This series is available either on DVD+R or as a direct download in MP4 format. If you'd like the downloadable version, please
send an email and instructions will follow.
Six episodes on three DVD's hold this fascinating documentary is focused on the origin of European cinema, from its infancy as a novelty created by French inventors Louis and Auguste Lumiere to a serious artistic and commercial contender against America. The documentary is narrated by filmmaker and actor, Kenneth Brannagh.Each DVD holds two episodes.One:
Where It All Began - Highlighting the world's first public presentation of films in Paris, the silent film industries in Denmark and Italy, the comedies by Max Linder and Ernst Lubitsch, Abel Gance's J'Accuse and the onset of World War I.Two:
Art's Promised Land (Sweden) - Including Ingeborg Holm by Victor Sjostrom and Greta Garbo's star-making performance opposite Lars Hanson in Mauritz Stiller's Gosta Berling's Saga.Three:
The Unchained Camera (Germany) - Featuring
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari,
The Battleship Potemkin by Sergei Eisenstein,
Metropolis,
Die Nibelungen, and
Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler by Fritz Lang,
Joyless Street starring Greta Garbo, F.W. Murnau's
Nosferatu, Emil Jannings,
The White Hell of Pitz Palu featuring Leni Riefenstahl and Louise Brooks becomes a star in G.W. Pabst's
Pandora's Box and
Diary of a Lost Girl.Four:
The Music of Light (France) - Highlighting Abel Gance's masterpieces,
Napoleon and
La Roue. Five:
Opportunity Lost (Britain) - Exploring the early career of Alfred Hitchcock. Six:
End of an Era - Focusing on the arrival of sound films,
The Jazz Singer, The Blue Angel, and the onslaught of World War II.
Note that Brownlow and Gill's
Hollywood: A Celebration of the American Silent Film 13-part series is also available on this site.
