Anémic cinéma (1926) directed by Marcel Duchamp (Rrose Sélavy) alternates between entrancing revolving spirals and French wordplay. Within the context of its title, the film is a brief wry comment on avant-garde film itself and an excuse (and perhaps an apology) for graphical experimentation.

2005 Image Entertainment edition

Anémic cinéma (1926), black & white, 7 minutes, not rated, with more than 100 other films.

Image Entertainment, ID0592DSDVD, UPC 0-14381-05922-9.
Full-frame and windowboxed 4:3 NTSC, seven single-sided, dual-layered DVD discs, Region 0, 5 Mbps average video bit rate, 224 kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo and mono sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles, 1 chapter stop, keep case, $99.99.
DVD release date: 18 October 2005.
Country of origin: USA

This mammoth collection contains one of the best presentations of Anémic cinéma (1926) available on home video, transferred from a very-good to excellent 35mm print from Det Danske Filminstitut. Accompanied by an amusing synthesizer and digital piano music score by Donald Sosin.

USA: Click the logomark at right to purchase a Region 0 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.com.
Canada: Click the logomark at right to purchase a Region 0 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.ca.

This avant-garde collection contains one of the best presentations of Anémic cinéma (1926) available on home video.

USA: Click the logomark at right to purchase a Region 1 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.com.
Canada: Click the logomark at right to purchase a Region 1 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.ca.

This subpar collection offers a video transfer of Anémic cinéma (1926) that has been prepared from a good 16mm reduction print, which is relatively contrasty, making it hard to read the spinning French language intertitles, and flecked with several specks of dust and some white speckling. Horizontal video glitches appear throughout this short presentation.

The film is presented with, what appears to be, a custom music score performed on a synthesizer.

Not the best presentation but, given the low quality of some of the other films in the collection, the disc is not the best buy either.

USA: Click the logomark at right to purchase a Region 0 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.com.
Canada: Click the logomark at right to purchase a Region 0 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.ca.

Other French silent era films available on DVD home video:
Au secours! (1924)
Ballerinas in Hell: A Georges Méliès Album (1898-1912)
Le ballet mécanique (1924)
Captain Fracasse (1928)
The Chess Player (1927)
Un chien Andalou (1929)
The Comedy of Max Linder (1907-1913)
La coquille et le clergyman (1928)
The Crazy Ray (1923)
Cyrano de Bergerac (1925)
Entr’acte (1924)
The Fall of the House of Usher (1928)
La folie du Docteur Tube (1915)
Georges Méliès: First Wizard of Cinema (1896-1913) (1896-1953)
The Italian Straw Hat (1928)
Judex (1916-1917)
Landmarks of Early Film, Volume 1 (1904-1908)
Laugh with Max Linder (1908-1921)
The Lumière Brothers’ First Films
The Magic of Méliès (1904-1908)
Méliès the Magician (1898-1997)
The Movies Begin (1894-1913)
Napoléon (1927)
The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
La roue (1922)
La terre (1921)
Les vampires (1915-1916)

Other historical silent era film collections on DVD home video:
Biograph Productions, Volume 1 (1896-1905)
Early Cinema: Primitives and Pioneers (1895-1910)
Edison: The Invention of the Movies (1891-1918)
Electric Edwardians: The Lost Films of Mitchell & Kenyon (1900-1906)
The Lumière Brothers’ First Films (1895-1897)
More Treasures from American Film Archives (1894-1931)
The Movies Begin (1894-1913)
The Origins of Film (1900-1926)
Treasures from American Film Archives (1893-1960)
Treasures III: Social Issues in American Film (1900-1934)
Unseen Cinema: Early American Avant-Garde Films (1894-1947)

Other silent era avant-garde films available on DVD home video:
Anthology of Surreal Cinema, Volume 1 (1924-1928)
Avant-Garde: Experimental Cinema of the 1920s and ’30s (1921-1947)
Avant-Garde 2: Experimental Cinema, 1928-1954 (1928-1954)
Le ballet mécanique (1924)
La coquille et le clergyman (1928)
The Crazy Ray (1923)
Entr’acte (1924)
The Fall of the House of Usher (1928)
La folie du Docteur Tube (1915)
Unseen Cinema: Early American Avant-Garde Film (1894-1947)