More doormat joy last week, with the arrival of Flicker Alley’s five-disc box-set Georges Méliès: First Wizard of Cinema. As you may well know, this magician-turned filmmaker blazed a trail in the art of fantasy and science fiction cinema while others were happy filming parades and folks leaving factories. It’s been very difficult to get hold of any of his work in a decent condition for home viewing but now, thanks to Flicker Alley, we have thirteen hours of the stuff. 173 films, including the likes of Trip to the Moon, Impossible Voyage and The Man With the Rubber Head. As you’d expect there is a fair bit of repetition on there, but this is a wonderful thing to dip into and also includes a halfhour biopic by Georges Franju (made slightly creepy by the fact that Méliès’ widow plays herself while he is played by his son) and a tribute written by Norman McLaren.

Tipoff on this came from the terrific early cinema blog The Bioscope, responsible for a number of additions to our Christmas wishlist including an Emile Cohl dvd and a book called The Haunted Gallery.

It’s always good to start the day with a pleasant surprise through the letterbox, and a dvd of ‘The People and the Whale’ is just what our Friday needed. It’s a short animation by Stockholm-based Peter Larsson, whose earlier film ‘The Man Who Got Nowhere’ we showed at Flatpack 2. Once again Larsson has peopled his work with grotesque clay folk who show a tendency towards mob mentality and incoherent shouting, showing how a beached whale becomes a beacon for the local community. The cathartic explosion at the end reminded us of a real-life incident in Florence, Oregon…

More info on Larsson’s films and nifty collages can be found at hockey-rawk.com. We’ll definitely show it at the next festival, but if you can’t wait until March Peter is selling DVD copies on the site.

Just following up from the dvd launch; anyone who wants to pick up ‘Shadow Shows of the Phantascope’ can do so at the new Pram Shop.

Ps: Pram are doing a couple of gigs in Canada this month - readers in Montreal or Toronto are advised to go and track them down. [myspace]