Lobster Films

Geoges Méliès built the world's first movie studio in 1896 near Paris; from it cascaded fantastic magic films, dream films, historical reconstructions, imaginary journeys, melodramas, slapstick comedies -- even erotic films. This monumental fifteen hour collection on six DVDs gathers for the first time all the surviving films of Georges Méliès from his first, Card Party (1896) to his last, The Voyage of the Bouririchon Family (1913), bracketing about 200 others. Arranged in chronological order, this comprehensive collection makes widely available for the first time both the breadth and the depth of his work, disclosing a highly imaginative artist's discovery of the possibilities of cinema. Beautiful new music has been prepared by leading practitioners of silent film accompaniment. Georges Méliès can now be seen not only as a great pioneer but also as the most accomplished filmmaker in the world during the first years of cinema.

26 newly discovered shorts by George Méliès which were missing in the first 5-disc edition of "Georges Méliès: Der erste Magier des Kinos". Some of the shorts were hand colored or stencil colored and some even include the original narrations that were intended to be spoken aloud during the original showings of these films. Also included are two films here that were at one time mistakenly attributed to Méliès, but were in fact directed by the Spanish filmmaker Segundo de Chomon in the Méliès style. Attention: This DVD is a supplementary for the 5-disc set of the Méliès DVD box, the new 6-disc set includes the "Méliès Encore" DVD.

The story of the history of sound and color on the screen is told in two magnificent documentaries: A la recherche du son / In Search of Sound and Un rêve en couleurs / A Dream in Colors. It's a long and adventurous story whose origins go back way beyond the birth of cinema. We learn about films rented with a singer, films colored by handpainting, strange sound effect machines and bizarre color systems. Crazy inventors as well as uncanny personalities contributed in their own way to the history of film. Beside the two documentaries the 2-disc DVD offers 35 supplemental features with incredible and unknown images and sounds.

Compilation of 16 short films made between 1896 and 1948, in black and white and in colored versions, restored from original elements. Among others there are the first screen appearance of Charles Chaplin, a documentary about the original Titanic, a Russian slapstick comedy about chess players in Moscow, a parade of Hollywood stars in a short film of 1931, one of the best comedies with Charley Chase and a film with the legendary dancer Josephine Baker.

Compilation of 17 short films made between 1906 and 1941, in black and white and in colored versions, restored from original elements. Among others there are an educational film by D.W. Griffith about women and cinema, a strange comedy with Douglas Faurbands as drug addicted detective, Stan Laurel in a parody on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Duke Ellington in a famous early soundie filmed by Dudley Murphy, hand colored silents from France and Porky Pig presenting his own newsreel.

Compilation of 19 short films made between 1900 and 1941, in black and white and in colored versions, restored from original elements. Among others there are slapstick comedies with Snub Pollard, Harold Lloyd and Charley Chase, documentary footage of the original Titanic and its captain, a dancing pig, commercials made by the cartoonist Robert Lotrac, the first great western in film history THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY in a hand colored version and the only known film with legendary Django Reinhardt.

Compilation of 15 short films made between 1906 and 1944, in black and white and in colored versions, restored from original elements: newsreel-type footage, obscure Hollywood shorts, cartoons, promotional films and just plain odd bits of celluloid. Among others there are a preview trailer with the Marx Brothers, an early tinted adaption of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, a strange French animation film in Art Deco style, Laurel & Hardy presenting the MGM production for 1936, one of the best slapstick comedies of Mack Sennett and a Technicolor puppet animation by George Pal.

Compilation of 16 short films made between 1900 and 1950, in black and white and in colored versions, restored from original elements: newsreel-type documentaries, obscure Hollywood shorts, cartoons, promotional films and just plain odd bits of celluloid. Among others there are a censored Bugs Bunny cartoon by Tex Avery, a fragment of a lost John Ford silent western movie, a 1900 colored adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac with soundtrack, French commercial from the 30s and 50s with Jacques Tati and Laurel & Hardy imitators, a recently rediscovered comedy with Roscoe Arbuckle and Buster Keaton, and a Screen Song Cartoon with Lilian Roth and the famous bouncing ball by Dave and Max Fleischer.

Compilation of 17 short films made between 1905 and 1955, in black and white and in colored versions, restored from original elements: newsreel-type documentaries, obscure Hollywood shorts, cartoons, promotional films and just plain odd bits of celluloid. Among others there are two films by the most famous female directors of the silent era Lois Weber and Alice Guy Blaché, slapstick comedies with Stan Laurel and James Parrott, cartoons by Ub Iwerks and by the Van Beuren Studio, one of the first French jazz films with Stéphane Grappelli, a hunting film from Africa by the Belgian cinematographer Alfred Machin and French commercials from the 30s and 50s. All films are with short introductions as extra features.