#623: FEJOS, Paul: Lonesome (1928)
FEJOS, Paul (United States)
Lonesome [1928]
Spine #623
Blu-ray
Blu-ray
A buried treasure from Hollywood's golden age, Lonesome is the creation of a little-known but audacious and one-of-a-kind filmmaker, Paul Fejos (also an explorer, anthropologist, and doctor!). While under contract at Universal, Fejos pulled out all the stops for this lovely, largely silent New York City symphony set in antic Coney Island during the Fourth of July weekend, employing color tinting, superimposition effects, experimental editing, and a roving camera (plus three dialogue scenes, added to satisfy the new craze for talkies). For years, Lonesome has been a rare treat for festival and cinematheque audiences, but it's only now coming to home video. Rarer still are the two other Fejos films from his Universal years included in this release: The Last Performance and a reconstruction of the previous incomplete sound version of Broadway, in its time the most expensive film ever produced by the studio.
69 minutes
Black & White/Color
Black & White/Color
Monaural
1:19:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2012
Director/Writers
Story by Mann Page.
Adaptation and scenario by Edward T. Lowe Jr.
Paul Fejos was 32 when he directed Lonesome.
The Film
The Film
Film Rating (0-60):
The Booklet
Thirty-six page booklet featuring essays by critic Phillip Lopate and film historian Graham Petrie and an excerpt from a 1962 interview with Fejos.
Commentary
Featuring film historian Richard Koszarski.
The Last Performance
Director Fejos’s 1929 silent starring Conrad Veidt, with a new score by composer Donald Sosin.
Reconstructed sound version
Of Broadway, Fejos’s 1929 musical.
Fejos Memorial
A 1963 visual essay produced by Paul Falkenberg in collaboration with Fejos’s wife, Lita Binns Fejos, featuring the filmmaker narrating the story of his life and career.
Excerpt
About the Broadway camera crane from an audio interview with cinematographer Hal Mohr.
Extras Rating (0-40):
60
The ExtrasThe Booklet
Thirty-six page booklet featuring essays by critic Phillip Lopate and film historian Graham Petrie and an excerpt from a 1962 interview with Fejos.
Commentary
Featuring film historian Richard Koszarski.
The Last Performance
Director Fejos’s 1929 silent starring Conrad Veidt, with a new score by composer Donald Sosin.
Reconstructed sound version
Of Broadway, Fejos’s 1929 musical.
Fejos Memorial
A 1963 visual essay produced by Paul Falkenberg in collaboration with Fejos’s wife, Lita Binns Fejos, featuring the filmmaker narrating the story of his life and career.
Excerpt
About the Broadway camera crane from an audio interview with cinematographer Hal Mohr.
Extras Rating (0-40):
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