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Added review of the Kino Classics Blu-ray Disc edition of The Penalty (1920)

Added review of the Kino Classics edition of Children of Eve (1915)

Added review of the Kino Classics edition of The Inside of the White Slave Traffic (1913)

Added review of the Kino Classics edition of Les vampires (1915-1916)

Added review of the Flicker Alley edition of Gow the Head Hunter (1928)

Added review of the Kino Classics edition of The Saphead (1920)

Lokke Heiss reports on the 30th Annual Pordenone Silent Film Festival.

Added review of the Kino Classics edition of Seven Chances (1925)

Added review of the Kino Classics Blu-ray Disc edition of Sherlock Holmes (1922)

Added review of the Kino Classics edition of The Cigarette Girl of Mosselprom (1924)

Added review of the Kino Classics edition of the Giorgio Moroder version of Metropolis (1927)

Added review of Silent Lives: 100 Biographies of the Silent Film Era
by Lon Davis

Added review of the Edition Filmmuseum and Grapevine Video editions of By the Law (1926)

Added review of the Kino International Blu-ray Disc edition of The Black Pirate (1926)

Added review of the Grapevine Video edition of Hawthorne of the U.S.A. (1919)

Added review of Pola Negri: Life is a Dream in Cinema (2006)

Added review of the Flicker Alley collection Chaplin at Keystone (1914)

Added review of the Flicker Alley edition of Tillie’s Punctured Romance (1914)

Added review of the Flicker Alley edition of Making a Living (1914)

Added review of the Flicker Alley edition of A Film Johnnie (1914)

Added review of the Flicker Alley edition of Cruel, Cruel Love (1914)

Added review of the Sunrise Silents and Grapevine Video editions of Soul of the Beast (1923)

Added review of the Warner Archive Collection edition of Love (1927)

Added review of the Warner Archive Collection edition of West Point (1928)

Added review of the Edition Filmmuseum edition of A Sixth Part of the World (1926)

Added An Interview with Silent Film Composer Ekkehard Wölk by Ehsan Khoshbakht

Added review of the Eureka Entertainment Blu-ray Disc edition of City Girl (1929)

Added review of the Reel Classic DVD edition of The Phantom of the Opera (1925)

Added reviews of the Reel Classic DVD and Triton Multimedia editions of The Birth of a Nation (1915)

Added review of the BC Records edition of My Grandmother (1929)

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Warner Home Video (USA) has announced their Blu-ray Disc and DVD editions of The Big Parade (1925) mastered from a high-definition video transfer. Both editions will be available on 1 October 2013.

National Film Preservation Foundation (USA) has announced their latest collection of preserved films released on DVD home video, Lost & Found: American Treasures from the New Zealand Film Archive (1914-1928).

The collection includes John Ford’s Upstream (1927), 3 reels from The White Shadow (1923) the first surviving feature credited to Alfred Hitchcock as assistant director, art director, writer and editor, Won in a Cupboard (1914) the first surviving film directed by and starring Mabel Normand, Lyman H. Howe’s Ride on a Runaway Train (1921) synchronized with its sound effects disc for the first time in decades, The Love Charm (1928) a south seas romance filmed in two-color Technicolor, Andy's Stump Speech (1924) directed by Norman Taurog, cartoon Happy-Go-Luckies (1923), an episode from The Active Life of Dolly of the Dailies (1914), and even more.

The collection will be available on 24 September 2013.

Eureka Entertainment (England) has announced their Blu-ray and remastered DVD editions of F.W. Murnau’s and Robert Flaherty’s Tabu (1930). The editions feature a new 1080p HD transfer of the Murnau-Stiftung / Luciano Berriatúa 75th anniversary restoration of the longer Murnau-approved version of the film, with uncensored scenes and intertitles. The film is presented in its original 1.19:1 aspect ratio.

Both editions feature full-length commentary by R. Dixon Smith and Brad Stevens, a 15-minute German documentary about Tabu by Luciano Berriatúa, outtakes from the original shoot of the film, and a 56-page booklet featuring writings by Murnau, Scott Eyman, David Flaherty, Mark Langer and Floyd Crosby.

