Flicker Alley

Vinegar Syndrome, Deaf Crocodile, Imprint, Cinema Guild, and more.
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Roscoe
Joined: Fri Nov 14, 2014 3:40 pm
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Re: Flicker Alley

#851 Post by Roscoe » Mon Nov 28, 2016 5:55 pm

Do what you can to avoid spoilers before you see the film -- when shown at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival in June of this year, the festival program included an essay by Kevin Brownlow with a pretty substantial spoiler, and the film's impact was considerably lessened.

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Drucker
Your Future our Drucker
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Re: Flicker Alley

#852 Post by Drucker » Sun Dec 18, 2016 2:08 pm

From Facebook:
Looking for the perfect gift for the #silentfilm fanatic? A TRIP TO THE MOON: IN ITS ORIGINAL 1902 COLORS in an edition scored by Air (French band) is going out of print and available for 40% OFF through the end of December at FlickerAlley.com!

Jonathan S
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Re: Flicker Alley

#853 Post by Jonathan S » Sun Dec 18, 2016 2:33 pm

Drucker wrote:From Facebook:
A TRIP TO THE MOON: IN ITS ORIGINAL 1902 COLORS in an edition scored by Air (French band) is going out of print...
Not before time (regarding the score). If Air's exclusive contract has come to an end, maybe there will be a new vacuum-packed edition.

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Gregory
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 4:07 pm

Re: Flicker Alley

#854 Post by Gregory » Sun Dec 18, 2016 3:04 pm

Yeah, "perfect" may be just a bit of a reach given the notoriously unpopular score and the release's scant 15 minutes of silent film content. And how about that documentary including footage of Tom Hanks playing Georges Méliès?

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What A Disgrace
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Re: Flicker Alley

#855 Post by What A Disgrace » Sun Dec 18, 2016 4:47 pm

I'm plum excited for Behind the Door. Thomas Ince is a figure who has always fascinated me.

unclehulot
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Re: Flicker Alley

#856 Post by unclehulot » Tue Jan 31, 2017 2:09 pm

I'm afraid there's very sad news to report on our friend David Shepard....

From Nitrateville:
Courtesy of Annette D'Agostino Lloyd:

Film preservationist David Shepard is in grave condition, fighting Stage 4 cancer in Oregon. He has chosen hospice care in lieu of chemotherapy and is among family and friends.

See this thread:
http://www.nitrateville.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=23606" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

One post mentions that his son has been reading him comments from that thread.

Adam
Joined: Sun Dec 09, 2007 8:29 pm
Location: Los Angeles CA
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Re: Flicker Alley

#857 Post by Adam » Wed Feb 01, 2017 2:51 am

David passed away last night:
http://www.nitrateville.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=23610" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
He was a really wonderful person.

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FrauBlucher
Joined: Mon Jul 15, 2013 8:28 pm
Location: Greenwich Village

Re: Flicker Alley

#858 Post by FrauBlucher » Fri Feb 10, 2017 10:27 pm


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Timec
Spencer Tracy had it coming
Joined: Thu Nov 25, 2004 1:16 pm
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Re: Flicker Alley

#859 Post by Timec » Wed Feb 22, 2017 4:28 pm

Flicker Alley just announced a dual format Early Women Filmmakers boxset.
Flicker Alley and Blackhawk Films® are proud to present Early Women Filmmakers: An International Anthology, a landmark Blu-ray/DVD collection of newly restored films by early cinema's groundbreaking women directors. This extensive set of 25 films from 14 international directors showcases the innovative technical and stylistic contributions of women, a vital missing piece in the canon of cinematic history.

More women worked in film during its first two decades than at any time since. Unfortunately, many early women filmmakers have been largely written out of film history, their contributions undervalued. This necessary and timely collection highlights the work of 14 of early cinema's most innovative and influential women directors, re-writing and celebrating their rightful place in film history.

