'SILENTS, PLEASE!' SAYS NEW GENERATION OF FILM FANS.

Byline: Craig Shapiro Virginian-Pilot

Silents most definitely are golden.

The historically inclined staff at Kino on Video proved it last year with the films of Buster Keaton and its line of First American Features (among the titles, Raoul Walsh's 1915 masterpiece, "Regeneration").

With the new Masterworks series, Kino strikes gold again. The films, meticulously restored and with new soundtracks, include F.W. Murnau's astonishing "Faust" (1926), Robert Weine's influential "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" (1919) and the lavish "Cyrano de Bergerac" (1925).

They are a must for even the casual film fan.

When Kino was founded in 1977, the simple rule of business was supply and demand: The New York-based company distributed the foreign imports cinephiles wanted to see. With the rise of the cineplex, outfits such as Kino, New Yorker and Fox Lorber still fill a niche, said Kino video director Lance Schwulst,

"In the 1990s, there are fewer art-house screens out there," he said. "Access to these types of films is pretty much on video."

The 30 titles in the award-winning "Art of Buster Keaton" opened the market, Schwulst added.

"I received a letter from a 12-year-old girl in Kansas thanking me," he said. "The baby boomers remember seeing these films on TV in the '50s and '60s. Now that they're being released again, it allows them an opportunity to present their children with a part of their childhood they might not get.

"Also, when (video) choices are becoming overwhelming, people go back to what they know."

Producer David Shepard, who was in charge of the Keaton project, also oversaw the new series. His touch shows.

"Faust" is ground-breaking by today's standards. Murnau's experiments with double imagery and miniatures clearly influenced filmmakers from Victor Fleming ("The Wizard of Oz") to Tim Burton. Most thrilling is his bold use of lighting. In one scene, the wings of Mephisto become the shadows cloaking a city; others are as intricately lit as a Vermeer painting.

Likewise, the advances Weine brought to "Caligari," one of the major films in the German expressionism movement, are apparent in "Frankenstein" and "Dracula." The stylized sets are a trip. Look a little deeper, and the evil Caligari and his somnambulist killing machine Cesare not only captured a nation's post-war angst, they forecast what would happen decades later.

"Cyrano" is a familiar story, but the Kino restoration adds a wrinkle. When the film was produced 71 years ago, it was with the elaborate Pathecolor technology, a process that involved a staff of hundreds tinting each scene frame by frame. Check out the costumes.

Kino's Schwulst offered one more explanation for the films' appeal.

"The market is growing because people are sick of seeing the trash that is being released on video," he said. "A lot is good, but they want something different."

Amen to that.

Titles in the Masterworks series are $29.95 plus shipping and handling. Order through your video retailer or call [phone].

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Photo The "Art of Buster Keaton" video series caught the eye of baby boomers wanting to share with their children a part of their own childhood.