Reviews of silent film releases on home video.
Copyright ÂĐ 1999-2026 by Carl Bennett
and the Silent Era Company.
All Rights Reserved. |
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Jâaccuse
(1919)
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Abel Ganceâs first major work, a mammoth indictment of war, stars Marise Dauvray, SÃĐverin-Mars and Romuald JoubÃĐ.
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 Flicker Alley
2018 Blu-ray Disc edition
Jâaccuse (1919), color-toned and color-tinted black & white and black & white, 166 minutes, not rated, with Paris pendant la guerre (1915), color-toned black & white, and color-tinted black & white, 32 minutes, not rated.
Flicker Alley, distributed by MovieZyng,
FA-MOD-057, UPC 8-10162-03846-5.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Regions ABC Blu-ray Disc (BD-R BDMV); 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 28.8 Mbps average video bit rate; DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 1.6 Mbps average audio bit rate; French language intertitles, optional English language subtitles; 26 chapter stops; standard BD keepcase; $18.99 (raised to $21.99).
Release date: 15 November 2018.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 8 / audio: 9 / additional content: 8 / overall: 8.
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This Blu-ray Disc edition has been
mastered from an excellent full-frame 2K high-resolution digital restoration of the film that has chiefly utilized a 35mm nitrate positive held by the Eye Film Instituut Nederland, with missing footage inserts from secondary 35mm print sources including the fragmentary surviving 35mm camera negative. A joint effort of Lobster Films, and the EYE Film Instituut Nederland, with assistance from Kevin Brownlow, David Shepard and Lenny Borger, the film has been restored as closely as possible to its 1919 premiere form. Dust, speckling, emulsion scuffing, exposure fluctuations, and other print flaws have been allowed to remain in the picture.
We celebrate the extra clarity of this Blu-ray Disc edition of the film.
The film is accompanied by an excellent orchestral music score arranged, composed and conducted by Robert Israel.
Supplemental material includes a presentation of the spoof of French crime serials, Paris During the War (1915), with musical accompaniment on a Fotoplayer by Robert Israel (31 minutes). It does seem a shame that the content of the insert booklet included with the DVD edition noted below could not have been provided here as a supplement in a number of text-based screens.
This is our highly-recommnded home video edition of the film.
This review was updated in 2026.
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This Regions ABC Blu-ray DIsc (BD-R) edition is available directly from FLICKER ALLEY through . . .
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 Flicker Alley
2008 DVD edition
Jâaccuse (1919), color-tinted black & white, color-toned black & white, and black & white, 166 minutes, not rated, with Paris pendant la guerre (1915), color-toned black & white, and color-tinted black & white, 31 minutes, not rated, and Fighting the War (1916), black & white, 15 minutes, not rated.
Flicker Alley, FA0009,
UPC 6-17311-67399-3, ISBN 1-893967-39-5.
Two single-sided, dual-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD discs; 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 8.6 Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to 60 fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 192 Kbps audio bit rate; French language intertitles, optional English language subtitles; 26 chapter stops; 20-page insert booklet; standard two-disc DVD keepcase; $39.95.
Release date: 16 September 2008.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 8 / audio: 9 / additional content: 8 / overall: 8.
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This DVD edition has been mastered from an excellent full-frame 2K high-resolution digital restoration of the film that has chiefly utilized a 35mm nitrate positive held by the Eye Film Instituut Nederland, with missing footage inserts from secondary 35mm print sources including the fragmentary surviving 35mm camera negative. A joint effort of Lobster Films, and the EYE Film Instituut Nederland, with assistance from Kevin Brownlow, David Shepard and Lenny Borger, the film has been restored as closely as possible to its 1919 premiere form. Dust, speckling, emulsion scuffing, exposure fluctuations, and other print flaws have been allowed to remain in the picture.
The film is accompanied by an excellent orchestral music score arranged, composed and conducted by Robert Israel.
Supplemental material includes the comic short Paris pendant la guerre (1915) featuring a parade of appearances by French personalities of the time and a parody of French crime films, with Fotoplayer music performed by Robert Israel (31 minutes); the short documentary Fighting the War (1916) (15 minutes); and a 20-page insert booklet containing essays by historians Kevin Brownlow and Leslie Kathleen Hankins, and a short item on the restoration of Jâaccuse by Annike Kross.
We enthusiastically recommended this edition â not only for its tremendous disc production but also for the full-length version of this highly-prized film. This is our recommended DVD home video edition of the film.
This review was updated in 2026.
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This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued
and is . . .
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Other silent era ABEL GANCE films available on home video.
Other FRENCH FILMS of the silent era available on home video.
Other WORLD WAR I FILMS of the silent era available on home video.
Other silent film music scores by ROBERT ISRAEL available on home video.
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