Le Ballet mécanique (1924), created by Fernand Léger and Dudley Murphy.

2005 Image Entertainment edition

Le ballet mécanique (1924), color-toned black & white, 16 minutes, not rated, with more than 100 other films.

Image Entertainment, ID0592DSDVD, UPC 0-14381-05922-9.
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 edition of Le ballet mécanique (1924) has been restored from the definitive color-toned 35mm print from the Frederick Kiesler film collection, with color inserts from the color-tinted 35mm print held by the Nederlands Filmmuseum. The slightly windowboxed video transfer runs at a natural pace, and holds picture detail not seen in transfers from 16mm prints.

The film has been synchronized for the first time ever with the experimental George Antheil music piece in its original instrumentation of 16 player pianos, airplane propellers, electric bells, sirens, etc. Absolutely, this presentation one of the highlights of this high-quality avant-garde DVD collection.

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 Le Ballet mécanique (1924) 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 Le ballet mécanique (1924) that has been prepared from a fair to good 16mm reduction print, which is contrasty, with plugged-up shadows and blasted-out highlights, moderately speckled and dusty, and marked with a few vertical scratches. The print and/or the transfer is misframed, cropping a substantial amount of the left-hand side of the picture out of the presentation.

The film is presented with, what appears to be, a custom music score performed on piano and a number of percussive instruments.

With a number of better presentations available on DVD, we recommend avoiding this release.

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:
Anémic cinéma (1926)
Au secours! (1924)
Ballerinas in Hell: A Georges Méliès Album (1898-1912)
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)
Electric Edwardians: The Lost Films of Mitchell & Kenyon (1900-1906)
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)

Other silent era avant-garde films available on DVD home video:
Anémic cinéma (1926)
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)
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)