Reviews of silent film releases on home video.
Copyright © 1999-2025 by Carl Bennett
and the Silent Era Company.
All Rights Reserved. |
|
Fairy Tales
Early Colour Stencil Films
from Pathé
(1901-1922)
|
Contents: Barbe-bleu (1901), Un drame au fond de la mer (1901), Les Sept châteaux du diable (1901), Ballet des Sylphides (1902), Ali Baba et les quarante voleurs (1902), Valse excentrique (1903), Japonaiseries (1904), La Danse du diable [Weird Fancies] (1904), Métamorphose du papillon (1905), La Poule aux oeufs d’or (1905), Martyrs chrétiens (1905), Loïe Fuller (1905), L’Album merveilleux (1905), L’Antre de la sorcière [The Bewitched Shepherd] (1906), La Peine du talion [Tit for Tat!] (1906), Le Fée printemps (1906), Les Roses magiques (1906), Le Scarabée d’or [The Golden Beetle] (1907), Cendrillon ou la pantoufle merveilleuse (1907), Le Spectre rouge (1907), Le Pied de mouton (1907), La Sorcière noire (1907), La Belle au bois dormant (1908), L’Oiseau bleu (1908), Le Légende du fantôme (1908), Le Faune (1908), Au Pays de Por (1908) and Little Red Riding Hood (1922).
|
 British Film Institute
2012 DVD edition
Fairy Tales: Early Colour Stencil Films from Pathé (1901-1922), color-tinted black & white, color-toned and color-tinted black & white and black & white, 156 minutes total, BBFC Classification U, including Barbe-bleu (1901), color-tinted black & white, 11 minutes, BBFC Classification U, Un drame au fond de la mer (1901), color-tinted black & white, 1 minute, BBFC Classification U, Les Sept châteaux du diable (1901), color-tinted black & white, 11 minutes, BBFC Classification U, Ballet des Sylphides (1902), color-tinted black & white, 1 minute, BBFC Classification U, Ali Baba et les quarante voleurs (1902), color-tinted black & white, 9 minutes, BBFC Classification U, Valse excentrique (1903), color-tinted black & white, 2 minutes, BBFC Classification U, Japonaiseries (1904), color-tinted black & white, 3 minutes, BBFC Classification U, La Danse du diable [Weird Fancies] (1904), color-tinted black & white, 3 minutes, BBFC Classification U, Métamorphose du papillon (1905), color-tinted black & white, 2 minutes, BBFC Classification U, La Poule aux oeufs d’or (1905), color-tinted black & white, 14 minutes, BBFC Classification U, Martyrs chrétiens (1905), color-tinted black & white, 7 minutes, BBFC Classification U, Loïe Fuller (1905), color-tinted black & white, 2 minutes, BBFC Classification U, L’Album merveilleux (1905), color-tinted black & white, 5 minutes, BBFC Classification U, L’Antre de la sorcière [The Bewitched Shepherd] (1906), black & white (from color-tinted black & white print), 7 minutes, BBFC Classification U, La Peine du talion [Tit for Tat!] (1906), color-tinted black & white, 6 minutes, BBFC Classification U, Le Fée printemps (1906), color-toned and color-tinted black & white, 5 minutes, BBFC Classification U, Les Roses magiques (1906), color-tinted black & white, 4 minutes, BBFC Classification U, Le Scarabée d’or [The Golden Beetle] (1907), color-tinted black & white, 3 minutes, BBFC Classification U, Cendrillon ou la pantoufle merveilleuse (1907), color-tinted black & white, 16 minutes, BBFC Classification U, Le Spectre rouge (1907), color-tinted black & white, 9 minutes, BBFC Classification U, Le Pied de mouton (1907), color-tinted black & white, 5 minutes, BBFC Classification U, La Sorcière noire (1907), color-tinted black & white, 4 minutes, BBFC Classification U, La Belle au bois dormant (1908), color-tinted black & white, 14 minutes, BBFC Classification U, L’Oiseau bleu (1908), color-tinted black & white, 12 minutes, BBFC Classification U, Le Légende du fantôme (1908), color-tinted black & white, 9 minutes, BBFC Classification U, Le Faune (1908), color-tinted black & white, 5 minutes, BBFC Classification U, Au Pays de Por (1908), color-tinted black & white, 8 minutes, BBFC Classification U, and Little Red Riding Hood (1922), black & white, 8 minutes, BBFC Classification U.
BFI Video Publishing, BFIVD529, UPC 5-035673-00529-3.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Region 2 PAL DVD disc; 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 576 pixels) interlaced scan image encoded in SDR MPEG-2 format at 6.4 Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to 50 fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 320 Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; £19.99.
Release date: 3 December 2012.
Country of origin: England
|
|
This PAL DVD collection presents a number of short films hand-colored in the stencil-based Pathécolor process. Source prints range in quality from fair to very-good. At least one source print has been duplicated in black & white from a previously color-tinted print. No digital clean-up or stabilization has been performed on the original raw scans and the films are presented as such in the nature of cultural artifacts.
The films are accompanied by ambient music scores composed, created and performed by Oren Ambarchi, Marcus Davidson, Leif Elggren, Michael Esposito and Mike Harding, Christian Fennesz, Hildur Guðnadóttir, Philip Jeck, Achim Mohné, Sarah Nicholls, B.J. Nilsen, Joachim Nordwall and Henrik Rylander, Rosy Parlane, SAVX, Sohrab, Maia Urstad, Chris Watson and Pascal Wyse. Some viewers may have issues with the experimental nature of these aural soundscapes, others will be intrigued.
Supplementary material includes a small collection of hand-colored films influenced by the Pathécolor process; and a 24-page insert booklet with a brief essay “Pathé Stencil Colour Fairy Tales” by Bryony Dixon, a brief essay “Scoring the Past” by Mike Harding, and notes on the films. Nine additional soundscapes by Amanda Andersen, Mats Dekock, Marina Gioti, Pepa Ivanova nd Spela Petric, Petar Kufner, Eyas Al Mokdad, Bernardo Risquez, Martina Smrekova and Sophie Vanhomwegen are presented to accompany La Danse du diable (1904).
North American collectors will need a region-free PAL DVD player capable of outputting an NTSC-compatible signal to view this edition.
|
|
This Region 2 PAL DVD edition is available directly from . . .
|
|
|