International in scope, this groundbreaking collection features over 10 hours of material, comprised of 25 films spanning 1902-1943, including many rare titles not widely available until now, from shorts to feature films, live-action to animation, commercial narratives to experimental works. Directors include Alice Guy Blaché, Lois Weber, Mabel Normand, Madeline Brandeis, Germaine Dulac, Olga Preobrazhenskaia, Marie-Louise Iribe, Lotte Reiniger, Claire Parker, Mrs. Wallace Reid (Dorothy Davenport), Leni Riefenstahl, Mary Ellen Bute, Dorothy Arzner, and Maya Deren.
Isn't Kino working on a similar set?

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knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: Flicker Alley

#860 Post by knives » Wed Feb 22, 2017 4:33 pm

They at least were, but Kino's was American focused while this sounds like it won't have much overlap.

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matrixschmatrix
Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 11:26 pm

Re: Flicker Alley

#861 Post by matrixschmatrix » Wed Feb 22, 2017 4:39 pm

Haha Flicker Alley just sliding Leno Riefenstahl in there like there's nothing especially noteworthy about THAT particular inclusion. Does she have any extant shorts, or is that likely to be something like Olympia?

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Timec
Spencer Tracy had it coming
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Re: Flicker Alley

#862 Post by Timec » Wed Feb 22, 2017 4:44 pm

There's a complete list of the films on their site. Looks like the Riefenstahl is Day of Freedom.
They at least were, but Kino's was American focused while this sounds like it won't have much overlap.
Oh yeah—going back and looking at the Kickstarter for the Kino, it looks like they’re mostly covering different territory. Though even if there is some overlap, I’m always happy to support projects like this.

vidussoni
Joined: Mon Jul 07, 2014 1:51 pm

Re: Flicker Alley

#863 Post by vidussoni » Wed Feb 22, 2017 5:42 pm

matrixschmatrix wrote:Haha Flicker Alley just sliding Leno Riefenstahl in there like there's nothing especially noteworthy about THAT particular inclusion. Does she have any extant shorts, or is that likely to be something like Olympia?
I believe the ladies are in a particular order for a reason. It starts with early silent film directors and ends with Maya Deren, the youngest of the bunch.

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FrauBlucher
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Re: Flicker Alley

#864 Post by FrauBlucher » Wed Feb 22, 2017 6:34 pm

Wow, this looks like a great set.

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denti alligator
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Re: Flicker Alley

#865 Post by denti alligator » Wed Feb 22, 2017 10:22 pm

Timec wrote:There's a complete list of the films on their site. Looks like the Riefenstahl is Day of Freedom
That's good, since it's the one short she made after perfecting her style. But I wonder why we are only getting the 17 minute version. It should run 28 minutes, according to wikipedia and imdb.

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swo17
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Re: Flicker Alley

#866 Post by swo17 » Wed Feb 22, 2017 10:50 pm

The two most accurate internet sites.

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The Fanciful Norwegian
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Re: Flicker Alley

#867 Post by The Fanciful Norwegian » Wed Feb 22, 2017 10:58 pm

There are probably people here who know more about this, but from what I can piece together the 17-minute cut was the only one known to exist for some time. David Hinton alludes to this in the third edition of The Films of Leni Riefenstahl (published in 2000):
Day of Freedom was lost at the end of the war, and remained lost until the mid-1970's when an incomplete print was discovered in the United States ... The central part of the film, which Riefenstahl claims is the only interesting part, is a speech by Hitler, and it is missing from the surviving print.
Evidently the situation has changed since that book was published, since the long version (complete with Hitler's speech) is readily available online. Despite that, it seems only the 17-minute version is on DVD (it's also on Blu as part of Synapse's release of Triumph of the Will). All online copies of the long version have a 2003 copyright for some outfit called "A&M" superimposed over the section missing from the short version; it also looks much, much worse in general. Perhaps there's only one copy of the full-length version and nobody else has access to it.

