Back in 2005, Anthology Film Archives and Image Entertainment (along with a heck of a lot of other archives and studios, even WHV) teamed up to create the excellent 7-disc Unseen Cinema box set showcasing 155 avant-garde films. Much of it contained essential film school content like Man Ray's Return to Reason, early Edison and kinetoscope films (ranging from serpentine dances to turn-of-the-century footage of NYC), and even some Busby Berkerly numbers. There's a lot of forgotten gems such as 1930s amateur films and Orson Welles' first film The Hearts of Age.
Among all these films, I was captivated by a short created by Mary Ellen Bute, Ted Nemeth, and Norman McLaren. McLaren provided animation drawn directly onto 35mm film. This was the 1940 short Spook Sport. Set to the Saint-Saens' "Danse Macabre" it's truly a work of artistic genius. There's also a few other McLaren films (some are other collaborations with Bute and Nemeth). Stars and Stripes is a colorful drawn-on-film short set to John Phillip Sousa's music and looks like an amazing fireworks display. Another short, Scherzo actually had the soundtrack hand-drawn along with the images being painted on the film. I really wanted to see more of McLaren's work.
Milestone Film and Video (responsible for the excellent special editions of It, the silent The Phantom of the Opera, and The Adventures of Prince Achmed) had released a small collection of his films along with a documentary, The Creative Process about McLaren's work. However, by the time I found out, the DVD was already out of print and fetching around $150 (at best) at resellers.
It turns out that The Film Board of Canada and Home Vision Cinema had teamed up to put together a complete collection with every surviving film Norman McLaren created, as well as extensive outtakes/tests and hours of documentaries. Norman McLaren: The Master's Edition was released last year (2006) and I'm floored that it totally passed the radar screens of DVD sites. I only found out it existed two weeks ago.
The FBO (or ONF to French speakers) performed extensive digital restoration on every single film, using the same tools Criterion uses for their remastered. At the same time, they put care into not removing artifacts part of the films (especially on the hand-painted and hand-etched films). The most prestigious of all the 58 films is the 1952 Oscar-winner Neighbours. A live-action short, it presents a surreal (and funny) metaphor for the absurdity of war. Two men fight over a flower that appears between their two homes. In an unusual form of animation, McLaren shot the entire film in "pixilation." This process is literally animating live-action subjects. At times, the two men fly through the air, glide on grass, and make fenceposts appear out of nowhere. Equally impressive, the soundtrack is 100% synthetic, formed by a special photographic card system invented by McLaren. He also worked with the Oscar Peterson Trio (for Begone Dull Care), Ravi Shenkar (A Chairy Tale), and Maurice Blackburn (Pas de Deux). Music was just as important as the images in these films.
That's just one of the great films in this set. My personal favorite is his 1968 Oscar-nominated short Pas de Deux. It's two ballet dancers silhouetted in B&W, with extensive optical printing to create multiple images. Joined with a beautiful music score, it's a tribute to the beauty of the human form. McLaren's work may seem pretentious or inaccessible at first glance, but his work has so much vitality and fun within.
Spook Sport (1940)
Begone Dull Care (1949)
Neighbours (1952)
Opening Speech (1960)
Pas de Deux (1968)
Synchromy (1971)
Home Vision's collection comprises of seven discs, with themed programs for the shorts (often repeating across discs, but allowing for great continuous viewing). They're packaged in thinpaks and come in a sturdy cardboard box, along with an extensive booklet (in English and French). For those with the equally excellent and equally recommended Treasures of American Film Archives collections (also from Image), the menus are superb and easy to navigate. You can watch all the shorts on a disc, select just one, or see the documentaries easily. There's also the option of the original mono soundtracks, as well as often-excellent 2.0 surround and 5.1 remixes (the 5.1 mixes for the films with synthetic sound are the most fun). As said before, the restored image looks amazing. Especially good is the proper progressive encoding, which allows you to go frame-by-frame (especially good for his hand-painted films).
Right now, it's $90 on Amazon.com but DeepDiscountDVD currently has their 20% off sale and 20% coupons (DVDTALK and SUPERSALE). As a result, you can buy this $100 MSRP set for merely $54. I highly recommend this collection. You won't be disappointed by either Norman McLaren's fantastic work, nor the loving care given to this DVD set. In today's cinema scene with CGI, pirates, and hobbits, it's amazing to see such magical films created without a camera or microphones.
