This six-part documentary, originally prepared for British Television by Kevin Brownlow and David Gill of Photoplay Productions, is ostensibly a European counterpart to their acclaimed documentary series on silent era Hollywood (1980). Following the form and style of Brownlow and Gill’s other documentaries on silent era subjects, Unknown Chaplin (1983), Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow (1987) and others, this is a fast-paced but thorough overview of the subject matter, illustrated with scores of films clips from both common and rarely-seen films. Along with the overview and concluding episodes, we follow the development of motion picture production methods and style, from its rudimentary beginnings through to its silent-era pinnacle in Germany, Denmark, France, Italy and Britain.

We noted with some informed amusement that viewers are barely two minutes into the first program when they are shown footage from Napoleon (1927), a French epic by Abel Gance that has been the recipient of two major restoration efforts by Kevin Brownlow and his team. Any serious discussion of the European silent cinema by Brownlow will certainly include at least one reference to Napoleon.

Viewers will come away from the series with a cursory but balanced understanding of the early contribution of the European motion picture industry to world cinema. — Carl Bennett

Personal opinions of the series that we have from others have been glowing. Our own opinion concurs. And based on the past work of Messers Gill and Brownlow, we think that this series is worth every dollar charged.

The double-sided, dual-layered disc manages to maintain a more than passible smoothness of picture image despite packing six hours worth of information into the disc.

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.

Other silent era-related documentaries available on DVD home video:
Before Hollywood, There Was Fort Lee, N.J. (1964)
Birth of a Legend (1966)
Buster Keaton Rides Again (1965)
Captured on Film: The True Story of Marion Davies (2001)
The Chaplin Puzzle (1992)
Chaplin’s Art of Comedy (1966)
Chaplin’s Goliath (1996)
Charlie Chaplin: The Forgotten Years (2005)
Clara Bow: Discovering the ‘It’ Girl (1999)
Ernst Lubitsch in Berlin (2006)
The Film Parade: A History of Early Cinema (1933-1947)
Forgotten Silver (1997)
Fritz Lang: Circle of Destiny (1998)
The Great Chase (1963)
Harold Lloyd’s World of Comedy (1962)
Kingdom of Shadows (1998)
The Last Diva: Francesca Bertini (1982)
Laurel and Hardy’s Laughing 20s (1965)
The Legend of Rudolph Valentino (1982)
The Lost World of Mitchell & Kenyon (2004)
Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu (1998)
The Man You Loved to Hate (1979)
Mary Pickford: A Life on Film (1997)
Man Ray: Prophet of the Avant-Garde (1997)
Memories of the Silent Stars
Olive Thomas: Everybody’s Sweetheart (2004)
Otto Messmer and Felix the Cat (1977)
The Railrodder (1965)
Rudolph Valentino: The Great Lover (2006)
Sergei Eisenstein: Autobiography (1996)
Silent Britain (2006)
Slaphappy: The Movie (2004)
So Funny It Hurt: Buster Keaton at MGM (2004)
30 Years of Fun (1963)
The Way to Murnau (2003)
When Comedy Was King (1960)
Without Lying Down (2000)