Reviews of silent film releases on home video.
Copyright © 1999-2025 by Carl Bennett
and the Silent Era Company.
All Rights Reserved. |
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Nana
(1926)
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This historical drama, based on the Émile Zola novel, was directed by Jean Renoir (his second film) and stars his then wife Catherine Hessling as Nana.
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 Kino Classics
2021 Blu-ray Disc edition
Nana (1926), black & white, 168 minutes, not rated.
Kino Lorber, K25469, UPC 7-38329-25469-8.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region A 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 32.8 Mbps average video bit rate; DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 1.2 Mbps average audio bit rate (music), and DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 720 Kbps average audio bit rate (commentary); French language intertitles, optional English language subtitles; 10 chapter stops; standard BD keepcase; $29.95.
Release date: 20 July 2021.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 8 / audio: 8 / additional content: 8 / overall: 8.
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This Blu-ray Disc edition has been mastered from an excellent but flawed archival 35mm print. A digital restoration has been performed to remove a significant amount of print damage, dust, speckling, schmutz, and other flaws. A small amount of dust, speckling, scrapes and fine vertical scratches remain but are rarely distracting.
The film is presented with a music score composed and performed on piano by Antonio Coppola.
The supplementary material includes audio commentary by film critic Nick Pinkerton; a restoration comparision (2 minutes); and three modern film trailers. Pinkerton’s commentary is informative and entertaining.
We enthusiastically recommend this home video edition of the restoration version of the film.
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This
Region A Blu-ray Disc edition is available directly from . . .
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  Lions Gate
Entertainment
2007 DVD edition
Jean Renoir: 3-Disc Collector’s Edition (1925-1962), black & white and color, 580 minutes total, not rated, including Nana (1926), color-tinted black & white, 130 minutes, not rated.
Lions Gate Entertainment, 21100, UPC 0-12236-21100-6.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Region 1 NTSC DVD disc (three DVDs in the set); 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; French language intertitles, optional English language subtitles, chapter stops; double-wide three-disc DVD keepcase in cardboard box; $24.98.
Release date: 24 April 2007.
Country of origin: USA
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This NTSC DVD collection of Renoir films surprises us with a range of good 16mm to excellent 35mm source prints for the silent era films.
We recommend this inexpensive three-disc Jean Renoir set for its very-good to excellent prints that are all of better quality than previous editions on budget VHS videotape.
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This Region 1 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued
and is . . .
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Other FRENCH FILMS of the silent era available on home video.
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