Flicker Alley is proud to announce the release of a essential collection of eight landmark Soviet silent films all new to DVD in North America. The term “Soviet montage” is widely used in film circles, but understanding of Soviet silent film remains monolithic, based in large part on jut a few archetypal sequences. Presenting four documentaries and four fiction films made between 1924-1930, our newest box set LANDMARKS OF EARLY SOVIET FILM chronicles the development of Soviet Montage and showcases the many ways of approaching that mysterious moment between two shots.
The 595 minute box set includes beautiful new HD transfers of both Sergei Eisenstein’s last major silent work OLD AND NEW (1924) (and the film that most clearly exemplified Eisenstein’s cinematic theories), as well as completely unpublished feature by celebrated cinema theorist Dziga Vertov, STRIDE, SOVIET! (1926). Additional to these familiar classics, the collection contains six other lesser-known Soviet post-WWI cinematic treasures (running the gamut of genres and montage styles), such as Boris Barnet’s effective propaganda masquerading as charming comedy THE HOUSE ON TRUBNAYA (1928), and Lev Kuleshov’s stunt-filled comedy that pokes fun of American culture, THE EXTRAORDINARY ADVENTURES OF MR. WEST IN THE LAND OF THE BOLSHEVIKS (1924).