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Minkin
Joined: Thu Aug 06, 2009 11:13 pm

Re: Flicker Alley

#868 Post by Minkin » Wed Feb 22, 2017 11:30 pm

The Fanciful Norwegian wrote:Evidently the situation has changed since that book was published, since the long version (complete with Hitler's speech) is readily available online. Despite that, it seems only the 17-minute version is on DVD (it's also on Blu as part of Synapse's release of Triumph of the Will). All online copies of the long version have a 2003 copyright for some outfit called "A&M" superimposed over the section missing from the short version; it also looks much, much worse in general. Perhaps there's only one copy of the full-length version and nobody else has access to it.
Janus should still have the rights to all of her films + whatever negatives, etc that Riefenstahl owned. So I would perhaps wait until Criterion eventually does some sort of boxset/releases of her films before getting your hopes up over the quality of that particular short.

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knives
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Re: Flicker Alley

#869 Post by knives » Wed Feb 22, 2017 11:36 pm

Criterion will probably do nothing with her.

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denti alligator
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Re: Flicker Alley

#870 Post by denti alligator » Wed Feb 22, 2017 11:42 pm

knives wrote:Criterion will probably do nothing with her.
True, but it would be nice to have Olympia done well.

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Minkin
Joined: Thu Aug 06, 2009 11:13 pm

Re: Flicker Alley

#871 Post by Minkin » Wed Feb 22, 2017 11:46 pm

knives wrote:Criterion will probably do nothing with her.
Not after that Guardian article demonizing Criterion for their lack of female directors!

Glowingwabbit
Joined: Wed May 01, 2013 1:27 pm

Re: Flicker Alley

#872 Post by Glowingwabbit » Thu Feb 23, 2017 1:10 am

I wonder why there is only an excerpt from Dance, Girl, Dance being included in the set (that's really disappointing).

sabbath
Joined: Fri Apr 25, 2014 6:29 am

Re: Flicker Alley

#873 Post by sabbath » Thu Feb 23, 2017 1:20 am

Glowingwabbit wrote:I wonder why there is only an excerpt from Dance, Girl, Dance being included in the set (that's really disappointing).
Perhaps because Warner Bros. doesn't approve including the entire picture?
BTW, this will be the excerpt, probably : https://youtu.be/Fljry1HocUY" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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The Fanciful Norwegian
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Re: Flicker Alley

#874 Post by The Fanciful Norwegian » Thu Feb 23, 2017 4:11 am

Minkin wrote:Janus should still have the rights to all of her films + whatever negatives, etc that Riefenstahl owned. So I would perhaps wait until Criterion eventually does some sort of boxset/releases of her films before getting your hopes up over the quality of that particular short.
Riefenstahl never took out a copyright on Day of Freedom, and as far as I can tell she never attempted to. It's possible she still had some elements for the film, but according to this she had the negatives shipped to Italy near the end of the war and they were never recovered. (The negatives for Triumph of the Will and Victory of Faith were part of the same shipment.) Riefenstahl did eventually recover the negatives for Olympia, but for the others she was evidently dependent on materials held elsewhere; for example, in the late '50s she tried to get a copy of Triumph of the Will from the Imperial War Museum, which apparently set off a minor political fracas. I wouldn't be surprised if the only surviving sources for Day of Freedom are whatever was used for the 17-minute version (which was found in the U.S. in 1971) and the mysterious "A&M" copy kicking around online.

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Satori
Joined: Sun May 09, 2010 10:32 am

Re: Flicker Alley

#875 Post by Satori » Sat Feb 25, 2017 6:20 am

Glowingwabbit wrote:I wonder why there is only an excerpt from Dance, Girl, Dance being included in the set (that's really disappointing).
I was thinking the same thing, although I'd much rather have one of her unavailable earlier films included. Working Girls (1931) is a masterpiece but the only version I've seen circulating is an awful, scuzzy VHS rip. Several of her other films are also unavailable on home video and only circulate via TCM rips (in good enough prints that they could easily be released on DVD). While the importance of Dance, Girl, Dance and the "breaking the male gaze" segment can't be overstated, it is unfortunate that this seems to be the only Arzner that is widely known.

But I don't want my complaints to overshadow the amazing work being done for this box set. I am especially excited for the Dulacs and the Reinigers!

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