Official Silent Films on Blu-ray Thread

[happydood]

I applaud all of oddbox's choices- those are all great and I could easily have made the same list on another day, but today:

Kino's Phantom Of The Opera
Kino's Buster Keaton Short Films
Criterion's The Kid
BFI's Nosferatu (with James Bernard Score)
Kino's Metropolis

honorable mentions/cheating: Modern Times, Caligari, Steamboat Bill Jr., Safety Last, Chaplin Mutuals (BFI,) Man Who Laughs (BFI)

[Beckford]

The Half Breed(1916) Kino
{it's paired with another Fairbanks film "The Good Bad Man}
Intolerance(1916) Cohen edition with Carl Davis score
Son of the Sheik(1926) Kino
The Lodger(1927) Network {Region 2) with Nitin Sawhney score
The Passion of Joan of Arc(1928) Criterion
Spies{Spione} (1928) Kino
Underground(1928) Kino

[billy pilgrim]

Originally Posted by checkerboard

what's everyone's picks for top 5 or so silent film blu-rays?

Here are some of my favorites. It's too hard to pick just five!

The Docks of New York (Criterion)
Behind the Door (Flicker Alley)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Kino)
Die Niebelungen (Eureka)
Old Ironsides (Kino)
The Penalty (Kino)
Shooting Stars (BFI)
Wings (Paramount)
The Loves of the Pharoah (Alpha Omega: German disc)
Variete (Eureka)
Uncle Tom's Cabin (Kino)
Faust (Eureka)
The Informer (Kino)

No particular order on these. Silent films have become some of my favorites over the last couple of years. Hope you find some of these as amazing as I did.

[steel_breeze]

My Top Five fave silents on shiny disc:

1. Intolerance (1916) -- Cohen
2. Sunrise (1927) -- Masters of Cinema
3. The Gold Rush (1925 silent version) -- Criterion
4. Metropolis (1927) -- Kino
5. Battleship Potemkin (1925) -- Kino

Also: honorable mention for Flicker Alley's A Trip to the Moon (1902) Blu-ray

All SOOOO good. I've been watching my physical media collection in chronological order since last November, when I started with all my silents in a row and "in original historical context". It was a fantastic exercise and made me appreciate each innovation and each experience as if I were seeing it all for the first time. Of course by now, with the pandemic keeping me at home watching more movies than in any other year, I'm all the way up to 1977... so I'm a long way out from my silents at this point, and missing them. I may have to jump back in time to a couple "out of chronology".

[fred25_Ca]

Lots of great choices here but my personal favorite is Cohen's wonderful release of Fairbanks' The thief of bagdad with my favorite silent score of all time by the great Carl Davis. The restoration is beautiful and the end result is one of the most magical movie experience of all time.

As for the others, I love Criterion's release of The Kid Brother (with another great Davis score), Kino's Metropolis and Flicker Alley's great release of The lost world.

[Red Spectre]

For those who missed out on Cohen’s Intolerance release, it’s currently back on Amazon for as low as I’ve ever seen it (~$31).

[MifuneFan]

For Christmas/my B-day I got myself this book I stumbled across on ebay. It's a large program book for an exhibition that was held at the MoMA in 1998-1999 for UFA Films Posters from 1918-1943, many of them being silent films. The book is really nice, and filled with beautiful reproductions of these German films. Thought others here might like to see it too

The book appears to be somewhat rare. I think it was the only one available on ebay, but I see some available at Amazon's marketplace, and other used booksellers. It's well worth getting if you're into these kinds of films, and/or just admire classic film posters like I do.

[cartoonsonfilm]

Hello, everyone!

I'm only now noticing this thread. For anyone who's not already aware, I wanted to make note of our newly restored collections of silent era animation. There are more in the works, and here are the five existing releases so far:

Cartoon Roots (Blu-ray/DVD combo) - YouTube

Cartoon Roots: The Bray Studios--Animation Pioneers (Blu-ray/DVD combo) - YouTube

Cartoon Roots: Halloween Haunts (Blu-ray/DVD combo) - YouTube

Cartoon Roots: Bobby Bumps and Fido (Blu-ray/DVD combo) - YouTube

Cartoon Roots: Otto Messmer's Feline Follies (Blu-ray/DVD combo) - YouTube

All are available on Amazon at this link, and are also being discussed in this dedicated thread.

