Facets: Shattered/Scherben (Pick, 1921)

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HerrSchreck · #1 Post by **HerrSchreck** » Mon May 08, 2006 2:34 am

One of the key films of the German kammerspiel movement, this silent work chronicles the tragic repercussions of a furtive love affair between a railway worker's daughter (Edith Posca) and her father's supervisor (Werner Krauss). "This grim, small-scale filmâ€¦is sparse, naturalistic, dealing in a minimum number of characters and observing the unities of time, place and action" (The Faber Companion to Foreign Films). With Paul Otto.

ITEM NO. PRICE QTY
VHS-S19598 - COPIES ON WAY: - momentarily out of stock. $39.95

Lupu Pick Germany 1921 62 mins.

39.95 for a VHS. I know, it's FACEts. It is very rare. I've been contemplating this for years. Always reluctant because just as I was going to give in & purchase their god-knows-from-what-source print of MICHAEL, suddenly Transit licensed prints to Kino & Eureka MoC.

Anybody own or rented this? Know what co it comes from? If the image quality is decent enough (at least a reasonably clear 16mm) I'd be willing to spring for it.. just would like to be sure I'm not getting some wall-projection of an 8mm videotaped in some dudes kitchen.

Gregory · #2 Post by **Gregory** » Mon May 08, 2006 3:07 am

There was a VHS release of this from Hollywood's Attic about 10 years ago (which I haven't seen). I don't see it on their web page any more but if you e-mail them (info at nostalgiafamilyvideo.com) they might still be able to get one for you. If so, it'd be considerably cheaper than Facets. A longshot, I admit, but that's the only lead I have.

HerrSchreck · #3 Post by **HerrSchreck** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 4:28 am

I don't think this is from the Facets VHS (I never sprung for it), but for those who haven't seen anything of this concentrated and perfectly distilled masterpiece, a piker threw on his own score over it and posted it (in a sped up and somewhat chopped and subbed version) on youtube in 3 parts. Note the extreme purity of the images, married with the oblique storytelling method. The lack of Pick (this and SYLVESTER aka New Year's Eve at the very least) on DVD is just absurd. This-- the early 20's in Germany, where even melodramas where so psychologically approached and photographed that they looked like horror films-- is my very favorite period of cinema, and so much of it is not on dvd. It's sick.
Just make sure you turn the soundtrack down.

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