Comments on Kino's MAX LINDER Slapstick Symposium

[martin arias]

A few words about the prints.

SEVEN YEARS OF BAD LUCK: the print here shows no major improvement compared with Kino's previous release of the title.

THE THREE MUST-GET-THERES is a great print fully restored.

MAX WANTS A DIVORCE is the weakest print here, but probably no better one exists. It's a pity non other of Max's American shorts was included here, MAX IN A CAB, for example.

BE MY WIFE consists of the complete feature (against the 20 opening minutes which had been seen so far). However, it must be said that the excerpt usually shown includes footage absent from this print, and the print used on the French BLU-RAY/DVD edition of the boxed set "Le cinéma de Max Linder" (where the first 20 minutes are used, plus a couple of mid-sequences on the documentary) seems to be extremely better, far superior. So, why wasn't it used as the base print for this set if it was known for years and it was used by Maude Linder in her own homage to Max decades ago? Or at least, why weren't the various gaps on the used print completed with the missing sequences we have already memorized from the excerpt?