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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
The Celluloid Heroes (1995)

The Celluloid Heroes (1995)

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Released 24-Feb-2005

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Documentary Trailer-History Of Australian Cinema, My Voyage To Italy
Trailer-Decade Under The Influence, 90° South, South
Trailer-The Natural History Of The Chicken, Picnic At Hanging Rock
Trailer-The Cars That Ate Paris/The Plumber
Rating Rated M
Year Of Production 1995
Running Time 222:15 (Case: 220)
RSDL / Flipper No/No
Dual Disc Set
Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 2,4 Directed By Robert Francis
Studio
Distributor
Film Australia
Umbrella Entertainment
Starring Bryan Brown
Case Amaray-Transparent-S/C-Dual
RPI $34.95 Music None Given


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame Full Frame English Dolby Digital 2.0 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio None
16x9 Enhancement No
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio Varies Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles None Smoking Yes
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

By the end of 1911 Australia had made over 20 full length feature films,
this was a year before Hollywood made its first.

    An amazing revelation revealed in the first episode of this excellent four hour documentary series and one that indicates a side to the Australian film industry that few people had ever been made aware of. The Celluloid Heroes is a four-part series tracing the development of Australian cinema and was made in 1995 to celebrate the first century of film-making in Australia. Australia is long regarded as the country of origin of the world's first feature length film - 1906's The Story Of The Kelly Gang, and throughout the period from 1895 to 1995 it is an industry that has seen its fair share of highs and lows. From the early years of cinema at the turn of the century, when The Salvation Army in this country was among the largest film production houses in the world, to the doldrums of the 1950s and 60s when the industry was as good as dead and on to a sort of renaissance in the mid 1970s, Australian cinema has always had its fans and its critics.

    This four-episode program traces the industry from its formative years with significant amounts of archival film footage included. Narrated by actor Bryan Brown, it proves to be a worthy inclusion in the canon of documentary series dedicated to the art of film-making.

    The four episodes are:

    Episode 1: The Pioneers 1895 - 1928 (57:37)

    This episode traces the origins of cinema in Australia, with scenes filmed in England in 1895. The next year, Australian scenes were being shot including the famous footage of the 1896 Melbourne Cup. Footage of the surviving few minutes of The Story Of The Kelly Gang is included, showing just how much it has deteriorated over the years and significant moments from the ground-breaking The Sentimental Bloke. The Australian premiere of movie viewing was held in a converted shop in Pitt Street, Sydney on the 30 November 1894. This was 12 months before the Lumiere brothers first projected motion pictures onto a screen in Paris on 28 December 1895. The episode concludes with the ending of the silent era of movies in 1928.

Episode 2: OK For Sound 1928 - 1948 (55:38)

    The coming of sound transformed the experience of watching films for the entire world. Australian producers responded to the challenge of matching sound to vision, and produced many films in this period and were even responsible for the invention of the clapper board - a device still used to sync vision and audio to this day.
    The struggle to find consistent distribution outlets for Australian films continued with many local film-makers being squeezed out by the combined efforts of the movie houses which showed mostly imported American films - Hollywood was soon making an impact on the world. One of the largest film producers of the early pioneering times was the Salvation Army unit. Major Joseph Perry utilised film production as a means of fundraising for the Army. The episode looks at the contributions of important names such as producers T.J. West, Cozens Spencer and Beaumont Smith, actors Raymond Longford, Chips Rafferty and Lottie Lyell and directors Ken Hall and Charles Chauvel.


Episode 3: Arising From The Ashes 1948 - 1970 (54:05)

    Arguably the worst period that any industry has ever had to suffer in this country. In booming economic and social times after World War II, it was a perilously pessimistic era for Australian film. In fact, Australian cinema struggled to survive, reflecting the ‘cultural cringe’ of the period where lack of government support and a general apathy among the populace for any creative work gave credence to the paradigm that stated "Australians don’t make films”. This backward way of thinking very nearly killed off an entire industry.

Episode 4: Beyond Our Wildest Dreams 1971 - 1995 (54:55)

    This episode looks at the modern ‘renaissance’ in Australian film-making, from the ground-breaking and rule-bending times of the early 1970s through to the mid 1990s. This episode stresses the role of the Federal government in helping to re-establish the Australian film industry when the Whitlam government’s reign saw the efforts of film lobby groups rewarded with initiatives designed to promote the Australian film industry including the infamous 10BA tax break. Films such as Picnic At Hanging Rock, Sunday Too Far Away, Breaker Morant, Crocodile Dundee and Gallipoli are all covered in detail and prove what a golden age it was. Important names such as directors Peter Weir, Tim Burstall, Gillian Armstrong, Bruce Beresford and Fred Schepisi and actors Judy Davis, Jack Thompson, Mel Gibson and Bryan Brown are all covered.

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Transfer Quality

Video

    The video quality really doesn't seem to matter too much here. Much of this material is over 50 years old, some over 100 years old. While there does not appear to have been a significant amount of work gone into restoring the film it didn't really seem to matter.

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and is obviously not 16x9 enhanced. Even footage from some of the later widescreen films is shown in this aspect ratio.

    Bear in mind that with the age of the material on offer here, factors such as the sharpness of the transfer and the amount of shadow detail is likely to differ greatly. Some of the material is excellent, with good sharp images and no shadow detail problems. Other examples are very ordinary with fuzzy images or lost clarity throughout. Grain is pretty much evident throughout, but it is inherent in the source and cannot really be complained about. There is no low level noise.

    Colours are as expected for the material that is in colour (most is black and white). There are no problems other than those inherent in the source (such as fading or some cross colouration and oversaturation).

    There are no apparent MPEG artefacts in the transfer. There is no aliasing but film artefacts are obviously everywhere. It really is quite trivial, though, to be even discussing the presence of such artefacts - they are to be expected and the nature of the material comprehensively overshadows them.
   
    There are no subtitles.

    This is a dual disc set, with two episodes on each disc. Both discs are single layered only.

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    A fairly basic audio selection graces this disc. We get an English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack as the only option.

    Dialogue is pretty much all this is about, being a narrative documentary. This is handled well with no obvious problems. There are also no audio sync issues.

    There is a little background music and it is all handled well.

    There is no surround or subwoofer use at all.

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

Trailer

    Bonus trailers for other Umbrella Entertainment titles including History Of Australian Cinema, My Voyage To Italy, Decade Under The Influence, 90° South, The Natural History Of The Chicken, Picnic At Hanging Rock and The Cars That Ate Paris/The Plumber.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    This disc is not available in Region 1.

Summary

    The Celluloid Heroes is an excellent documentary series made to commemorate 100 years of Australian Cinema. Anyone with even a passing interest in our national film-making industry will find something of interest here.

    The quality of the video is as expected, with the older archival footage suffering from all the usual problems associated with film that is up to 100 years old.

    The audio is nothing spectacular but handles the job required with ease.

    There are effectively no extras.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Darren Walters (It's . . . just the vibe . . . of my bio)
Saturday, April 02, 2005
Review Equipment
DVDDenon DVD-3910, using RGB output
DisplayLoewe Calida (84cm). Calibrated with Digital Video Essentials (PAL). This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Digital Video Essentials (PAL).
AmplificationHarmon/Kardon AVR7000.
SpeakersFront - B&W 602S2, Centre - B&W CC6S2, Rear - B&W 601S2, Sub - Energy E:xl S10

Other Reviews NONE