As the winter break approaches, Gartenberg Media is pleased once again to provide a recap of the DVD and Blu-ray publications that we've offered throughout the fall academic semester. Carefully selected from boutique publishers, these releases span more than a century of motion picture history, from slapstick comedy producer Mack Sennett's The Curtain Pole (1909) to contemporary Austrian artist Norbert Pfaffenbichler's Intermezzo (2012).
In our Film History section, we previously featured a multi-volume DVD publication that comprises 200 films (dating from 1896-1913) made by Georges Méliès, the pioneer French producer-director of trick films (GEORGES MÉLIÈS: FIRST WIZARD OF CINEMA and GEORGES MÉLIÈS: ENCORE). We now offer THE MACK SENNETT COLECTION, VOLUME ONE (published by Flicker Alley), comprising a compilation of 50 films (dating from 1909-1933) from the pre-eminent slapstick comedy producer (and director) of the silent and early sound era. These films featured a star-studded array of a the leading comics of the time, including Roscoe "Fatty' Arbuckle, Harold Lloyd, Gloria Swanson, Harry Langdon, W.C. Fields, Mabel Normand, and Charlie Chaplin.
Of all these comedians, Charlie Chaplin, of course, was the most famous global icon. Augmenting our previous release of the multi-volume CHAPLIN AT KEYSTONE, we now offer a further in-depth study of his artistry with CHAPLIN'S MUTUAL COMEDIES (also from Flicker Alley). These accomplished productions date from 1916-17, a period when the Chaplin was further refining his Tramp character, perfecting his impeccable comic timing, and introducing pathos into his films.
Gerhard Lamprecht is most well known in film history circles for his multi-volume compilation of German film productions, Deutsche Stummfilme, dating from 1903-1931. In 1963, he founded the Deutsche Kinemathek (Berlin). During the intervening period (1920-1958) he directed more than 60 films, and is best remembered today for his 1931 film version of Emil and the Detectives, scripted by Billy Wilder. Now, the film archive which Lamprecht founded and Edition Filmmuseum have published four of his silent features from the years 1925-1928, in two separate DVD editions: DIE VERRUFENEN (DER FÜNFTE STAND) & DIE UNEHELICHEN and MENSCHEN UNTEREINANDER & UNTER DER LATERNE. Each volume re-presents long-unavailable work by this legendary, yet overlooked, master of early German cinema, an artist due for rediscovery in North America.
Paralleling the first decade of Lamprecht's moviemaking career in Germany, artist Hans Richter was creating movies in the abstract and Dadaist vein, while also increasingly turning to social critique in his later films. Here, for the first time, we offer HANS RICHTER: EARLY WORKS (1921-1929), published by Re:Voir Vidéo.
The European avant-garde artists of the 1920's inspired experimental filmmakers in postwar America. Tony Conrad's seminal abstract film, The Flicker (1966), can be seen in this context through comparison with Richter's Rhythmus films. The Re:Voir DVD publication, DREAMINIMALIST, couples Conrad's film with Marie Losier's contemporary cinematic portrait of the artist, Tony Conrad: DreaMinimalist (2008), which focuses on a performative representation of his creative work and individual identity.
In this cycle of releases, we are especially proud to feature, for the first time, work by Michael Snow, Canada's pre-eminent filmmaker and photographer. His film 'Rameau's Nephew' by Diderot (Thanx to Dennis Young) by Wilma Schoen investigates the meaning of a "Talking Picture", i.e., the relationship between recorded speech and image in cinema. The DVD publication of RAMEAU'S NEPHEW, from Re:Voir, comprises not only this film, but also a 184-page bilingual book of essays, preparatory scripts for the film, and analysis of the 25 sequences of the film.
Jonas Mekas is the most significant force behind the evolution and promotion of the American Avant-Garde film movement, as well as one of its most prolific independent filmmakers and pre-eminent cinema poets. Following up on our release last semester of JONAS MEKAS: THE MAJOR WORKS, we now offer both his rarely seen first feature length film, GUNS OF THE TREES, a fictional narrative of the Beat Generation, as well as, in a more poetic vein, THE SIXTIES QUARTET, that features portraits of Andy Warhol, George Maciunas, John Lennon, and the Kennedy family at Warhol's compound in Montauk, just several years after the assassination of President Kennedy. All Jonas Mekas titles are published by Re:Voir.
Last, but not least, in the vein of found footage filmmaking, we complement our previous release of GUSTAV DEUTSCH - FILM IST. (1-12), with the recent work (2002 - 2012) of NORBERT PFAFFENBICHLER - NOTES ON NOTES ON FILM, both published by Sixpack Films/INDEX DVD.
For a complete list of DVD and Blu-ray publications from our entire library of distribution titles, as a printable PDF,
click here. Please note that all of these titles are currently available for order processing.
