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

Le ballet mécanique (1924)

Le ballet mécanique (1924), created by Fernand Léger and Dudley Murphy, is something more than its the sum of its montage of live action cinematography, shots of geometric shapes, colors, odd found items, commercial product photography, observations through a mirrored prism, image repetition, household items and machinery in movement, fairground attractions, and stop-motion animation. The viewer of the film is left to sort out for themselves the meaning of this barrage of images that range from pleasant to profoundly unsettling. The viewer must interpret the associations these images may conjure in their unconscious and conscious mind.

While there may be no meaning to it all, as is the assertion of distractors of avant-garde film, there is meaning to be found overlaid the montage of images if the viewer is aware of and receptive to visceral feelings brought up by this hypnotizing onslaught.

— Carl Bennett

This Blu-ray Disc edition has been mastered from the conflated 2K high-resolution digital restorations prepared in 2014 and 2022 from archival 35mm prints, including that duplicated for artist and architect Frederick Kiesler in 1931 (which is thought to be the most-complete surviving version of the film). The composite scan is detailed and the greyscale range broad, however no digital clean-up, print flaw repair or image stabilization has been performed.

The film is accompanied by a music composed by George Antheil in 1925 and adpated for the film in the 1930s by Antheil, performed on piano by Charles Amirkhanian in 1972. This is the first time the Amirkhanian recording has been paired with the Kiesler print for home video.

This is the best home video edition available of this landmark avant-garde film and it is highly recommended.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Regions ABC Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
This Regions ABC Blu-ray Disc edition is also available directly from . . .

This DVD edition of Le Ballet mécanique (1924) has been restored from the definitive color-toned 35mm print from the Frederick Kiesler film collection, with color inserts from the color-tinted 35mm print held by the Eye Film Instituut Nederland. The slightly windowboxed video transfer runs at a natural pace, and holds picture detail not seen in transfers from 16mm prints.

The film has been synchronized for the first time ever with the experimental George Antheil music piece in its original instrumentation of 16 player pianos, airplane propellers, electric bells, sirens, etc. Absolutely, this presentation one of the highlights of this high-quality avant-garde DVD collection.

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

This avant-garde DVD collection contains one of the best presentations of Le Ballet mécanique (1924) available on home video.

The film is accompanied by a modern music score.

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

This subpar DVD collection offers a video transfer of Le Ballet mécanique (1924) that has been prepared from a fair to good 16mm reduction print, which is contrasty, with plugged-up shadows and blasted-out highlights, moderately speckled and dusty, and marked with a few vertical scratches. The print and/or the transfer is misframed, cropping a substantial amount of the left-hand side of the picture out of the presentation.

The film is presented with, what appears to be, a custom music score performed on piano and a number of percussive instruments.

With a number of better presentations available on DVD, we advise you to avoid this release.

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

Other AVANT-GARDE FILMS of the silent era available on home video.