Silent Era : Home Video Reviews

Silent Era Home Page > Home Video > Anthology of Surreal Cinema, Volume 1

Reviews of silent film releases on home video.
Copyright © 1999-2025 by Carl Bennett
and the Silent Era Company.
All Rights Reserved.

Anthology of
Surreal Cinema
Volume 1
(1924-1928)

Contents: Le Ballet mécanique (1924), Entr’acte (1924), Anémic cinéma (1926) and La Coquille et le clergyman (1928).

A lousy DVD collection of four great French avant-garde films.

Risqué Cinema
2005 DVD edition

Anthology of Surreal Cinema, Volume 1 (1924-1928), black & white, 65 minutes total, not rated, including Le Ballet mécanique (1924), color-toned black & white, 16 minutes, not rated, Entr’acte (1924), black & white, 13 minutes, not rated, Anémic cinéma (1926), black & white, 5 minutes, not rated, and La coquille et le clergyman (1928), black & white, 28 minutes, not rated.

Risqué Cinema, RC003, unknown UPC number.
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 mono sound encoded at ? Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; 4 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $24.95.
Release date: 26 April 2005.
Country of origin: USA

At $24.95, this DVD collection of avant-garde films is a total rip-off of consumers. All of the films have been transferred from good to totally-substandard 16mm reduction prints, with much of the framing being excessively cropped. Poor-quality prints always mean poor-quality DVDs.

For our comparative reviews of the individual films in this collection, see our Le ballet mécanique on home video, Entr’acte on home video, Anémic cinéma on home video and La coquille et le clergyman on home video pages.

Let’s hope there’s never a second volume in this series. Avoid this set and invest in one of the quality Avant-Garde collections noted elsewhere.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued
and is . . .