M–Film History & Documentaries

DISCOVERING CINEMA

Various Directors 

Presented by Flicker Alley and Blackhawk Films, DISCOVERING CINEMA is a two-disc DVD set comprised of LEARNING TO TALK (2003) and MOVIES DREAM IN COLOR (2004), both produced by Lobster Films/Histoire. Film historians Eric Lange and Serge Bromberg compiled materials from their own Lobster Films collection and material from archives…

FRENCH MASTERWORKS: RUSSIAN ÉMIGRÉS IN PARIS (1923-1929)

Ivan Mosjoukine, Alexandre Volkoff, Marcel L’Herbier, Jacques Feyder (France)

The collection of Russian filmmakers who made up the core of what came to be known as Films Albatros arrived from Moscow after the October 1917 revolution by way of Yalta, Constantinople and Marseilles, establishing their base of operations in an old Pathé greenhouse-style studio in the Paris suburb of Montreuil. From it flowed some of the finest...

GEORGE MELIES: FIRST WIZARD OF CINEMA & ENCORE

George Melies (France)

Georges Méliès built the world's first movie studio in 1896 near Paris; from it cascaded fantastic magic films, dream films, historical reconstructions, imaginary journeys, melodramas, slapstick comedies—even erotic films. Examples of all are here, with many still retaining power to astonish and charm. This monumental thirteen hour collection on five DVDs…

GEORGES MÉLIÈS: A TRIP TO THE MOON & THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE

George Méliès (France)

No original hand-colored copies of Georges Méliès A TRIP TO THE MOON (1902), had been known to survive until one was miraculously found in Spain in the mid-1990s, but in a fragmentary condition thought too fragile to handle for either viewing or restoration. In 2010, three experts in worldwide film restoration - Lobster Films, and two non-profit...

HENRI STORCK: IMAGES D'OSTENDE - THE OSTEND FILMS

Henri Storck (Belgium)

Henri Storck (Ostend 1907 - Brussels 1999) lived through the whole history of cinema, passing from silent to sound, and from experimental to commercial films. He is recognised as a pioneer of Belgian cinema and a key figure in documentary. An eyewitness of his times, he made socially engaged films, but also poetic and experimental short films, films on art and a…

HENRI STORCK: MISÈRE AU BORINAGE - THE SOCIAL FILMS

Henri Storck (Belgium)

MISÈRE AU BORINAGE brings together Storck's Social Films, including the 1933 title work co-directed with Joris Ivens, which has become a classic of the "cinema of reality", with which Storck was most closely associated. In 1937 he made LES MAISONS DE LA MISÈRE, denouncing slum housing in the same pamphleteering style, and in 1938 LE PATRON...

HENRI STORCK: SYMPHONIE PAYSANNE - PEASANT SYMPHONY

Henri Storck (Belgium)

Henri Storck (Ostend 1907 - Brussels 1999) lived through the whole history of cinema, passing from silent to sound, and from experimental to commercial films. He is recognised as a pioneer of Belgian cinema and a key figure in documentary. From 1924 to 1944, the old project of making a feature film comes true. SYMPHONIE PAYSANNE consists of four parts that…

HENRI GEORGES CLOUZOT'S INFERNO (L'ENFER D'HENRI-GEORGES CLOUZOT)

Serge Bromberg & Ruxandra Medrea Annonier (France)

In 1964, director Henri-Georges Clouzot (QUAI DES ORFEVRES, LE CORBEAU, THE WAGES OF FEAR, LES DIABOLIQUES, THE MYSTERY OF PICASSO) chose Romy Schneider, aged 26, and Serge Reggiani, 42, to star in L'ENFER (INFERNO), an enigmatic and original project granted an unlimited budget due to the enthusiastic interest in the project by investors... 

LANDMARKS OF EARLY SOVIET FILM

Various Directors (USSR)

During the 1920s, Soviet documentary and fiction films were financed by the State, and their fledgling directors, some barely out of their teens, converted their lives from theater, engineering, painting and journalism to the practice and theory of a revolutionary cinema devoted to showing the achievements and aspirations of the new...

