Avant Garde - Experimental Cinema of the 1920s & 1930s [DVD]

Back in the early 1990s, I stumbled upon a Kino VHS version of Metropolis, and decided to watch it with a couple of friends. Even as a teenager with a penchant for radical/experimental music, the soundtrack was so abysmal that we ended up watching the entire movie on mute. In 2003, my girlfriend at the time purchased a Kino DVD edition of Lang's "Spies" for me for my birthday; again, the audio was so bad that we promptly returned the film and put the money towards a nice dinner. The fundamental failures of Kino can be readily comprehended in comparing their version of Metropolis to the recent release by Criterion - Criterion is meticulous in its restoration of movie classics and in its supporting documentation; the quality of their product is throughout superior - from the packaging to the accompanying literature, to the supplemental material. In fact, Criterion, discovering that a score had been produced specifically for Metropolis, went so far as to both reconstruct and use this score in their re-issue of the film. If I understand correctly, they are now putting out another version of Metropolis, using recently found and restored footage, bringing it closer to its original form.By comparison, there is something simply cheep and shoddy about Kino's products. How they come upon the rights to so many great films, or access to great movie collections, I don't know. What I do know is that they seem to have absolutely no respect for the films that they distribute. From the quality of the video, to the canned, electronic and mind-numbingly bad audio, to the packaging; everything in the Kino releases of classical film bespeaks quick profits for poor quality products. Given my now nearly 20 year history with this company, I must be a dupe for believing that they will ever respect the content of the materials that they are producing.Needless to say, I gave Kino one more shot when I saw this collection of Avant-Garde Cinema, which I hoped to use specifically in addressing avant-garde film techniques in a class I'm teaching next semester. The collection does contain some hard-to-come-by classics, and the three-disk collection is relatively comprehensive, considering the source. I cannot express how disheartened I was (fingers crossed, hoping that this once, Kino would get it right), when I received the same poorly packaged product (the DVDs were already bouncing around inside the sealed, plastic-wrapped containers), and started playing the first disc. As usual, the video quality was relatively poor, and my ears were once more assaulted by some of the worst, low-budget racket I've ever heard. In certain instances, the scoring is entirely mysterious (especially in experimental silent FILM, where it is precisely the visual nature of the work that was intended to be the subject), in other instances, it is entirely inappropriate.So passes another great disappointment at the hands of Kino, who might do better simply pumping out the kind of low-budget classic kitsch camp films that they seem to be fitted for producing, instead of staining truly great works of cinema with their incompetence. This said, for people interested in this kind of cinema, I say, do not let the low price point of Kino's products sway you - you get what you pay for. So much is online that the decision to purchase a physical copy of these films should be driven by a desire to own an artifact that preserves and respects the content in high-resolution and with appropriate documentation and sensitivity to the original works. In other words, save up and invest in a higher quality edition, possibly by Criterion, if offered, or some other distributor who is invested in film, in the history of film and in digitally preserving, restoring and presenting great film in an appropriate format.

I’ve gotten curious about “experimental films” and have been watching a lot of short examples lately. When working through Flicker Alley’s Masterworks of American Avant-Garde Experimental Film 1920-1970, I found quite a few films that I liked but wished that more of them told stories rather than being slice-of-life or completely abstract. (I know that some “post-modernists” feel that a fondness for narrative is old-fashioned, but Too Bad.) Well, in this collection I got my wish—and found that stories don’t necessarily help. Most of these early silent films do have stories of sorts, but on the whole I didn’t find them nearly as appealing as the best of the ones in the Flicker Alley collection.Most of these films are about 15 minutes long. All are silent, with music added later. They have few, if any, title cards, so one must guess the story from the action—but that usually is not hard. All are in black-and-white, as one would expect of early films. Most of them did not seem to do much in the way of film technique that was unusual, but I am no expert, so there may have been subtleties that I missed.Oddly enough, given my quest for stories, most of the films I liked best in this collection were the more abstract ones. My favorite was Hans Richter’s Vormittagspuk (Ghosts Before Breakfast), a humorous little piece that should delight any fan of Surrealism; Richter’s puckish troupe of flying bowler hats recalls Magritte’s paintings, for one. Symphonie Diagonale, H2O (a collection of water images), and Ballet Mecanique (which is also in the Flicker Alley collection) were enjoyable examples of completely abstract films. The longer Le Coquille et le Clergyman (The Seashell and the Clergyman) had an unclear story but a dreamlike atmosphere and some haunting images; it, too, was very Surrealist.One area in which this collection excels is the use of nature images to mirror the moods of human characters. This technique is a central feature of Brumes d’Automne (Autumn Mists), the very similar Romance Sentimentale, and Le Tempestaire (The Tempest-Master), and it plays a major part in a number of the other films as well. If that style appeals to you, you will particularly enjoy this collection. On the whole, though, I think you will find a wider variety of approaches in the Flicker Alley collection.

I would reccomend this DVD to any fans of experimental film and early 20th century art movements such as dada and surrealism. the price is value for money for the man ray classics alone which have been quietly influential on mainstream cinema and even television adverts. Other highlights include the excellent Hans richter, who also wrote a very good account of the dada movement. I wont bother to individually sing the praises of each item on this fine collection. If experimental film is your bag, then you will be very glad you purchased this set.My only criticism is that some of the music chosen to go with the films is somewhat inappropriate to my ears. This isnt a problem really as my TV is equipped with a mute button and as a musician I am working on scores for some of these myself as i claim I can do better :) Most people will be able to dig out some music they like if they find the music not to their taste.Strongly recomended.10/10

Il ya une grosse spéculation sur ce produit et il n'est pas rare de le trouver à plus de 200€Enfin j'ai pu avoir a prix assez raisonable cette édition DVD de film d'Avant Garde..Envoi ultra rapide - de 2 jours.Il est arrivé en bon état.