Reviews of silent film releases on home video.
Copyright © 1999-2025 by Carl Bennett
and the Silent Era Company.
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Fragment of
an Empire
(1929)
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This feature drama, directed by Fridrikh Ermler, stars Fyodor Nikitin and Lyudmila Semyonova, with Valeri Solovtsov, Aleksandr Melnikov, Yakov Gudkin and Emil Gal.
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 Flicker Alley
2019 Blu-ray Disc / DVD edition
Fragment of an Empire (1924), black & white, 111 minutes, not rated.
Flicker Alley, FA0065, UPC 6-17311-68659-7.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 Blu-ray Disc; 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in pillarboxed 16:9 (1920 x 1080 pixels) 24 fps progressive scan image encoded in SDR AVC format at ? Mbps average video bit rate; Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at ? Mbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; chapter stops; and one single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD disc; 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan image encoded in SDR MPEG-2 format at ? Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to ? fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at ? Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; chapter stops; standard BD keepcase; $39.95.
Release date: 9 August 2019.
Country of origin: USA
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This Blu-ray Disc / DVD edition has been mastered chiefly from a 35mm nitrate positive print held by the Eye Filmmuseum Nederland, and supplemented with a 35mm nitrate positive print held by Cinémathèque Suisse (which provided the original Russian intertitles as well as a small number of shots missing from the primary source). Intertitles that were missing from the secondary print were reproduced from Russian censorship records. The film’s restoration was a partnership between Eye Filmmuseum, Gosfilmofond, and the San Francisco Silent Film Festival.
The film is presented with two optional music scores: one by Stephen Horne and Frank Bockius, the second an adaptation of Vladimir Deshovov's 1929 piano score, performed by Daan van den Hurk.
Supplementary material includes a commentary track featuring film historian Peter Bagrov and Robert Byrne on the collaboration that went into reconstructing the film; second commentary track, “A Masterpiece in Soviet Cinema”; a featurette on the restoration of the film, “Restoring Fragment of an Empire,” by film historian and preservationist Robert Byrne; stills gallery of vintage marketing materials, original poster artwork and more; and an insert booklet with an essay on the historical importance of this film in Soviet Cinema, “Notes On the New Score,” a short essay by composers Stephen Horne and Frank Bockius on their new score for the film, and “Adapting Vladimir Deshevov,” a short essay by composer Daan van den Hurk on his adaptation of the 1929 score.
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This Region 0 Blu-ray Disc / DVD edition is available directly from . . .
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Other RUSSIAN and SOVIET FILMS of the silent era available on home video.
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