Incidentally, the best in-print DVD source for Lumiere films would probably
be "The Movies Begin" set, which features a number of Lumiere films on Disc
One, and the lineup of their "first films" program on Disc Two. I still love
my VHS copy of the Lumiere collection narrated by Bertrand Tavernier, from
Kino.

Jean-Luc Godard once observed that, with the passing of time, the fantasy
films of Georges Melies have become actualities, now that man has in fact
made a voyage to the moon, while the actualities of the Lumiere Brothers
have become fantasies, since they record lost worlds to which we can never
return, as mythological now as Oz.

I thought of this while watching "Electric Edwardians", the Milestone DVD
of Mitchell and Kenyon actualities of Edwardian Britain. I must say I was
blown away. It's the most gorgeous collection of cinematic images outside
of "Intolerance" or "Sunrise" or Welles's "Falstaff", lyrical and deeply
moving.

With the possible exception of a few infants who lived to a great age, all
the people in these films are dead. As a commentator on the set observes,
the young boys in the films were part of a generation that would be swept
into oblivion long before their time by the mass carnage of the Great War
a decade or so later. The bustling street life that most attracted
Mitchell and Kenyon becomes for us now a memento mori, incredibly sweet
and sad.

I can't imagine that anyone who loves movies and owns a DVD player
wouldn't want to have this DVD and to watch the films on it over and over
again. They may constitute a kind of unconscious art, but it's art of a
very high order.

(And speaking of the Lumiere Brothers, why on earth has Kino allowed its
DVD collection of Lumiere films to go out of print?)




Mar de Cortes Baja

www.mardecortesbaja.com <http://www.mardecortesbaja.com/blog

I hadn't even heard of this DVD yet, but your review makes me want to go
and seek it out.

These types of films serve as such a strong preservation of pre-WWI
society, which as you point out, would be quickly obliterated just
shortly after these pictures were filmed. The Lumiere films are another
wonderful source of "time capsule" films of the era, of course. It's
interesting that cinema came about just in time to capture the last of
the Victorian era for posterity. Luckily, so much was filmed that we
have a very good photographic record of that era.

On Apr 29, 1:13 pm, "Matt Barry" <bar...@bellatlantic.net> wrote:

Incidentally, the best in-print DVD source for Lumiere films would probably
be "The Movies Begin" set, which features a number of Lumiere films on Disc
One, and the lineup of their "first films" program on Disc Two. I still love
my VHS copy of the Lumiere collection narrated by Bertrand Tavernier, from
Kino.

There was a Japanese laserdisc set released years ago that purported
to include virtually the entire surviving body of the Lumieres' work.
As for a potential DVD release, I'd say that this is a project that
seems very much up Flicker Alley's alley.

Jason Liller wrote:

On Apr 29, 1:13 pm, "Matt Barry" <bar...@bellatlantic.net> wrote:
Incidentally, the best in-print DVD source for Lumiere films would
probably
be "The Movies Begin" set, which features a number of Lumiere films on
Disc
One, and the lineup of their "first films" program on Disc Two. I still
love
my VHS copy of the Lumiere collection narrated by Bertrand Tavernier,
from
Kino.

There was a Japanese laserdisc set released years ago that purported
to include virtually the entire surviving body of the Lumieres' work.
As for a potential DVD release, I'd say that this is a project that
seems very much up Flicker Alley's alley.

The Kino DVD was excellent, filled with stuff -- seems a shame that's it's
been allowed to go out of print. On the other hand, a multi-disc set from
Flicker Alley would be a dream come true.



Mar de Cortes Baja

www.mardecortesbaja.com <http://www.mardecortesbaja.com/blog