Silent Era : Home Video Reviews

Silent Era Home Page > Home Video > Cyrano De Bergerac

Reviews of silent film releases on home video.
Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett
and the Silent Era Company.
All Rights Reserved.

Cyrano
De Bergerac
(1923)

This Italian-French adaptation of the famous Rostand play, directed by Augusto Genina, stars Pierre Magnier and Linda Moglia, with Angelo Ferrari, Alex Bernard, Umberto Casilini, Gemma De Sanctis, Robert Parisini and Maurice Schutz.

Flicker Alley
2015 DVD edition

Cyrano De Bergerac (1923), color-tinted black & white, and color-toned black & white, 113 minutes, not rated.

Flicker Alley, distributed by MovieZyng,
FA-MD3-002, UPC 8-89290-09089-8.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD-R disc; 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan image encoded in SDR MPEG-2 format at ? Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to ? fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 192 Kbps audio bit rate; English and Spanish language intertitles, no subtitles; chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $19.95.
Release date: 18 March 2015.
Country of origin: USA

This DVD-R edition has been mastered at 20 frames per second from an Eastman color duplicate 35mm negative, which was copied from an original 35mm nitrate source print frame-by-frame by David Shepard utilizing a 1909 Bell & Howell film printer. To render as accurate as possible in a new 35mm color print, in 1999 the now-defunct Alpha Cine Laboratories in Seattle referenced several dozen single frames from the original aource print to carefully match the Pathécolor color tinting. Video mastering and audio post-production for this edition was done at Lobster Films, Paris, and NTSC video conversion and post-production at Image Post, Chatsworth, California. The edition producers acknowledge the support of La Sept ARTE in preparation of this edition.

The film is presented with a music score composed by Kurt Kuenne, which was conducted by Timothy Brock and recorded in 1999 in Olympia, Washington.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available directly from FLICKER ALLEY through . . .

Film Preservation Associates
2000 DVD edition

Cyrano De Bergerac (1923), color-tinted black & white, and color-toned black & white, 113 minutes, not rated.

Film Preservation Associates, distributed by Image Entertainment, ID9410DSDVD, UPC 0-14381-94102-9.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD disc; 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan image encoded in SDR MPEG-2 format at 5.0 Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to 60 fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 192 Kbps audio bit rate; English and Spanish language intertitles, no subtitles; 16 chapter stops; snapper DVD case; $24.99.
Release date: 26 September 2000.
Country of origin: USA

Ratings (1-10): video: 7 / audio: 8 / additional content: 0 / overall: 7.

This DVD edition has been mastered from a very-good 35mm Pathécolor hand-colored stencil process print and reveals a fine video transfer that still looks pretty good on high-definition systems with upscaling capabilities. Very faint horizontal bars in slight variations of density slowly rise in the darker areas of the picture throughout the film. This would not have been detectible on old CRT monitors but can be seen (if you’re looking for them) on high-definition systems.

The film is accompanied by a pleasing orchestral music score composed by Kurt Kuenne that is performed by the Olympia Chamber Orchestra as conducted by Timothy Brock.

This edition is now out-of-print but has been replaced by the Flicker Alley edition noted above that should be of similar quality.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.