North American collectors will need region-free players to view these editions, which will be available on 24 June 2013.

The Criterion Collection (USA) has announced their upcoming Blu-ray Disc and DVD editions of Safety Last (1923) starring Harold Lloyd. The separate home video editions feature a new 2K high-definition digital film restoration, with new restorations of Lloyd shorts Take a Chance (1918) and Young Mr. Jazz (1919) in their debuts on high-quality home video, and also His Royal Slyness (1919).

Safety Last is presented with the well-known 1989 musical score by composer Carl Davis, restored and synchronized under his supervision. The score is presented in uncompressed stereo on the Blu-ray edition. An alternate pipe organ score by Gaylord Carter is offered.

The editions are supplemented with the Photoplay Productions documentary Harold Lloyd: The Third Genius (1989), introductions and audio commentary, short documentaries and interviews.

Both editions will be available 18 June 2013.

Undercrank Productions (USA) has released their first DVD collection of short comedies Accidentally Preserved, Volume 1 (1920-1931) with films starring Billy Franey, Monte Collins, Paul Parrott, Wallace Lupino, Jack Duffy, Clyde Cook, Cliff Bowes, Neal Burns and Ko-Ko the Clown. The films are presented with music scores performed by edition producer Ben Model.

Flicker Alley (USA) has released their five-disc DVD collection, French Masterworks: Russian Émigrés in Paris 1923-1928 (1923-1928). The collection features five feature-length films produced by the Films Albatros company. Included in the collection are The Burning Crucible [Le Brasier ardent] (1923) directed and starring Ivan Mosjoukine, Alexandre Volkoff’s Kean (1924) with Mosjoukine, Marcel L’Herbier’s The Late Mathias Pascal (1926) featuring Mosjoukine, Jacques Feyder’s Gribiche (1926), and Jacques Feyder’s The New Gentlemen [Les Nouveaux messieurs] (1928).

BearManor Media (USA) has published Lame Brains & Lunatics: The Good, the Bad, and the Forgotten of Silent Comedy by comedy films historian Steve Massa.

Flicker Alley (USA) has released the HD Blu-ray Disc edition, Nanook of the North, The Wedding of Palo, and Other Films of Arctic Life (1913-1988). The collection features eight documentary films that include Nanook of the North (1922), two films by Frank E. Kleinschmidt Arctic Hunt (1913) and Primitive Love (1927), four sound documentaries, and a French television documentary by Claude Massot, Nanook Revisited (1988). The two-disc edition was available from Flicker Alley as of 15 January 2013 and is available from other sources as of 26 February 2013.

Grapevine Video (USA) has released four new NTSC DVD-Rs for February 2013: Nurse Marjorie (1920) starring Mary Miles Minter, Silver Spurs (1922) with Lester Cuneo and Lillian Ward, director Victor Fleming’s Code of the Sea (1924) with Rod La Rocque and Jacqueline Logan, and The Test of Donald Norton (1926) starring George Walsh.

Flicker Alley (USA) has released their Blu-ray Disc edition of The Late Mathias Pascal (1926) directed by Marcel L’Herbier and starring Ivan Mosjoukine, Marcelle Pradot and Lois Moran. The HD edition was been produced from the 35mm restoration print produced by Le Cinématheque Française, and is accompanied by an orchestral music score by Timothy Brock.

Whitman Publishing (USA) now offers One Thousand Nights at the Movies: An Illustrated History of Motion Pictures 1895-1915 by Q. David Bowers and Kathryn Fuller-Seeley. The oversized book features more than 650 photographs, with 200,000 words on the genesis and growth of the motion picture industry, and on the development of film exhibition.

