Silent Era Home Page > Home Video > Le ballet mécanique
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SILENT ERA FILMS ON HOME VIDEO
Reviews of silent film releases on home video.
Copyright © 1999-2009 by Carl Bennett.
All Rights Reserved.
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Le ballet mécanique
(1924) |
Le Ballet mécanique (1924), created by Fernand Léger and Dudley Murphy.
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 2005 Image Entertainment edition
Unseen Cinema: Early American Avant-Garde Film (1894-1947),
black & white, color-toned black & white and color, 1127 minutes total, not rated,
including Le ballet mécanique (1924),
color-toned black & white, 16 minutes, not rated,
with more than 100 other films.
Film Preservation Associates, distributed by 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
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 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. |
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Canada: Click the logomark at right to purchase
a Region 0 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.ca. |
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 2005 Kino International edition
Le ballet mécanique (1924), black & white, ? minutes, not rated,
with 24 other films.
Kino International, unknown catalog number, unknown UPC number.
Full-frame 4:3 NTSC, two single-sided, dual-layered DVD discs, Region 1, ? Mbps average video bit rate, ? kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo sound, English language intertitles, English language subtitles (selected films), 1 chapter stop, keep case, $29.95.
DVD release date: 2 August 2005.
Country of origin: USA
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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. |
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Canada: Click the logomark at right to purchase
a Region 1 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.ca. |
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 2005 Risqué Cinema edition
Le ballet mécanique (1924), black & white, 15 minutes, not rated,
with Entr’acte (1924), black & white, 13 minutes, not rated, Anémic cinéma (1926), black & white, 5 minutes, not rated, and La coquille et le clergyman (1928), black & white, 28 minutes, not rated.
Risqué Cinema, RC003, unknown UPC number.
Full-frame 4:3 NTSC, one single-sided, single-layered DVD disc, Region 0, ? Mbps average video bit rate, ? kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 2.0 mono sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles, 1 chapter stop, keep case, $24.95.
DVD release date: 26 April 2005.
Country of origin: USA
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 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. |
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Canada: Click the logomark at right to purchase
a Region 0 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.ca. |
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Other FRENCH silent era films available on home video.
Other silent era avant-garde films available on 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)
Other historical silent era film collections on 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)
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