Region 0 PAL DVD discs; 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan image encoded in SDR MPEG-2 format at 6.4 Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to 50 fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 192 Kbps audio bit rate, and Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 224 Kbps audio bit rate; French language intertitles, optional English language subtitles; chapter stops; 158-page insert book; three multidisc DVD trays in cardboard wraps in cardboard slipcase; €99,90.
Release date: 3 June 2014.
Country of origin: France
Ratings (1-10): video: 8 / audio: 9 / additional content: 8 / overall: 8.
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This eight-disc PAL DVD boxset features short documentaries, short drama films, Avant-Garde films and dramatic features directed by Jean Epstein. All films have been mastered from high-quality 35mm source materials, most of them held by La Cinémathèque française film archive.
The collection Jean Epstein: Chez Albatros features films Epstein directed for the Russian emigré production company, Films Albatros (3 discs). The films in this collection appear to only be available in this boxset.
The collection Jean Epstein: Première Vague features films Epstein directed for his own production company (2 discs), and the collection ia also available separately.
The collection Jean Epstein: Poèmes Breton mostly features the films Epstein directed during the sound era — short drama films and documentaries (3 discs), and the collection is also available separately.
The silent films in the boxset are presented with music scores performed by Mathieu Regnault, Karol Beffa, Neil Brand, Stephen Horne, Gabriel Thibaudeau, and others.
The supplemental material includes a 160-page booklet; interviews with Bruno Dumont, Viva Paci, Cristophe Wall-Romana, Éric Thouvenel, Léon Rousseau, James June Schneider and Jacques Ayroles; an alternative ending for Six et demi, onze (1928); and the documentary, Jean Epstein, Young Oceans of Cinema (2011) by James June Schneider (68 minutes).
This high-quality edition is recommended to all with a PAL disc player. North American collectors will need a region-free PAL DVD player capable of outputting an NTSC-compatible signal to view this edition.
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France: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 PAL DVD edition from Amazon.fr. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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