University Press of Kentucky (USA) has published Mary Pickford: Queen of the Movies edited by Christel Schmidt. The oversized book is beautifully illustrated with more than 200 personal and professional photographs and reproductions of promotional materials from Pickford’s films. The book includes a collection of articles by noted film historians including Kevin Brownlow, James Card, Edward Wagenknecht and Molly Haskell, and was produced in cooperation with the Library of Congress.

Kino Lorber (USA) has released their Kino Classics Blu-ray Disc boxset of The Ultimate Buster Keaton Collection (1920-1937). The 14-disc collection contains all of his independently produced feature films, including the first Blu-ray Disc release of College (1927) unavailable separately until 2013, along with Kino’s highly-acclaimed collection of Buster’s short films. As a bonus, the collection Lost Keaton (1934-1937), comprised of Keaton sound shorts, is also included.

Grapevine Video (USA) has released four new NTSC DVD-Rs for December 2012: Fine Manners (1926) starring Gloria Swanson and Eugene O’Brien, Braveheart (1925) with Rod La Rocque and Lillian Rich, the Italian religious drama Christus (1916), and William S. Hart in The Bargain (1914) from a color-tinted print.

Kino Lorber (USA) has released their Kino Classics double feature Blu-ray Disc edition of Sergei Eisenstein’s Strike (1924) and Battleship Potemkin (1925).

Kino Lorber (USA) have released their Kino Classics Blu-ray Disc and DVD editions of Fritz Lang’s Die Nibelungen (1924). The editions have been mastered in high-definition from a new restoration version produced by the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung. The film is accompanied by the original 1924 score by Gottfried Huppertz, presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround sound and 2.0 stereo sound.

Kino Lorber (USA) have released their Kino Classics DVD collection of early Fritz Lang films, Fritz Lang: The Early Works (1919-1921). The edition features three of Lang's earliest surviving films made in Germany: Harakiri (1919), The Wandering Shadow (1920) and Four Around the Woman (1921). All three films are presented in preservation versions with music scores by Aljoscha Zimmermann.

Milestone Films (USA) have released their Blu-ray Disc and DVD editions of their collection of the Mary Pickford films Ramona (1910), The Poor Little Rich Girl (1917), The Hoodlum (1919) and Sparrows (1926) in Rags and Riches: The Mary Pickford Collection (1910-1926). The films are accompanied by music scores by Philip Carli and the Flower City Society Orchestra, and music scores by Bonnie Ruth Janofsky and Jeffrey Silverman, both performed by the Rouse Philharmonic. The editions have been produced to appeal to adults and to introduce younger viewers to the experience of silent film.

Kino Lorber (USA) has released their Kino Classics Blu-ray Disc edition of The Penalty (1920) starring Lon Chaney. The edition has been mastered in high-definition from the 35mm restoration materials prepared by the George Eastman House film archive.

The Serial Squadron (USA) has released their DVD edition of The Trail of the Octopus (1919) starring Ben Wilson and Neva Gerber. The edition has been prepared from the 35mm print held by the Library of Congress film archive.

The New Zealand Film Archive (NZ) and the National Film Preservation Foundation (USA) have announced a major project to repatriate and preserve 75 American feature and short films, which includes the previously presumed lost Upstream (1927) directed by John Ford. Among the other films are an early Clara Bow film Maytime (1923), a previously lost Keystone comedy Won in a Closet (1914) with Mabel Normand, and a Lois Weber feature Idle Wives (1916). READ THE STORY

A previously unknown Charles Chaplin performance occurs in the recently recovered Keystone comedy A Thief Catcher (1914). Collector Paul E. Gierucki purchased a 16mm reduction print of the film at a Michigan antique sale and recently identified Chaplin’s appearance as a policeman. READ THE STORY by Scott Eyman.

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Current Top 10
Silent Era Films

1. The General (1926)
2. Metropolis (1927)
3. Sunrise (1927)
4. City Lights (1931)
5. Nosferatu (1922)
6. The Gold Rush (1925)
7. La Passion et la Mort de Jeanne d’Arc (1928)
8. Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (1920)
9. Bronenosets ‘Potyomkin’ (1925)
10. Greed (1924)

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