Order from DeepDiscountDVD
(Don't forget to use the "DVDTALK" or "SUPERSALE" coupon to get the $54 sale price!)
Among all these films, I was captivated by a short created by Mary Ellen Bute, Ted Nemeth, and Norman McLaren. McLaren provided animation drawn directly onto 35mm film. This was the 1940 short Spook Sport. Set to the Saint-Saens' "Danse Macabre" it's truly a work of artistic genius. There's also a few other McLaren films (some are other collaborations with Bute and Nemeth). Stars and Stripes is a colorful drawn-on-film short set to John Phillip Sousa's music and looks like an amazing fireworks display. Another short, Scherzo actually had the soundtrack hand-drawn along with the images being painted on the film. I really wanted to see more of McLaren's work.
Milestone Film and Video (responsible for the excellent special editions of It, the silent The Phantom of the Opera, and The Adventures of Prince Achmed) had released a small collection of his films along with a documentary, The Creative Process about McLaren's work. However, by the time I found out, the DVD was already out of print and fetching around $150 (at best) at resellers.
It turns out that The Film Board of Canada and Home Vision Cinema had teamed up to put together a complete collection with every surviving film Norman McLaren created, as well as extensive outtakes/tests and hours of documentaries. Norman McLaren: The Master's Edition was released last year (2006) and I'm floored that it totally passed the radar screens of DVD sites. I only found out it existed two weeks ago.
The FBO (or ONF to French speakers) performed extensive digital restoration on every single film, using the same tools Criterion uses for their remastered. At the same time, they put care into not removing artifacts part of the films (especially on the hand-painted and hand-etched films). The most prestigious of all the 58 films is the 1952 Oscar-winner Neighbours. A live-action short, it presents a surreal (and funny) metaphor for the absurdity of war. Two men fight over a flower that appears between their two homes. In an unusual form of animation, McLaren shot the entire film in "pixilation." This process is literally animating live-action subjects. At times, the two men fly through the air, glide on grass, and make fenceposts appear out of nowhere. Equally impressive, the soundtrack is 100% synthetic, formed by a special photographic card system invented by McLaren. He also worked with the Oscar Peterson Trio (for Begone Dull Care), Ravi Shenkar (A Chairy Tale), and Maurice Blackburn (Pas de Deux). Music was just as important as the images in these films.
That's just one of the great films in this set. My personal favorite is his 1968 Oscar-nominated short Pas de Deux. It's two ballet dancers silhouetted in B&W, with extensive optical printing to create multiple images. Joined with a beautiful music score, it's a tribute to the beauty of the human form. McLaren's work may seem pretentious or inaccessible at first glance, but his work has so much vitality and fun within.
Spook Sport (1940)
Begone Dull Care (1949)
Neighbours (1952)
Opening Speech (1960)
Pas de Deux (1968)
Synchromy (1971)
Home Vision's collection comprises of seven discs, with themed programs for the shorts (often repeating across discs, but allowing for great continuous viewing). They're packaged in thinpaks and come in a sturdy cardboard box, along with an extensive booklet (in English and French). For those with the equally excellent and equally recommended Treasures of American Film Archives collections (also from Image), the menus are superb and easy to navigate. You can watch all the shorts on a disc, select just one, or see the documentaries easily. There's also the option of the original mono soundtracks, as well as often-excellent 2.0 surround and 5.1 remixes (the 5.1 mixes for the films with synthetic sound are the most fun). As said before, the restored image looks amazing. Especially good is the proper progressive encoding, which allows you to go frame-by-frame (especially good for his hand-painted films).
Right now, it's $90 on Amazon.com but DeepDiscountDVD currently has their 20% off sale and 20% coupons (DVDTALK and SUPERSALE). As a result, you can buy this $100 MSRP set for merely $54. I highly recommend this collection. You won't be disappointed by either Norman McLaren's fantastic work, nor the loving care given to this DVD set. In today's cinema scene with CGI, pirates, and hobbits, it's amazing to see such magical films created without a camera or microphones.
Order from DeepDiscountDVD
(Don't forget to use the "DVDTALK" or "SUPERSALE" coupon to get the $54 sale price!)
