Gaumont, le Cinéma Premier collections

[whaleallright]

Couldn't find a dedicated thread to these releases. A second volume, covering the years 1907 to 1916, is due out later this year:
http://www.dvdfr.com/dvd/f44949-gaumont ... vol-2.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Does anyone know what will be on this? I can't seem to find detailed information online.

[zone_resident]

According to a post to DVDBeaver listserv, it contains films by:
Emile Cohl, Jean Durand, Roméo Bosetti,
Etienne Arnaud, and Jacques Feyder.

[HerrSchreck]

(Jaws working thru strands of drool)

[Tutut]

According to Agnès Bertola, who is in charge of the Gaumont-Pathé silent movies archives, they want to release Judex and Tih Minh from Feuillade.
The Marcel L’Herbier boxset L’Homme du Large/El Dorado will contain some short movies, three trailers and one making of :

1. Les Fictions

* Les Expressions Photographiques (1906)
* Orpheline ! (1907)
* Le Terroriste (1907)
* L’Equilibriste (1908)
* Le Chien jaloux (1909)
* Le Violon brisé (1909)
* André Chénier (1910)
* L’Apprenti Aviateur (1910)
* L’Emancipation de Chanteclair (1910)

2. Les Films Annonces (trailers)

* Comment J’ai tué mon enfant (1925) de Alexandre Ryder
* Miss Edith Duchesse (1928) de Donatien
* La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc (1928) de Dreyer

3. Making Of

* Carnet autour du tournage de Salammbô (1925) de Léonce Henri Burel




Gaumont studios 1906

[denti alligator]

According to Agnès Bertola, who is in charge of the Gaumont-Pathé silent movies archives, they want to release Judex and Tih Minh from Feuillade.

Did she tell you this personally? If yes, that's good news, but when??

[Tutut]

No she didn't , it was in an interview on a french site, I'll try to find the link, she didn't mention any dates about Feuillade's series and she was rightto do so, because she gave wrong dates about Cinema Premier Vol.2 (April or May).

[whaleallright]

Thanks for the information, everyone.

For those curious about the directors and "schools" mentioned above, I'd recommend Richard Abel's book French Cinema: The First Wave, 1915-1929. It's pretty exhaustive. Sadly, it's also out of print, so check your local libraries.

I presume the Jean Durand films are those in the Onésime series, which Bazin and Noël Burch both praised as being expressive examples of "primitive" deep focus.

As for Feyder, he directed a long series of short comedies for Gaumont, before his commercial breakthough with L'Atlantide. Some were featured at Pordenone not long ago, though I didn't get to see them.

Good news about El Dorado/L'Homme du large. The former was available in a deluxe edition from the same series as the similarly lavish Fantômas set. It included a booklet with a reproduction of some of L'Herbier's working notes, as well as the original program, and other ephemera. Hopefully this will all be included in the new edition. L'Homme du large is not a great movie, but it has some nice location shooting as well as some interesting "decorative" editing.

I wish they'd release more of the "mainstream" blockbusters of the period, so we have something with which to compare the Impressionist deviations. But you can't ask for everything.

[Tutut]

I found the interview (in french), it was last December on 1kult (inculte) website.

[denti alligator]

Comptez-vous sortir Judex, toujours de Feuillade ?

Il en est question, de même que Tih Minh, un autre très bon sérial de Feuillade…

Not exactly a definite answer.

[sidehacker]

Boring but necessary question, does anyone know about the possibilities of English subtitles on the El dorado / l'homme du large boxset?

[whaleallright]

Has anyone seen Vol. 2?

[perkizitore]

Mine has been on order for two weeks. I initially ordered through amazon france who now show "disponible 1-2 mois" so I cancelled and ordered through fnac (horrifying postal charges) with whom it has been "en preparation" for ten days. Their site indicates possible "expedition" Nov. 13 to 18.

Don't hold ya breath!

Try this also.
If i were you, i would stick with Amazon and wait a couple weeks more, they are having stock problems with this being a new release.

[tojoed]

David, Volume 2 is currently available for immediate despatch at Gaumont's own site. Price 59.99 euros.

[perkizitore]

Thanx Perk but did you notice their price!

Also I have never been able to get alapage to accept any form of Oz Credit Card whatsoever. I think there's a whole thread about this somewhere in the past.

I notice they are saying "livraison prevue Novembre 16" which pretty well accords with fnac.

That's why i said stick with Amazon! O:)

[ellipsis7]

Just received the L'HERBIER COFFRET of EL DORADO/L'HOMME DU LARGE - very nice package from Gaumont, two handsome booklets with very decent transfers of the restorations etc... Stands pretty well alongside the MoC/Carlotta L'ARGENT editions, although not the profusion of related extras that those include... The Gaumont has a DD2.0 orchestral score on both films, compared to the MoC/Carlotta DD5.0 piano score...

[whaleallright]

Thanks for that review. Francis Lacassin, who prepared the Durand tribute you discussed, is also the author of a good volume on Feuillade (actually, two books, but the later one supersedes the earlier). Sadly, he died last year.

[ellipsis7]

How is the Noel Burch/L'Herbier volume (in the Seghers 'Cinéma d'aujourd'hui' series)? - been considering that...

[whaleallright]

If I recall correctly, it's an extended critical essay padded out with things like an interview, a filmography, articles by other critics, etc. The essay finds Burch reworking some of the idiosyncratic ideas about form and style developed in Praxis du cinéma. There's a generous preface by L'Herbier himself that basically says, "I don't really agree with or understand this young man's assessment of my work, but art is there to be interpreted and reinterpreted, so I say godspeed." Like Burch's book on Japanese cinema, the subject is molded to fit the author's agenda.

Anyway, if you are looking for a volume on L'Herbier, I'd recommend the recent collection Marcel L'Herbier: L'Art du cinéma. It comes with a DVD of his (rather minor) Le Diable au coeur and a few shorts and outtakes. The book has beautiful reproductions, most full-color on glossy paper, of stills and posters for L'Herbier's films. And it features the most breathtakingly inclusive and detailed bibliography and filmography I've ever seen (it tells you not only what portions of any given film survive, but where they are held; it also catalogues all of L'Herbier's shorts, television work, interviews, and so on). More important, some of the essays are pretty great. There's one on L'Herbier's first feature, Rose-France, that I learned a lot from. The book--unlike Burch's--also deals with L'Herbier's long career in the sound period, which tends to be neglected.

[ellipsis7]

Many thanks for that, jonah, sounds great, just what I needed - will try and pick Marcel L'Herbier: L'Art du cinéma up after the Xmas break, and will give the Burch a miss...

[Zillertal]

I am extremmely pissed off at Gaumont, I ordered the Vol.1 of this from their boutique, they made the payment of 76 euros, its been 2 weeks and its still 'en traitement', processing, I wrote 4 emails and no reply of any kind, the discs are in stock they have their money wtf is their problem??? As anyone had a similar problem? Anyone tried to order from them? I will never, even if this resolves itself which it wont, going to buy anything there ever again.