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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1Audience Rating: R (Restricted) Binding: DVD EAN: 0617311673498 Format: Color, NTSC, Closed-captioned Label: Flicker Alley Languages: Manufacturer: Flicker Alley Number Of Items: 3 Publisher: Flicker Alley Release Date: January 22, 2008 Running Time: 420 minutes Studio: Flicker Alley Editorial Review: Product Description: Flicker Alley proudly presents SAVED FROM THE FLAMES, a unique and wonderful collection of 54 rare and restored short films from the inflammable years of cinema. Movies were once made on nitrate film stock, which has a chemical composition similar to gunpowder and is highly vulnerable to fire and decay. This remarkable seven-hour anthology, organized in eight thematic groups over three DVDs, presents amazing treasures from the vaults of Lobster Films in Paris and from the Blackhawk Films Collection, rescued during half a century of gathering movies from the nitrate era. DISC ONE NEW BEGINNINGS: Seven films including the early cinematic experiments of Lumière, Georges Mendel and others, featuring Cyrano De Bergerac from 1900, believed to be the first color and sound film. MAGICAL MOVIES: Five early fantasy and trick films, including a previously-unseen trick film by Georges Méliès, hand-colored films from Segundo de Chomon and Gaston Velle, and astonishing stop-motion animation from 1911. SEEING THE WORLD: Among the ten films in this section: A transatlantic crossing in a Zeppelin dirigible, a stencilcolored trek through the Belgian Congo in 1925, Parisian street kids in Montmartre during the first World War, a 1916 visit to Los Angeles, 1927 sound film of Charles Lindbergh embarking on his New York-Paris flight, an early 1930s portrait of New York s Coney Island, and a film promoting Josephine Baker s revue at the Folies-Bergère. DISC TWO LAUGHING LIKE WE USED TO: Seven comedies, including four restored from turn of the century Italy and France, a recently-discovered nitrate negative of Chaplin's first appearance in his tramp attire, a frenetic Mack Sennett gag fest with tin lizzies galore, and The Pest, starring an early Stan Laurel (before Hardy). DRAWINGS AND MODELS: Six works of animation: Gaumont's Fantasmagorie (1908), three cartoons from the Fleischer Studios Cartoon Factory (1924), Ain't She Sweet (1932), and Play Safe (1936) Ub Iwerks' Balloonland (1935) featuring a new color restoration made from the original negatives, and a filmed performance by puppetry pioneer Tony Sarg. GRACE NOTES: Rare musical performances: Django Reinhardt with Stephane Grapelli and the Quintet of the Hot Club of France, Duke Ellington and the Cotton Club Orchestra, Louis Armstrong, and the Utica Jubilee Singers. DISC THREE PERSUADE ME: Eleven films designed to influence, including vintage promotional films featuring Laurel & Hardy (dubbed in French), Michel Simon and Jacques Tati, puppet animation by George Pal, three WW-II era musical shorts, two political campaign films, and Master Hands, a paean to the 1936 Chevrolet, selected for the National Film Registry. TELL ME A STORY: Narratives from 1912-1913 by D.W. Griffith (For His Son), Lois Weber (Suspense), and Thomas Ince (The Heart of an Indian), all mastered from beautiful 35 mm film elements. SAVED FROM THE FLAMES Booklet: An illustrated history and comments on each film in the collection, written by David Shepard and Serge Bromberg. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - A huge disappointmentThere are a lot of interesting items in this collection, but the production is nothing short of atrocious. When using the up-and-down arrows on the disc menus, there is at least a five-second delay before the menu responds. This is exasperating and annoying, but tolerable (just barely). Even more annoying -- and entirely UNacceptable -- is the fact that the second disc (of three) would not play in any of my players. I got a replacement set (thanks to Amazon's usual excellent customer ... Read More Rating:  - "Like a box of chocolates..."Watching this marvelous 3-disc set kept reminding me of the famous Forrest Gump quote: "Life is like a box of chocolates: you never know what you're going to get." With such a variety of rare and unusual short films, this set is just as pleasing and delightful as discovering what kind of delicious filling is in the next chocolate in the box. Some films are sure to surprise and others might be an acquired taste, but the overall result is that this collection is a wonderful visual record of history ... Read More Rating: - History In Your Living RoomAbsolutely fabulous and breath-taking. If you are into cinema history or photographic evolution at all, this is a MUST item. Hours and hours of fascinating footage from more than 100 years of motion picture filmmaking. Worth watching over and over, too. Rating: - Wonderful!Wonderful! Fans of Prince Ranian wil cherish a 1900 film of human torso "Kobelkoff," showing off his unique dance stylings. "Danse Serpentine," "The Talion Punishment," and "Kiriki" feature breathtakingly beautiful coloring by hand and stencil. In the delightfully funny "Excelsior," Melies materializes a giant lobster (seventy years before "Multiple Maniacs"), among other magical feats. "Over the Top" documents a trip across a snowy mountain ... Read More Rating: - Fantastic collection of rare gemsAfter carefully reading the other very good reviews of this 3-DVD set, I finally gave in and purchased "Saved from the Flames." If you love silent cinema and the beginnings of cinema as much as I do, you will love this collection. There are seven-hours of delightful shorts, animations, science fiction shorts, documentary-style films, and hand-colored/tinted films. I found the quality to be excellent, especially considering the age of these silent gems (and most of these films, by the way, have music, ... Read More |
