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Reviews of silent film releases on home video.
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Storm Over Asia
(1928)

Vsevolod I. Pudovkin’s stunning final silent film.

Flicker Alley
2020 Blu-ray Disc edition

The Bolshevik Trilogy: Three Films by Vsevolod Pudovkin (1925-1928), black & white, 291 minutes total, not rated, including Storm Over Asia (1928), black & white, 131 minutes, not rated.

Flicker Alley, FA0068, UPC 6-17311-68689-4.
Two single-sided, dual-layered, Regions ABC Blu-ray Discs; 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in pillarboxed 16:9 (1920 x 1080 pixels) 24 fps progressive scan image encoded in SDR AVC format at ? Mbps average video bit rate; LPCM 2.0 stereo sound encoded at ? Mbps audio bit rate; Russian language intertitles, optional English language subtitles; chapter stops; 16-page insert booklet; standard two-disc BD keepcase; $59.98 (reduced to $49.95).
Release date: 10 March 2020.
Country of origin: USA

This Blu-ray Disc edition has likely been mastered from an archival 35mm print.

The film is accompanied by a music score composed by Timothy Brock, performed by the Olympia Chamber Orchestra.

Supplementary material includes audio commentary for Mother (1926) by historian Peter Bagrov; audio commentary for Storm Over Asia by historian Jan-Christopher Horak; a presentation of the comedy Chess Fever (1925); the short film Notebooks of a Tourist Presents: St. Petersburg (circa 1920); the short film Amateur Images of St. Petersburg (1930); a comparison of Pudovkin’s “Five Principles of Editing”; “A Revolution in Five Moves,” a visual essay showcasing the five edits that inspired the Bolshevik revolution; and a 16-page insert booklet featuring a new essay by film author and historian Amy Sargeant.

This collection may contain the best-available home video edition of this film.

This Regions ABC Blu-ray Disc edition is available directly from . . .

Film Preservation Associates
1999 DVD edition

Storm Over Asia (1928), black & white, 125 minutes, not rated.

Film Preservation Associates, distributed by Image Entertainment, ID4672DSDVD, UPC 0-14381-46722-2.
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 6.2 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 language intertitles, no subtitles; 18 chapter stops; snapper DVD case; $24.99.
Release date: 18 May 1999.
Country of origin: USA •

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

This early DVD edition, initially prepared for VHS home video by David Shepard in 1997, has been transferred from 35mm preservation elements. Although this is an older transfer, the picture looks pretty darn good on systems capable of upscaling the image to a 4K 60fps progressive scan.

The film is accompanied by a music score by Timothy Brock, performed by the Olympia Chamber Orchestra.

This edition is now out-of-print but we recommend the Flicker Alley edition noted above.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued
and is . . .

Eureka Entertainment
2001 DVD edition

Storm Over Asia (1928), black & white, 125 minutes, BBFC Classification PG.

Eureka Entertainment, EKA40032, unknown UPC number.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Region 2 PAL 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 ? Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to ? fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at ? Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; £19.99.
Release date: 9 April 2001.
Country of origin: England

This PAL DVD edition is accompanied by a music score by Timothy Brock, performed by the Olympia Chamber Orchestra.

North American collectors will need a region-free PAL DVD player capable of outputting an NTSC-compatible signal to view this edition.

This Region 2 PAL DVD edition has been discontinued
and is . . .

Other RUSSIAN and SOVIET FILMS of the silent era available on home video.

Other FILMS FROM 1928 available on home video.

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