Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #26781 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-08-29
• Rating: Exempt
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 187 minutes

Synopsis
Features a collection of fifty-nine films originating from the pre-1910 era of cinema. Includes: 'Ali Bava Et Les Quarante Voleurs', 'Magic Bricks' and 'The Great Train Robbery'.

Customer Reviews

Fascinating films from 1895 to 1910
The quality of these restorations of the earliest moving pictures ever taken is stunning, as are the examples of the hand coloured films (every frame was individually painted).

The finest quality is from the 1895 films from the Lumiere brothers taken on stock from their own factory of such quality it has never degraded. Apart from the static framing and lack of panning and zoom they could have been taken yesterday, the film of one of the Lumiere brothers and his wife feeding their baby takes us vividly back one hundred and eleven years.

Personally the 1901 "Fire" is a favourite as I used to shop regularly in George Street, Hove where the Fire Station building remained virtually unchanged until at least the fifties. Another high point is the film made for Peak Frean showing every aspect of biscuit making from the furnaces that heated the ovens to a wonderful procession of heavily laden horse drawn and motor lorries leaving the factory.

A true wonder is Mehlies coloured fantasy "Voyage a travers l'impossible (extract) (1901)" an incredible mixture of "animation or collage?" and live action that is staggering.

The DVD may well be sub titled "Primitives and Pioneers" and that is true, but make no mistake, with the simple fixed focal length hand cranked cameras available these people produced fascinating films, some of the longer ones, examples "Rescued by Rover (1905)", "The Great Train Robbery (1903)", "Attack on a China Station (1900)", a documentary "A day in the life of a coalminer (1910)" all manage to present simple but effective plots without the aid of captions.

This DVD set is an essential round up of early films, for a history of the rest of the silent era I must wait until the eleven hour documentary "Hollywood" is released in August 2006..

Nostalgic,heartwarming.Expert piano accompaniments.
There's something surprisingly compelling about these unassuming films which may document nothing more than the arrival of a train,spanish bullfight,or the making of biscuits.Remarkably,the viewer appreciates these subjects with the sense of wonderment that was felt at the time.
This two disc set is a perfect antidote to some of the technically advanced but heartless movies of more recent times.
I was reminded at times of that lovely documentary about a french primary school 'avoir et etre' where a whole wealth of emotions is articulated within an apparently limited frame.
Of course,'Early Cinema,Primitives and Pioneers' would've been robbed of it's impact had the accompaniments merely chugged along in a worthy manner.Quite frequently one is struck by how gently affecting the music(pianists Neil Brand,Stephen Horne and John Sweeney)is on it's own terms and it was surely a mistake not to credit the contribution of each pianist to the appropriate film.Strongly recommended!

Back to the primitive
After watching a documentary about the pioneering director and entertainer George Melies, whose work is included on this DVD, I was expecting this to be another fascinating and insightful look at the early days of cinema. What I got was a series of early films presented one after the other with little or no commentary. Most of the clips included are not so much pioneering ie, directors using the camera in much the same way as a still camera and capturing single moments with little or no talent. In fact, George Melies' work was the only decent example of cinematography presented here and they only showed one of his pieces.

My advice, watch 'Melies The Magician' instead. It comes with a great documentary, 15 or so of his full length films and dicusses more about the early days of the cinema than this DVD.