Sun Nov 29, 2015 6:24 am
I just got my copy.
Restoration on the 114 films is outstanding. Most of them look like filmed yesterday. It's really amazing. The only regret is it's very short. Yes, there are 114 films, but with each lasting 50 seconds, it makes barely more than an hour. The selection is beautiful, narration and music are wonderful, and it's day and night in visual quality compared with any previous issue of these materials. But it consists still of just 114 out of the more than 1400 existing Lumiere films. Compared with the Edison, Gaumont and Melies DVD box sets, it's far from generous. You are left with a strong desire to watch more, more so when half of the films selected here (albeit in lesser image quality, of course) have been widely seen in a variety of collections, such as the 1968 old Marc Allegret compilation. Considering that the BFI devoted four DVDs to the works of Mitchell and Kenyon alone, the pioneers of cinema should have deserved at least a selection of 500 films or so. For instance, half of the films on the Allegret compilation are not here, and also many many more Lumiere films (365) circulate on the internet on short television versions prepared in 1995. Why not making a more comprehensive set after so many years? So this set leaves you with a 1 hour or so DVD plus another "bonus" DVD which contains merely fill-ups, old and new documentaries which do not add one single extra film and, while not entirely dull, certainly are not what you were looking for when buying this set. The Lumiere official site states that from the 1405 restored film by the Lumiere Brothers, 1040 have NEVER been shown or issued in any form after their initial première. So, again, if these films HAVE BEEN restored, why not making a truly comprehensive set?
The other odd fact is that the whole set (and by that I mean not just the audio track but also the booklet) are just in French, only in French, and in nothing else than French. I should tell the producers, with all due respect, that French is not anymore a universal language as it was in the 19th century. So a recording of the audio commentary in English and a translation of the booklet would have been useful. And, by the way, it did not affect me personally, as I do understand French.
So, above all, it's a wonderful collection taking into account the first DVD, which could nevertheless have been much better. I hope a more ambitious project regarding the Lumiere materials is being planned, for the films themselves are amazing from many points of view, not just historically but also aesthetically.
Last edited by
martin arias on Sun Nov 29, 2015 4:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.