Avant Garde - Experimental Cinema of the 1920s & 1930s

Avant Garde - Experimental Cinema of the 1920s & 1930s
Customer Review: Full of hits and misses but still worth watching!
Ranging from 2 to 34 minutes in length these 24 films reveal experimentation in cinema when it was still new. From my perspective this series is probably best viewed along with and in addition to the Edison four volume collection of Edison classics released between 1889 and 1916. Together these collections show important efforts to really stake out the contours of this new medium of film.
Customer Review: Not too exciting
The music is bad - real bad. I had to run at 2X speed without sound to get through most of them. As a film student I wanted to explore early film and try to see the roots of development and experimentation. I was disappointed in most of the movies as I was looking for early innovations in film making. I only saw them in Manhatta and H2O. These two made the disk purchase acceptable. Manhatta has some innivative shots and lighting study. It was able to tell a story of greatness without words in spite of the terrible music. Interesting early camera placement and angles. H2O had some fascinating play with light and water reflections. I was mesmerized.