Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers & Clouzot: The Early Works
Kino Lorber announced a couple of Blu-ray box sets that are sure to appeal to fans of early cinema. Both are coming from their Kino Classics line on November 20th. Below are the full details from the Kino Lorber Facebook page:
Coming to DVD and Blu-ray on November 20th from Kino Classics and the Library of Congress!
PIONEERS: FIRST WOMEN FILMMAKERS
Executive Producer: Illeana Douglas
A monumental 6-disc set including over 50 films, accompanied by an 80-page booklet.
In the early decades of cinema, some of the most innovative and celebrated filmmakers in America were women. Alice Guy-Blaché helped establish the basics of cinematic language, while others boldly continued its development: slapstick queen Mabel Normand, action star Grace Cunard, and LGBTQ icon Alla Nazimova. Unafraid of controversy, filmmakers such as Lois Weber and Dorothy Davenport Reid tackled explosive issues such as birth control, abortion, and prostituion. This crucial chapter of film history comes alive through the presentation of a wide assortment of films (spanning 1911-1929), carefully curated, meticulously restored in 2K and 4K archival sources, and presented with new musical scores.
Special features (DVD and Blu-ray):
*80-page booklet with essays and photos
*Interviews with historians and archivists
*Musical scores by Renee C. Baker, The Berklee Silent Film Orchestra, Makia Matsumura, Maud Nelissen, Dana Reason, Aleksandra Vrebalov, and others
DVD (6 discs)
*Total Running Time approx. 1,320 minutes
Blu-ray (6 discs) – over six additional hours of material
*Total Running Time approx. 1,710 minutes
Disc 1: Alice Guy-Blaché
Disc 2: Lois Weber
Disc 3: Genre Pioneers
Disc 4: Social Commentary (Part 1)
Disc 5: Social Commentary (Part 2)
Disc 6: The Feature Film
Curator: Shelley Stamp
Producer: Bret Wood
Executive Producer: Illeana Douglas
Coming to DVD and Blu-ray on November 20th from Kino Classics and Lobster Films!
CLOUZOT: THE EARLY WORKS
Six features and one short from the early career of Henri-Georges Clouzot
Before directing his first feature, Henri-Georges Clouzot (THE WAGES OF FEAR) spent ten years learning the ropes. During this prolific period as a screenwriter he learned cinematic grammar and began to forge his style. Kino Classics and Lobster Films are proud to present CLOUZOT: THE EARLY WORKS, which collects six varied features he worked on from 1931-1933. It also includes his directorial debut – the short film THE TERROR OF BATIGNOLLES (1931), which anticipates his canonical thrillers to come.
Films included on the DVD (3 discs) and Blu-ray (2 discs):
MY COUSIN FROM WARSAW (1931)
DRAGNET NIGHT (1931)
THE UNKNOWN SINGER (1931)
I’LL BE ALONE AFTER MIDNIGHT (1931)
THE TERROR OF BATIGNOLLES (1931)
TELL ME TONIGHT (1932)
DREAM CASTLE (1933)
Also included: Booklet essay by film critic Peter Tonguette
