"Nosferatu" and "Intolerance" (1 Viewer)

[MattHenderson]

At the moment I've only got a couple of silent films on DVD ("The Passion of Joan of Arc" and "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari"), but I'd like to purchase Murnau's "Nosferatu" and Griffith's "Intolerance." Things have become awfully complicated lately with two versions of "Intolerance" on the market and three of "Nosferatu." Has anyone done a comparison between the Image releases and the Kino releases? I'm most concerned about the quality of the transfers; extras are nice, but I'll probably only watch them once anyway, so my biggest concerns are that the picture looks as good as possible, the framing and projection speed are correct, etc. Any comments? I'm also really excited about the upcoming "Metropolis" DVD. I held off on buying the really poor-quality Madacy (?) release, hoping that the film would get the treatment it deserves, and hopefully Kino will come through on this one. Thanks for your responses!

Matt

 

[Jeff Adkins]

The Kino version of Nosferatu is better than the Image version. It's a longer cut of the film and the framing is better.
As for Intolerance, the new Kino version is also supposedly a longer cut but I haven't heard as to the print quality, so perhaps someone else here can comment on that one.
Jeff

 

[TimJS]

Hello Matt:

Do a Google search in alt.movies.silent for the following two subjects:

Review of German horror DVDs

Birth of a Nation: Kino/Image Comparison

Don't know if you'll find a definitive answer, but it should be a good start.

Tim

 

[Patrick McCart]

You may want to wait on Nosferatu...

Milestone Video will release the Photoplay Productions restoration, which includes a James Bernard ORCHESTRAL score. The Kino edition features mostly "unconventional" scores, the Blackhawk SE (red cover) has a lousy 5.1 electronic score and excellent 2.0 organ score.

 

[Jeff Adkins]

Patrick,

Where could I find more info on the Photoplay productions restoration? Is this from a different print than the Bologna one?

Jeff