Reviews of silent film releases on home video. Copyright © 1999-2025 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

Early Women Filmmakers: An International Anthology (1902-1943)

Contents: Les chiens savants (1902), Une Histoire roulante (1906), La Barricade (1907), Falling Leaves (1912), The Making of an American Citizen (1912), The Girl in the Arm-Chair (1912), Suspense (1913), Mabel’s Strange Predicament (1914), Discontent (1916), The Star Prince (1918), La cigarette (1919), The Blot (1921), La souriante Madame Beudet (1922), The Peasant Women of Ryazan [Baby Riazanskie] (1927), Le Roi des aulnes (1929), Harlequin (1931), A Night on Bald Mountain (1933), The Stolen Heart (1934), The Woman Condemned (1934), Papageno (1935), Day of Freedom (1935), Parabola (1937), Spook Sport (1939), Dance, Girl, Dance [excerpt] (1940) and Meshes of the Afternoon (1943).

This six-disc, dual-format Blu-ray Disc / DVD collection has been mastered from 35mm print elements, primarily from the Blackhawk Films collection and FPA France (Lobster Films collection), and features more than 10 hours of content. The collection, produced for home video by David Shepard, Serge Bromberg, Jeffery Masino and Joshua Morrison, contains 25 silent and sound films, with seven of them being feature-length films.

Alice Guy’s Les chiens savants (1902) (also known as Miss Dundee and Her Performing Dogs) has been transferred at a natural pace from a 35mm print from the Blackhawk Films collection which was struck from a negative with emulsion pinholes, producing a very-good picture but with a distracting number of black specks (negative pinholes). Music by Frederick Hodges.

Une Histoire roulante (1906) has been transferred from an excellent but worn 35mm print from the Blackhawk Films collection, with fine filmbase scratches, dust, schmutz and emulsion chipping, and some frame instability. The Blu-ray Disc image is excellent. Music by Frederick Hodges.

La Barricade (1907) has been transferred from an excellent 35mm print from the Blackhawk Films collection, with dust, speckling, schmutz and emulsion scraping. Music by Frederick Hodges.

Falling Leaves (1912) has been transferred from a very-good 35mm print, with a number of splices, a little speckling and dust, and some mild print warping. Music by Tamar Muskal.

The films are accompanied by music scores by Sergei Dreznin, Frederick Hodges, Tamar Muskal, Judith Rosenberg, and Rodney Sauer with The Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra.

For our comparative reviews of some of the films in this collection, see our The Blot on home video, La cigarette on home video, Mabel’s Strange Predicament on home video, The Peasant Women of Ryazan on home video, La souriante Madame Beudet on home video and Suspense on home video pages.

Supplementary material includes audio commentary for The Blot by author and professor Shelley Stamp; and a 28-page insert booklet with an essay by film historian and Women Film Pioneers Project Manager Kate Saccone.

As the Blu-ray Discs and the DVDs are packaged in separate keepcases within the boxset, we think the consumer would have been better served by there being separate, and therefore less expensive BD and DVD retail offerings.

While several of these films have appeared in earlier home video editions, the appeal of this collection will be the retrospective context of the collection and the updated, high-definition film scans. A highly recommended collection. Out-of-print but well worth pursuing.

This Region A Blu-ray Disc / Region 1 DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

Other silent era MABEL NORMAND films available on home video.

Other silent era LENI RIEFENSTAHL films available on home video.

Other silent era LOIS WEBER films available on home video.

Other FRENCH FILMS of the silent era available on home video.

Other RUSSIAN and SOVIET FILMS of the silent era available on home video.

Other AVANT GARDE FILMS of the silent era available on home video.

Other CRIME FILMS of the silent era available on home video.

Other KEYSTONE COMEDY FILMS of the silent era available on home video.

Other SHORT COMEDY FILMS of the silent era available on home video.