Russian Emigres in Paris 1923-29

Three feature films starring Ivan Mozzhukhin and two directed by Jacques Feyder are presented in this five-disc collection of rare, early French films. The genre-bending silent "The Burning Crucible" (1923) finds the star (also the writer/director) playing a detective and 10 other roles alongside real-life wife Nathalie Lissenko. Mozzhukhin plays "Edmund Kean: Prince Among Lovers" (1924) in a dramatic biofilm about the 19th-century Shakespearean actor. With Lissenko. The epic "The Late Mathias Pascal" (1926) features Mozzhukhin in the role of a married man beset by much tragedy. Marcelle Pradot co-stars. AKA: "The Living Dead Man." Feyder's "Gribiche" (1926) concerns a young man working to help his mother remarry. Jean Forest, Rolla Norman star. AKA: "Mother of Mine." An actress is wooed by an older, rich man and a union organizer in Feyder's "The New Gentlemen" (1929). Albert Préjean, Gaby Morlay star. Features new musical scores by Timothy Brock, Robert Israel, Neil Brand, Antonio Coppola, and the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra. 10 1/2 hrs. total. Standard; Soundtrack: music score. Silent with music score.