Sincerely,

Tommy José Stathes

[cartoonsonfilm]

I'm back with some more exciting news about silent era animation! It's time for the next Cartoon Roots crowdfunding project, which will entail some of the very rare and rather fun, ingenious Walter Lantz shorts produced at Bray Studios. We're already off to a great start, but we can only make this a reality if you pitch in...

Cartoon Roots: Dinky Doodle & Co. (Blu-ray/DVD combo) Kickstarter promo! - YouTube

See you on Kickstarter!

Thanks everyone,
Tommy

[cartoonsonfilm]

Good news! The Cartoon Roots: Dinky Doodle & Co. campaign on Kickstarter has now surpassed $10K, so there's just a little over $6K left to go until the main goal is met. For anyone who hasn't checked it out or pledged yet...it's effectively pre-ordering a copy:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tommyjose/cartoon-roots-dinky-doodle-and-co-blu-ray-and-dvd-combo

[cartoonsonfilm]

Update: We've added a stretch goal to the Cartoon Roots: Dinky Doodle & Co. Kickstarter, which is still funding, to help cover brand new restorations and a rerelease of some of the earliest films in Max Fleischer's Out of the Inkwell series. Check out the campaign here to take part.

Originally Posted by cartoonsonfilm

NEW STRETCH GOAL: $33,900

Thanks for making the initial Cartoon Roots: Dinky Doodle & Co. component of this Kickstarter a success! For those of you new to this campaign, all relevant info can still be found under this stretch goal announcement.

Please review all reward tiers carefully!

Promo video for this stretch goal project coming soon!

Ideally, and in the long run, we would love to have a few dozen Cartoon Roots releases produced, utilizing the many hundreds of early animation prints in this archive. These releases would represent even more of a comprehensive cross-section of early animation characters, series, and studios than we've already covered in past Roots collections. There are dozens of Max Fleischer's silent Out of the Inkwell films already in the archive, many of which are incredibly rare titles or far superior prints when compared with commonly circulating versions. A new stretch goal in this campaign will fund the restoration and rerelease of 15 such films, with a special focus on some of the earliest surviving examples.

Here are some of the films you might* see included in this project, in new 2K scans & restorations from rare archival 16mm, 28mm, and 35mm prints:

The Clown's Pup (1919) perhaps the earliest surviving Inkwell short, and possibly sourced from 35mm

The Boxing Kangaroo (1920) from unique 28mm print

The Clown's Little Brother (1920)

Perpetual Motion (1920)

Automobile Ride (1921)

Fishing (1921)

Invisible Ink (1921)

Birthday (1921)

Challenge (1922)

Bubbles (1922)

Contest (1923)

Puzzle (1923)

...and others.

*As noted in the original Dinky Doodle campaign, some of these titles and other details may change based on unforeseeable variables or problems that could arise during production. Be assured that there will definitely be 15 films carefully restored and presented as superior versions in our signature Cartoon Roots manner, for your enjoyment, in the final product.

We've introduced new Stretch Goal Rewards to help cover this additional project. Pre-existing backers are encouraged to upgrade their original pledges to these new stretch reward tiers in order to help fund both projects.

NOTE: We're aiming to complete the Dinky Doodle collection in Spring 2022, and our approximate goal for releasing the Inkwell shorts collection will be Summer 2022.

A note about new stretch reward tiers:

Stretch goal rewards containing both the Dinky and Inkwell collections include extra fees to cover additional costs for two shipments. We aim to finish Dinky first, and Inkwell second; probably not at the same time. All stretch goal rewards containing multiple items will include the Dinky collection, and those rewards will be shipped in partial form first—when the Dinky collection is ready. The Inkwell collection will be shipped on its own, at a later date, upon completion. For instance, if you've pledged for Dinky, Inkwell, and 2 other pre-existing Roots collections, the pre-existing collections and Dinky will be sent to you when Dinky is completed, and Inkwell will ship later, by itself.

Backers selecting these multiple item rewards containing both Dinky and Inkwell will be messaged a second time, sometime after the first wave of items is sent, to reconfirm their postal addresses when the time comes to ship out the Inkwell collection. There may be a gap of several months between the completion of Dinky and Inkwell. Thank you for understanding.

Thanks for helping to make this a reality!

Also, I should clarify: newcomers to the campaign, i.e. rabid Fleischer fans, can pledge for the Inkwell set alone, if they so choose. Folks who want both Dinky and Inkwell need to pledge for the $50 stretch goal reward tier. I'll be posting a new promo video for the Inkwells sometime in the coming days...

