Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by Audiophilander (A) on July 12, 2006 at 09:50:45

In Reply to: Thanks for mention Murnau's Faust... posted by Harmonia on July 6, 2006 at 14:59:24:

All of these recent restorations are provided by the Murnau Foundation (Kino's & Masters of Cinema series). These folks are doing a great job of restoring these classic silent films as well as restoring the prestige of German expressionist film to it's rightful place.

Harmonia, if you don't have Eureka's MoC version of Dr Mabuse, the Gambler, I can wholeheartedly recommend that one as well. It's far superior to the older truncated Image release which was the longest version available several years ago (some critics said "definitive" at that time, but little did they know ...!).

The new Kino version will probably be exactly the same as the MoC (Eureka) release taking into account PAL to NTSC conversion which may or may not affect the final film length (frame per second speed in PAL versus NTSC play is faster for all films; PAL usually being 25fps as opposed to NTSC's 24fps, if I'm not mistaken), but I doubt that it'll be better, and the Kino cover art for this reissue isn't as classy as Eureka's.

>>> "Lang was huge when I was in art/film school, and we used to watch 16mm versions of most of his films at school in the evenings, sometimes all night. I'm always pleased to find other fans." <<<

If you're like me you'd also enjoy the restoration of Lang's Spies...

http://www.kino.com/video/item.php?product_id=833

...again, this Kino release is far superior to the dismally truncated laser disc version that I previously owned (for whatever reason, Image's LD version removed much of Lang's story along with it's character development, richness and depth, the omissions having sadly turned a great film into a senseless mess.

BTW, here's another German silent classic title recently released by Kino from a Murnau Foundation restoration with better cover art (see above) than Kino's new Mabuse release; Deep Discount notified me that this title has JUST shipped):

• Warning Shadows (dir. Arthur Robison)   (Open in New Window)