Silent Era : Home Video : Entr'acte (1924) Review

Silent Era Home Page > Home Video > Entr’acte

SILENT ERA FILMS ON HOME VIDEO
Reviews of silent film releases on home video.
Copyright © 1999-2010 by Carl Bennett
and the Silent Era Company.
All Rights Reserved.

Entr’acte
(1924)

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.

2002 Criterion Collection edition

Entr’acte (1924), black & white, 20 minutes, not rated,
with À Nous la liberté (1931), black & white, 83 minutes, not rated.

Criterion Collection, NOU010, UPC 0-37429-14772-6, ISBN 0-78002-310-2.
Windowboxed 4:3 NTSC, one single-sided, dual-layered DVD disc, Region 0, 6.5 Mbps average video bit rate, 192 kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles, 1 chapter stop, keep case, $39.95.
DVD release date: 20 August 2002.
Country of origin: USA

Ratings (1-10): video: 8 / audio: 7 / additional content: 8 / overall: 8.

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.

2005 Risqué Cinema edition

Anthology of Surreal Cinema, Volume 1 (1924-1928),
black & white, 65 minutes total, not rated
including Entr’acte (1924), black & white, 13 minutes, not rated,
with Le ballet mécanique (1924), black & white, 15 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

Ratings (1-10): video: 2 / audio: 4 / additional content: 4 / overall: 3.

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.

Other FRENCH FILMS of the silent era available on home video.

Other AVANT-GARDE FILMS of the silent era available on home video.

Silent Era Home Page > Home Video > Entr’acte || Top of Page

Silent Era Ads

You can advertise your products, services or events here for pennies a day.

Advertise on Silent Era