Reviews of silent film releases on home video.
Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett
and the Silent Era Company.
All Rights Reserved. |
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Buy Your Own
Cherries
(1904)
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This short film, produced by Robert W. Paul, tells a quick tale of poverty and redemption.
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 Edition Filmmuseum
2011 DVD edition
Screening the Poor (1889-1914), black & white and color-tinted black & white, ? minutes total, not rated, including Buy Your Own Cherries (1904), black & white, 5 minutes, not rated.
Edition Filmmuseum, 64, unknown UPC/EAN number.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Region 0 PAL DVD disc (two DVDs in the set); 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in windowboxed 16:9 (720 x 576 anamorphic pixels) interlaced scan image encoded in SDR MPEG-2 format at 6.2 Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to 50 fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 224 Kbps audio bit rate; no intertitles, no subtitles; no chapter stops (within the film); 16-page insert booklet; standard DVD keepcase; €29,95.
Release date: May 2011 (second edition, July 2011).
Country of origin: Germany •
Ratings (1-10): video: 4 / audio: 8 / additional content: 8 / overall: 8.
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This PAL DVD edition has been mastered from a 35mm print held by the British Film Institute. The windowboxed scan shows its share of dust, some speckling, schmutz and vertical scratches, with a bouncing picture within the frame.
The film is accompanied by a music score composed and performed on piano by Günter A. Buchwald, with violin and viola.
Supplemental material includes recreations of the reformist magic lantern slide shows Billy’s Rose (1888) (8 minutes), A Bunch of Primroses (1889) (8 minutes), The Magic Wand (1889) (6 minutes), The Emigrant Ship (1890) (13 minutes), Enter Not the Dramshop (1890) (5 minutes), In the Workhouse (1890) (7 minutes), Dustman’s Darling (1894) (5 minutes), Ora Pro Nobis (1897) (6 minutes), Buy Your Own Cherries! (1905) (28 minutes), The Little Match Girl (1905) (9 minutes), and Don’t Go Down in the Mine, Dad (1910) (5 minutes), with recordings of live performances of the slide shows by speakers Ludwig Vogl-Bienek (German), Karin Bienek (German) and Mervyn Heard (English); documents about each title (accessed as DVD-ROM features by computer); and a 16-page bilingual (German and English) insert booklet.
This is our recommended home video edition of the film. 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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USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 PAL DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 PAL DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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This
Region 0 PAL DVD edition is also available directly from . . .
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 Kino on Video
2002 DVD edition
The Movies Begin (1894-1913), black & white and color-tinted black & white, 414 minutes total, not rated, including Buy Your Own Cherries (1904), black & white, 4 minutes, not rated.
Kino International, K236A-E, UPC 7-38329-02362-1.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD disc (five DVDs in the set); 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 5.5 Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to 60 fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 192 Kbps audio bit rate;English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles; no chapter stops (within the film); five standard DVD keepcases in cardboard box; $99.95.
Release date: 19 February 2002.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 4 / audio: 6 / additional content: 6 / overall: 6.
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This DVD edition has been transferred from a 35mm print presented in windowbox format to allow the maximum image to be seen on all televisions.
The film is accompanied by a music score played on a piano.
If you do not already own David Shepard’s two-volume Landmarks of Early Film laserdisc or DVD editions culled from this collection, then seriously consider purchasing the Movies Begin boxset. All of the content of the Landmarks discs is available here, with the additional films of the other The Movies Begin programs and the bonus films of this early DVD edition.
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USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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This Region 0 NTSC DVD is also available directly from . . .
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 BFI Video Publishing
2005 DVD edition
Early Cinema: Primitives and Pioneers (1895-1910), black & white, color-tinted black & white and color-toned black & white, 187 minutes total, BBFC Classification E, including Buy Your Own Cherries (1904), black & white, 4 minutes, BBFC Certification E.
BFI Video Publishing, BFIVD643,
UPC 5-035673-006436, EAN 5.03567E+12.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Region 0 PAL DVD disc (two DVDs in the set); 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in windowboxed 4:3 (720 x 576 pixels) interlaced scan image encoded in SDR MPEG-2 format at 7.0 Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to 50 fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 5.0 surround sound encoded at 448 Kbps audio bit rate (music), Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 192 Kbps audio bit rate (commentary with music), and LPCM 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 1.5 Mbps audio bit rate (music); English language intertitles, optional English language subtitles; closed captions; no chapter stops (within the film); standard two-disc DVD keepcase; £19.99.
Release date: 29 August 2005.
Country of origin: England
Ratings (1-10): video: 4 / audio: 7 / additional content: 7 / overall: 7.
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This PAL DVD edition has been mastered from the same archival source print as the other home video editions noted above.
The film is accompanied by an improvised piano score performed by Neil Brand, John Sweeney or Stephen Horne, which includes permanent audio commentary by Barry Salt.
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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United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 PAL DVD edition from Amazon.co.uk. Support Silent Era.
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Other EARLY FILMS of the silent era available on home video.
Other BRITISH FILMS of the silent era available on home video.
Other SHORT COMEDY FILMS of the silent era available on home video.
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