Early Women Filmmakers: An International Anthology Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		4.0

Early Women Filmmakers: An International Anthology Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 10, 2019

Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers recently made my “Top 10” list of Blu-ray releases for 2018, and for those interested in some more of the rather vast contributions women made in the early days of film, a really captivating companion set to the Kino Lorber release is this Flicker Alley release bringing together a host of sometimes rather forward thinking outings featuring a bevy of women filmmakers from around the globe. In a collection such as this one, there are bound to be individual offerings that appeal to some viewers more than others, but I’ll single out a few of the many interesting pieces included on this set which caught my particular eye.

Disc One is devoted to three names which were also well represented on the Kino Lorber release, Alice Guy Blaché, Lois Weber and Mabel Normand. Weber’s The Blot is one of the longer films included and is a really interesting examination of at least some elements of xenophobia which should strike some contemporary viewers as almost alarmingly “relevant”. In fact it’s just one of at least a couple of offerings in this set which kind of surprisingly don’t paint a very pretty picture of immigrants, or “the other”. What actually struck me about The Blot from a stylistic standpoint, though, is how Weber rather artfully weaves textual information right into the fabric of the film, rather than relying solely on intertitles (see screenshot 12). Also on Disc One is one of the Mabel Normand films that helped Charlie Chaplin develop his most iconic character, The Little Tramp.

Disc Two reaches out into more of the global community to offer a really interesting aggregation of longer films. Despite featuring "only" a quartet of films, this disc has a rather wide array of subjects and styles, from (children's author) Madeline Brandeis' charming fantasy with some almost science fiction elements, The Star Prince, to an almost anthropological examination of rural Russian life in Olga Preobrazhenskaia's The Peasant Women of Ryazan.

However, it was the third disc for me personally which really left me feeling a marked sense of wonder at both the ingenuity and also the actually provocative tendencies of some (relatively) early women filmmakers. While Leni Riefenstahl's Day of Freedom may jump out to many devoted cineastes, I'd argue that it's actually in some of the lesser known names on this disc that this set makes the most profound impression. There is some absolutely fascinating material on this disc, including several animated features utilizing markedly different techniques, and more surreal outings like Parabola that are more about shape, form and mutability than about any given "subject".

All three discs in this set allow for either a "Play Program" option or selecting individual films. All of the selections in this set come with introductory texts that provide both biographical data about the filmmakers as well as information about each individual film. The set's complete contents are listed below.

Disc One

• Alice Guy Blaché

  Les Chiens Savants (1902)

  Une Histoire Roulante (1906)

  La Barricade (1907)

  Falling Leaves (1912)

  Making an American Citizen (1912)

  The Girl in the Armchair (1912)

• Lois Weber

  Suspense (1913)

  Discontent (1916)

  The Blot (1921)

• Mabel Normand

  Mabel’s Strange Predicament (1914)

Disc Two

• Madeline Brandeis

  The Star Prince (1918)

• Germaine Dulac

  La Cigarette (1919)

  La Souriante Mme. Beudet

• Olga Preobrazhenskaia

  The Peasant Women of Ryazan (1927)

Disc Three

• Marie-Louise Tribe

  Le Roi des Aulnes (1929)

• Lotte Reiniger

  Harlequin (1931)

  The Stolen Heart (1934)

  Papageno (1935)

• Claire Parker and Alexandre Alexeieff

  A Night on Bald Mountain (1933)

• Mrs. Wallace Reid

  The Woman Condemned (1934)

• Leni Riefenstahl

  Day of Freedom (1935)

• Mary Ellen Bute

  Parabola (1937)

  Spook Sport (1939)

• Dorothy Arzner

  Dance, Girl, Dance (excerpt) (1940)

• Maya Deren

  Meshes in the Afternoon (1943)

Early Women Filmmakers: An International Anthology Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Early Women Filmmakers: An International Anthology is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Flicker Alley with AVC encoded 1080p transfers in a variety of aspect ratios that all hover at or near Academy ratio (a quick scrolling through the screenshots accompanying this review will provide evidence of at least some of the variances, none of which are huge). Flicker Alley credits the late, great David Shepard as the curator and preserver of "the majority of elements", with another shout out to Lobster Films for restoration work. A number of other sources are credited, including the Library of Congress and The Chaplin Keystone Project. While there's nothing here that should surprise devotees of silent and/or earlier film, overall this set has more marked and consistent damage than the Kino Lorber set I reviewed recently. As should be expected, there's a rather wide gamut of quality on display here, but even the best looking features often have noticeable age related wear and tear in the form of nicks and scratches. Some of the older material has significantly greater damage, with sometimes pretty major emulsion damage to the point that the majority of the frame is obliterated, at least for a second or two. Contrast is also widely variant, as can perhaps be gleaned from some of the screenshots. On the whole, the transfers are all certainly watchable, and they preserve an often nicely organic looking grain field.

Early Women Filmmakers: An International Anthology Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Unlike the Kino Lorber set alluded to above, several offerings in this set were either produced with actual dialogue in various native languages, or at least far enough into the sound era that they have their own music scores. As such, there's a much wider variance in audio quality here than on the Kino Lorber set, which had all newly composed music and no spoken dialogue. The "archival" audio on films with only music is often pretty harsh sounding, tinny and rather bright, especially in the higher registers. The films with dialogue actually sound at least a little better, but there are often signs of age related wear and tear in the form of pops and the like. The outings with contemporary (or at least newer) audio (typically "new" scores) of course sound better, with excellent fidelity and a much more full bodied sound. My score here is intended as a kind of "average", since the newer soundtracks sound excellent but some of the older ones definitely show their age.

Early Women Filmmakers: An International Anthology Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Supplements are perhaps surprisingly slim on this release, with the real only on disc supplement being:

• Audio Commentary on The Blot by Shelley Stamp.

An insert booklet with a good amount of information imparted by Kate Saccone of Columbia University's Women Film Pioneers Project is also included.

Early Women Filmmakers: An International Anthology Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

David Shepard was a gentleman and a scholar, and I was thrilled when he repeatedly reached out to me after my now long ago review of the first Blu- ray release of The Phantom of the Opera was published. (In the "weird but true" department, while David passed away in early 2017, some hacker got hold of his email, and I continue to receive spam from "him", as he is evidently able to email from "the other side".) This wonderful collection is a testament to Shepard's curation of important but often neglected works from the earliest days of film. As with any set of this size and scope, there are no doubt going to be some films that appeal to individual viewers more than others. For me, the third disc in this set was really a wonderland of delights, though the other two discs each offer their own distinctive pleasures. Technical merits are fine with an understanding of the context and history involved. Highly recommended.