A collaboration of filmmaker René Clair, artist Francis Picabia and composer Erik Satie, this avant-garde film was originally intended as an interlude for Satie’s score for the ballet Relâche, presented by the Swedish Ballet at the Théâtre des Champs Élysées in 1924.

As would be expected, this edition of Entr’acte (1924) from The Criterion Collection is the best available on DVD home video, mastered from the 35mm restoration by Cinémathèque Française and Films Pathé. The excellent restoration print contains a broad range of graytones, with very-good to excellent image detail. Some dust, emulsion scuffing and speckling remains in the windowboxed video transfer.

The film is accompanied by a 1967 recording of Erik Satie’s original music score for the film.

This is, by far, the best edition of Entr’acte we have seen on home video, and one that still plays well on high-definition equipment.

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 subpar collection offers a terrible edition of the René Clair film, and would doubtless outrage quality-minded collectors purchasing this disc. The video transfer has been prepared from a bad 16mm reduction print, which is very contrasty and full of sequences with closed-up shadow detail and highlights that are blasted out to near-whiteness.

The film is presented with the nondescript orchestral score from the 16mm print.

We’re not mincing words here, avoid this edition like the plague.

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 silent era René Clair films available on home video:
The Crazy Ray (1923)
The Italian Straw Hat (1928)
Le voyage imaginaire (1926)

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)
Le ballet mécanique (1924)
La coquille et le clergyman (1928)
The Crazy Ray (1923)
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)
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)
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)
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)