THE MACK SENNETT COLLECTION: VOLUME ONE

Various Directors (US)

"Over a 21-year period from 1912 to 1933, the short and feature films produced by Mack Sennett (and released under the banners of Keystone Comedies and Mack Sennett Comedies) played a large part in creating the style and language that has forever defined visual humor in motion pictures, earning Sennett the nickname "the King of Comedy"…

THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME / GOW, THE HEADHUNTER

Merian C. Cooper / Edward A. Salisbury (US)

THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME is a superb, pre-Code action-adventure film. Based upon a famous short story by Richard Connell, it follows big game hunter, Bob Rainsford, (Joel McCrea), as he becomes quarry for another, the opulently deranged Count Zaroff, (floridly played by Leslie Banks). Utilizing some of the amazing sets made for King Kong, the film is...

NANOOK OF THE NORTH / THE WEDDING OF PALO

Robert Flaherty & Dr. Knud Rasmussen (US / Denmark)

Robert Flaherty made this wonderful film of Eskimo (Inuit) life following six years as an Artic explorer for the Canadian Northern Railway. Flaherty seized upon the idea of structuring his movie around characters who reenacted episodes of their lives and participated in the shaping of the film. He was not trained as an anthropologist, but Flaherty wisely guides our...

PERILS OF THE NEW LAND: FILMS OF THE IMMIGRANT EXPERIENCE (1910-1915)

Various Directors (US)

TRAFFIC IN SOULS (1913) and THE ITALIAN (1915) are riveting and important social dramas of the American silent screen. Released during the earliest years of feature-length film, when movies were more dedicated to advocacy and reform than to escapist entertainment, both depict new immigrants to America and the hazards that await them.

PETER VON BAGH: FINNISH SUITE

Peter von Bagh, (Finland)

Peter von Bagh is an award-winning filmmaker, writer and critic. His extensive and unique body of works include some 50 films and 30 books. The FINNISH SUITE includes three documentary feature films which make up an important part of von Bagh's works in the 21st century. HELSINKI, FOREVER (2008) is a portrait and city symphony…

SAVED FROM THE FLAMES

SAVED FROM THE FLAMES presents 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…

SEGUNDO DE CHOMÓN (1903-1912): EL CINE DE LA FANTASIA

Segundo de Chomón (Spain)

Segundo de Chomón is a key figure in the early years of cinema history, and one whose career has long been overshadowed by his French contemporary, Georges Méliès. This DVD collection now presents 31 films by “the Spanish Méliès,” revealing a filmmaker of comparable imagination, yet unique artistry. Curated from the 105 titles that make up the Segundo de… 

THIS IS CINERAMA

Robert L. Bendick (US)

On the evening of September 30, 1952, the shape and sound of movies changed forever with the introduction of Cinerama, the widescreen process that used three cameras and three projectors on a curved screen 146° deep.

In celebration of the 60th Anniversary of its premiere, THIS IS CINERAMA is presented exactly as seen by…

UNDER FULL SAIL: SILENT CINEMA ON THE HIGH SEAS

Various Directors (US)

UNDER FULL SAIL: SILENT CINEMA ON THE HIGH SEAS collects five breathtaking films that preserve the romance, grandeur and allure of windjammers sailing open waters, exquisitely photographed in the style of the time.

THE YANKEE CLIPPER (1927), produced by Cecil B. DeMille and directed by Rupert Julian, restored...

WINDJAMMER: THE VOYAGE OF THE CHRISTIAN RADICH

Louis de Rochemont III & Bill Colleran (Norway / US)

Embarking from Oslo, Norway, the ship sets out across the Atlantic with a storm-tossed stop in Madeira, where New Year’s festivities entice the young crewmen to enjoy Portuguese musical celebrations and heart racing rides in basket sleds down steep cobblestone streets. After that, it is on to Willemstad, Curacao, where young sailors take part in Dutch festivities.