Thanks everyone!

[cartoonsonfilm]

Here's a new promo video for the Out of the Inkwell collection, which is still funding. Less than 6 weeks to go now, to meet our goal for these to be restored and released on Blu & DVD...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHVp...ature=youtu.be

[karsten]

Originally Posted by Knaldskalle

Just realized that I forgot this one:



It contains the movies Zapatas Gang (1914), When I was Dead (1915) and Asphalt (1929) and 3 sound films as well.

I purchased this to obtain a blu-ray of the very fine German sound film Romanze im Moll (Romance in a Minor Key), unavailable on blu-ray in any other issue, but watched Asphalt on a lark and, as it turned out, enjoyed it immensely. Quite different in approach from, say, the movies of Lang or Murnau, especially the acting style -- far less theatrical.

Very good transfer, considering the age of the film, and the fact that no negative exists.

No English subtitles, but the film features very few title cards at all, and would be, I'm sure, completely understandable to anyone who didn't know a word of German.

[WaverBoy]

I’m getting to this thread extremely late. Lemme list some of my essential silent film Blus:

WHEN KNIGHTHOOD WAS IN FLOWER (1922) Undercrank
SAFETY LAST! (1923) Criterion
THE GOLD RUSH (1925) Criterion
THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (1923) Kino
METROPOLIS (1927) Kino
WINGS (1927) Paramount
STEAMBOAT BILL JR. (1928) / COLLEGE (1927) Kino (the only Blu-ray release that contains the absolutely essential Gaylord Carter organ score for SBJ, though falsely labeled as the Lee Erwin score )
THE MAN WHO LAUGHS (1928) Flicker Alley

[happydood]

Well said. Kino's Hunchback has shot pretty close to the top of my list, too. It's essential.

[WaverBoy]

Originally Posted by happydood

Well said. Kino's Hunchback has shot pretty close to the top of my list, too. It's essential.

Far superior to all previous releases including the Flicker Alley Blu. An absolute revelation. One of the finest and most essential Blu-ray releases of 2021.

[oildude]

Greetings Silent Film Fans

I just did another (admittedly late) update of the first post of this thread. It is somewhat difficult to keep up with silent film on blu-ray releases due to their intermittent release from different labels.

I went through the Kino Lorber and Flicker Alley releases since my last update in mid-2021.

Please look the first post over and let me know if any are missing. I am no doubt leaving off some recent non-US releases so anyone familiar with these labels (for example, BFI) please comment.

Thanks and have a great week

[filmlover22]

I have a lot of silents, but as this is a North America thread, I can't list them. 90% of all my silents come from UK companies (Eureka, BFI, etc). imho, there is something about the British treatment of silents that shows (to me) a special love and care that I typically don't see in the US. Their releases seem to me better encoded, better bit rates, better supplements, better packaging, etc. And frequently cheaper than their US counterparts.

While there certainly are exceptions in the US (Criterion's Passion of Joan of Arc, Kino's recent Hunchback, Criterion's Harold Lloyd films, etc.), this is just my perception.

[oildude]

Originally Posted by filmlover22

I have a lot of silents, but as this is a North America thread, I can't list them. 90% of all my silents come from UK companies (Eureka, BFI, etc). imho, there is something about the British treatment of silents that shows (to me) a special love and care that I typically don't see in the US. Their releases seem to me better encoded, better bit rates, better supplements, better packaging, etc. And frequently cheaper than their US counterparts.

While there certainly are exceptions in the US (Criterion's Passion of Joan of Arc, Kino's recent Hunchback, Criterion's Harold Lloyd films, etc.), this is just my perception.

Hello mate

Thanks for posting. Please see the extensive first post of this thread and my post immediately above yours. This is an international thread, not just for US/NA releases. The thread resides in the NA section because it has a heavy emphasis on US releases, but I include non-US releases also, and these are open to discussion here too. I need some help keeping the BFI and Eureka (and other non-US label) releases up to date. If you see any missing, just list them here please.

It would be great to get some new conversations going here.

[filmlover22]

oildude, thanks for that info. The last time I posted a non-US release (though it was region free) in the NA forum, i was told by the moderator that it was inappropriate and they moved it to the international section. So I was a hesitant to list these UK items here.

Here are my UK silents

[Show spoiler]

Here are my US silents

[Show spoiler]