Origins of Film Box Set

Rating:
Summary: Truly Outstanding!
Review: This nice box set of 3 discs surpassed all my expectations and I was thoroughly engrossed for the entire 9 1/2 hours total playing time (though not in one sitting, of course!) The Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institute have chosen an excellent variety of early films to represent the first/best of each genre: Fantasy, Animation, Gangster Film, etc and they are all real gems, in my opinion. The first disc has two feature-length films by African Americans, and both deserve good attention to the story and the messages they get across. Although the first one, "Within Our Gates" is rather complex with a lot of story packed in, it tells a realistic story with a strong message for all people, regardless of race or country.

Then, for a complete change of pace, the Animation section has over 20 short and fun examples of early animation - from simple cartoon line drawings to puppets and a few other tricks. My personal favourites are the two feature-length Fantasy films: "The Patchwork Girl of Oz" is the typical Fantasy as we know it today, from "The Wizard of Oz" and beyond, with magicians, strange creatures and good fun overall, whereas "A Florida Enchantment" is totally different but every bit as fascinating and entertaining. This one appears down-to-earth except for a mysterious box containing magical seeds that can transform women to men and vice versa - a novelty idea and still very effective 90 years later.

The third disc features some good shorts and two feature-length films of the Gangster Film and Women Filmmakers categories with very good stories once again that are presented in different ways. "Two Wise Wives" by Lois Weber has quite a bit of psychology and sociology in it, for those who'd like to dig deeper, and the feature-length Gangster film is anything but bad guys shooting it out in the slums - in fact, it's an idealistic, moralistic story about an ex-con who is motivated to go straight, making the entire box set a wonderful variety of some unusual, surprising and special early films (many being from the years 1914-19) which I think should appeal to anyone interested in good quality films generally, and in what high standards filmmakers were attaining already some 80-90 years ago.

Rating:
Summary: Devilish interface, divine content
Review: Unlike my equally beloved 'Treasures' box set, this isn't an overview of clips and interesting short moments. 'Origins' offers full length animation and silents. This isn't a slick package, and the interface is so cumbersome as to be annoying, but it's well worth the time.

"A Florida Enchantment" alone is worth the price of admission, (Although I dispute the claim that it was filmed in Lauderdale. There are several obvious signs that it was filmed in the northern secton of the state.) In this film, a young woman wishes she were a man after finding her fiance unworthy. There isn't space to discuss every film on this set - but with just this example you get a remarkable look at 'hidden' homosexual humour in early film. The actress playing the lead gives a startlingly modern performance in her male guise. The whites in blackface are mesmerizing when you realize they were probably very common roles.

Moments after she makes her trusted maid a man, the blackface actress turns into a violent drunken criminal who attempts to sexually assault another maid. (If your jaw didn't drop before then, it will be hitting the floor now.)Will our heroine enjoy life as a man? Will she get the girl of her dreams? Will she long to return to her life as a woman? Controversial when it was made, controversial today. And it's just one of the remarkable works on this set.

You will not regret this purchase.

Rating:
Summary: PC agenda, but a interesting collection nonetheless
Review: When I first saw this set I felt like the title "Origins of Film" was at odds with the p.c.-revisionist film choices-- it was more like little sidepaths in the history of film that left few traces by the sound era. (To take the best known name on the set, Oscar Micheaux is interesting sociologically, and you may be fascinated by the picture of black life he captures, but he's nobody's artistic ancestor, indeed, at best competent in the silent era and rather less than that in the sound era.)

As I watched more and more of the set though-- and as enough other silent films have been released on DVD that this set doesn't have to carry the burden of living up to its title-- it's grown more pleasing. A Florida Enchantment is a jaw-dropper, a good example of how much more daring 1910s films were than 20s, 30s or 40s ones. Alias Jimmy Valentine is a terrific melodrama, with a surefire climax (that must have had them jumping in their seats) and a detached depiction of one crime that anticipates caper movies like Rififi and Heat. The animation/fantasy disc is fun (although the Oz film won't make anyone forget Judy Garland). And if the black-directed films are mainly of historical rather than artistic interest, Lois Weber and Alice Guy Blache well deserve the disc space devoted to women directors. Guy Blache was as good as anyone directing films in the 1905-1915 era, and Weber is a genuine rediscovery who achieved moments of Stroheimian intensity (never an entire movie's worth that I've ever seen, but moments) as well as dealing time and again with provocative, woman's-point-of-view material. (Too Wise Wives' comic tone makes a striking contrast to the utter seriousness of the Weber films you're most likely to have caught elsewhere, Hypocrites or The Blot.) Those three features certainly justify the price, compared to other silent DVDs, so everything else you discover and enjoy along the way is a bonus.

Rating:
Summary: PC agenda, but a interesting collection nonetheless
Review: When I first saw this set I felt like the title "Origins of Film" was at odds with the p.c.-revisionist film choices-- it was more like little sidepaths in the history of film that left few traces by the sound era. (To take the best known name on the set, Oscar Micheaux is interesting sociologically, and you may be fascinated by the picture of black life he captures, but he's nobody's artistic ancestor, indeed, at best competent in the silent era and rather less than that in the sound era.)

As I watched more and more of the set though-- and as enough other silent films have been released on DVD that this set doesn't have to carry the burden of living up to its title-- it's grown more pleasing. A Florida Enchantment is a jaw-dropper, a good example of how much more daring 1910s films were than 20s, 30s or 40s ones. Alias Jimmy Valentine is a terrific melodrama, with a surefire climax (that must have had them jumping in their seats) and a detached depiction of one crime that anticipates caper movies like Rififi and Heat. The animation/fantasy disc is fun (although the Oz film won't make anyone forget Judy Garland). And if the black-directed films are mainly of historical rather than artistic interest, Lois Weber and Alice Guy Blache well deserve the disc space devoted to women directors. Guy Blache was as good as anyone directing films in the 1905-1915 era, and Weber is a genuine rediscovery who achieved moments of Stroheimian intensity (never an entire movie's worth that I've ever seen, but moments) as well as dealing time and again with provocative, woman's-point-of-view material. (Too Wise Wives' comic tone makes a striking contrast to the utter seriousness of the Weber films you're most likely to have caught elsewhere, Hypocrites or The Blot.) Those three features certainly justify the price, compared to other silent DVDs, so everything else you discover and enjoy along the way is a bonus.