The Arrival From The Darkness + St. Wenceslas - Czech Silent Films by director Jan S. Kolár

Czech Silent Films by director Jan S. Kolár: The Arrival from the Darkness + St. Wenceslas presents the first-ever Blu-ray release devoted to two landmark silent features by pioneering Czech filmmaker Jan S. Kolár. Produced in collaboration with the Národní filmový archív in Prague and Comeback Company, this deluxe collection showcases Kolár's remarkable range through the occult fantasy The Arrival From The Darkness (1921) and the sweeping medieval epic St. Wenceslas (1929), accompanied by an exceptional collection of rare archival material.

The Arrival From The Darkness follows a rare-book collector who revives his sixteenth-century ancestor through an ancient manuscript, unleashing an extraordinary tale involving alchemy, black magic, the Elixir of Life, ruined castles, time travel, and the Black Plague. St. Wenceslas chronicles the struggle between paganism and Christianity in tenth-century Bohemia through the life of Prince Wenceslas, combining political intrigue, betrayal, warfare, and lavish historical spectacle in what became the most expensive Czech film produced during the silent era. Both features include newly commissioned musical scores, with The Arrival From The Darkness accompanied by Neuveritelno and St. Wenceslas receiving a new score by acclaimed silent film composer Ben Model.

The extensive bonus features include four ultra-rare Jan S. Kolár silent shorts including Polykarp's Winter Adventure (1917), The Oriental Languages Teacher (1918), and two additional films, the 1953 documentary How We Used To Make Movies, the surviving fragment of the lost silent horror film The Wedding Shirt (1925), new music by Ben Model for all five bonus shorts, a 48-page illustrated booklet with essays by Jan-Christopher Horak and Walter Chaw, an audio commentary by Peter Hames and Irena Kovarova, and Stephen Broomer's new visual essay Face of Centuries: Jan S. Kolár and the Afterlives of History.

This Blu-ray presents approximately 165 minutes of silent cinema with original Czech intertitles and optional English subtitles, creating an essential archival edition of early Czech filmmaking.