Buster Keaton L'integrale des Courts Metrages 1917-1923

[Lik Mearse]

Fellow Stone Faces,

does anyone have this :

"Buster Keaton L'integrale des Courts Metrages 1917-1923" ?

I've found a track listing on fnac.com -

DVD 1 :
Les films :
- Fatty boucher
- Fatty chez lui
- La noce de Fatty
- Fatty docteur
- Fatty à la fête foraine
- Fatty bistro
- Fatty groom
- La mission de Fatty
- Fatty à la clinique
- Fatty cuisinier

DVD 2 :
Les films :
- Fatty cabotin
- Un garçon séduisant
- Le garage infernal
- La maison démontable
- Malec champion de golf
- L' épouvantail
- La voisine de Malec


DVD 3 :
Les films :
- Malec chez les fantômes
- La guigne de Malec
- Malec champion de tir
- Malec l' insaisissable
- Frigo fregoli
- Frigo capitaine au long cours
- Malec chez les Indiens

DVD 4 :
Les films :
- Frigo déménageur
- Le neuvième mari d' Eléonore
- Malec forgeron
- Frigo l' esquimau
- Grandeur et décadence
- Frigo à l' Electric hôtel
- Malec aéronaute
- Frigo et la baleine
Les bonus :
Le documentaire " L' art de Keaton par Pierre Etaix " (15mn)
Les bandes-annonces


Are the intertitles in English? What's the restoration (if any) like?
And is there a list of the original English titles for these? This and any other information much appreciated. I couldn't find a review anywhere.

Yours Questioningly,
Lik.

[Pete George]

There was a discussion of this disc recently on the newsgroup alt.movies.silent If you do a google search for alt.movies.silent and the name of the French disc you should find it. The general consensus was that this was a fine disc. The titles are basically the Arbuckle and Keaton Comique shorts, plus Keaton's solo shorts. Most of these have been released on the Kino DVDs The Art of Buster Keaton and the two disc set Arbuckle and Keaton. The French disc however has a few shorts that Kino don't have and sometimes the prints are better. I haven't seen the French disc, but even though I have all the Kino Keaton's I am planning to get it.

Pete George

[Boink!]

There is a huge R1 box set details here (http://www.dv-depot.com/catalog/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=1&products_id=124657) which I am saving up for. I do know of another DVD set that has Fatty Arbuckle with support from a young Buster Keaton. Can't find out where details on that one though.

Well worth picking up I'd say.

Boink! :cool:

[adamvbarker]

I have this and it's very nice. Lovely packaging and 713 minutes in total. The quality of prints varies, but it generally pretty good(though not spectacular). The disk claims they are all the best available.

The intertitles are in french, but with optional english subtitles. The short documentary also has english subtitles.

You can just about make out the english titles on this capture (http://www.musicbox.fr/musicbox/images/back/highdef/0012975.jpg) of the back cover, taken from this page (http://www.musicbox.fr/cgi-bin/musicbox/0012975?3m2kSnBq;;475).

[Henry]

This looks like a perfect Xmas present for myself!

[Henry]

Got a quick question about Kino's Buster Keaton discs: did yours come in snappers or amarays? I just received Go West today and it's in an amaray case but all my other Keatons are in snappers.

[Michael Brooke]

Mine all came in snappers, but they were all purchased at roughly the same time in late 1999/early 2000.

Kino's recent releases, though, seem to be in Amarays, so I imagine this policy has been backdated to their older titles as well.

[Lik Mearse]

Fellow Clowns,

thanks to Peter George I came across the folowing review on alt.movies.silent in a thread called "Silent Flubs" :

********************************************
>how does it comepare to the Kino dvds of the comique shorts?

For one thing, this is more complete--you get every single Keaton short. For the Comiques, this includes HIS WEDDING NIGHT (1917), THE COOK (1918), and a far superior pictorial quality (albeit incomplete) version of MOONSHINE. Most of the source material is the same (I believe Serge Bromberg's Bobster Films and Kino's went to the same source on some of these titles. The complete versions of HARD LUCK and THE LOVE NEST are here intact, as well as a longer and improved last several minutes to the end of DAY DREAMS. One disappointment: the print of THE ROUGH HOUSE is the same one used by Kino that Rohauer utilized, missing the Union Square - 14th Street subway kiosk bit with Buster, Al St. John and Joe Bordeaux cavorting in NYC traffic. I've only seen that sequence in a Norskfilm (spelling?) print shown at Cinecon in 1993.

I have been told that the Kino bonus DVD only includes the fragments from LOVE NEST and DAY DREAMS, suggesting that David Shepard had nothing to do with the bonus disc's compilation. It would otherwise have been logical to insert the newly-found material where it belongs.

The musical interpretations aren't quite as bold, shall we say, as the Alloy Orchestra's renditions; I enjoyed both sets' scores. The Lobster set also has a great interview with Pierre Etaix, describing what he loves about Keaton with brief clips illustrating his commentary. Also a prevue section of other Lobster Films releases: a Georges Melies collection (with some fabulous quality clips); a 1922 colored scene from a feature, CYRANO DE BERGERAC, and a few other selections, all beautiful quality.

Ed Watz

********************************************

Yours Reproductively,
Lik.

[Henry]

Originally posted by Michael Brooke
Mine all came in snappers, but they were all purchased at roughly the same time in late 1999/early 2000.

Kino's recent releases, though, seem to be in Amarays, so I imagine this policy has been backdated to their older titles as well.

I thought that might be the case. :)

It's a very long shot, but are there any snapper-haters out there who want to do a swap?

[Bob B]

My thanks to Lik and Boink for the info on these Keaton sets - my credit card can't stretch quite far enough at the moment but like Boink I think I'll start saving!

[Boink!]

Happy to help :D

[Lik Mearse]

Fellow Palefaces,

I've just ordered this set using the coupon posted by Sebby the Frog a few weeks ago. It's still valid.

50Fr off 249Fr @ amazon.fr
Use this coupon: AMZNLALNGHFE

It came to under £27 delivered for four discs.

Yours Economically,
Lik.