Journal of Film Preservation - FIAF

Nederlands Filmmuseum, Amsterdam.
Cine Doré at the Filmoteca española, Madrid.
those titles familiar to them. A couple of years ago when we programmed
an extensive Kurosawa series we were well aware that it would be Seven
Samurai and Rashomon that collected large audience numbers and not, for
example, the exciting contemporary films which Kurosawa directed from
1946 to 1949, describing Japan’s paralysed condition following World War II.
12 Journal of Film Preservation / 81 / 2009
Several programmers relate that they try to enhance
films they find of particular interest but which
don’t appear in the “public canon” of important
works. When Cinematheque Ontario presented
a Jacques Demy series they gave considerable
attention to the neglected Model Shop; while the
Oslo cinematheque has attempted to remedy
the Mona Lisa syndrome by giving selected noncanonized
films more text and a larger picture in
their published programme, which according to
Kjell Runar Jenssen has sometimes been successful.
A Commitment to the National Film Heritage
Most cinematheques feel a special commitment
to national film history and in some cases public
resources and support is conditional upon the
cinematheque prioritizing national films in their programme. At the
same time, it is a subject which is being debated in several film museums
and archives. Archive workers in particular
emphasize that national art film be given
consideration in the programming, no doubt
due to the fact that many archives have a
legal duty to collect and preserve national
films. As Geoff Andrew says: “Some see the BFI
as the ‘Institute of British Films’. I see the BFI as
the ‘British Institute of Films’ and believe that
we have a duty to film art as a whole.” Each
year Cinematheque Ontario programmes a
series, “Canadian Top Ten”, which presents the
ten best Canadian films selected by a large
external jury. The series works as a festival,
and the directors introduce the films, many of
which never received distribution.
In Copenhagen it can be difficult to create an
interest in retrospectives of Danish directors
and actors, mostly because Danish films
have been shown in the cinema and often several times on TV. Still, we
sometimes try, even though we are well aware that except for the shows
where the film artists themselves are present, the audience for these series
is limited. Every third Thursday in the month we show a Danish film with
English subtitles, for English-speaking Copenhageners. Furthermore, quite
frequently we have independent events where we present an older Danish
film together with an historical introduction. We also often show previews
of new Danish films.
Up until 2009, every January and February we annually screened the
previous year’s Danish film premieres, partly out of a sense of a duty,