Journal of Film Preservation - FIAF

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the projected moving pictures. It is a dangerous way to think and just as dangerous as the programmer who doesn’t care what happens to the copy as soon as it has been projected on the large screen.” Filmoteca española, Madrid. inexpensively.” Cheap ticket prices are in general not something that creates much conflict with local distributors and cinemas. In Brussels, the ticket price is 1 euro for members and 2 euros for non-members. That the museum can operate with such low prices without coming into conflict with other cinemas in Brussels can be explained by the fact that the museum only shows every single film once. As a member of The Museum of Modern Art you pay $75 a year, which entitles you to free entrance to all film shows and exhibitions. MoMA has 100,000 members. At the Cinémathèque Française a membership costs 120 euros a year or 10 euros a month, which gives access to all film shows and exhibitions. Also in Madrid, the ticket prices are very low – 2.50 euros for a ticket and 20 euros for 10 shows. This is without a doubt one of the reasons why the Filmoteca Española experiences a very high public audience compared to the rest of Europe. Other reasons include their cinemas, the exciting programming, and the altogether charming surroundings (including an open-air cinema in the yard) around the Cine Doré. Some cinematheques have experienced a decrease in members but have still been able to maintain their audience numbers, as membership is considered less important by younger cinemagoers. They decide to go to the cinema when they feel like it, and don’t appear to be put off by higher ticket prices. They are culture surfers and make fast decisions. Most cinematheques, however, estimate that membership deals are still important. In Paris, 60% of the visitors are members; at MoMA the percentage is even higher. Several cinematheques have special package deals for specific long-range series. The cinematheque in Oslo, for example, has special package deals for the “ABC of Film History” and the series “Skeiv søndag”. Evangelists of Film “We are the evangelists of film. We must spread the message,” declared an Asian delegate at the FIAF Congress in Buenos Aires. In the museum and cinematheque world there is some disagreement about what that message is, and, not least, how to spread it. A couple of years ago, in Paris and London, new cinematheques with galleries and mediatheques were introduced; in London one auditorium is used only for digital projection. In Toronto, the very ambitious Bell Lightbox is under construction. This big film house will be equipped with five auditoriums, of which four will have permanent seats. The biggest auditorium (550 seats) will, according to the plan, be used as a drop-in exhibition cinema during the day. There will also be areas for installation and video art. At the Nederlands Filmmuseum in Amsterdam, a new building with four auditoriums will open in 2010. Several cinematheques re-arm themselves like this with new media and platforms in order to maintain and develop people’s knowledge of, and interest in, film history. The film world is changing; so are the formats and, especially, the audience. Films must be kept in their original form, but can be shown in D-cinema formats (HD, 2K, etc.), according to a number of archivists and curators. To them the transition from 35mm to D-cinema is not a huge jump in principle. 22 Journal of Film Preservation / 81 / 2009
Every copying has been an “interpretation” – from nitrate to safety, from orthochromatic to panchromatic film, from Technicolor, which is not made anymore, to similar colour formats, from VistaVision, which can’t be shown anymore, to ordinary 35mm. In the past the archives themselves – rumour has it – have copied from 35mm to 16mm, which they shouldn’t have done. What must be maintained is not the physical medium but the experience in the cinema. In some cases a digital restoration can assist in recreating the original cinematic experience, says Geoff Andrew (BFI Southbank), among others: “For example, we have presented a colour-strong digital version of Gone with the Wind. It was without a doubt closer to the original version – to what the audience experienced in 1939 – than the 35mm copies that have been available in the last 30 years.” Other archivists are of the opinion that films must not only be kept in their original form but must also be shown in that form. They don’t want to present a digital version if a 35mm is available, or even if there is no longer any 35mm copy. “So many films have been lost in the annals of film history, so that I wouldn’t do. It is not about quality. All films are sharper now than before. A Dürer drawing can also be re-touched and made sharper than the original,” says Alexander Horwath. And Gabrielle Claes (Musée du Cinéma, Brussels) says: “The Museum of Cinema prefers to show a scratched and unsteady film print rather than a pristine DVD, with its clarity and steadiness, in the hopes of attracting audiences to the lively qualities of the original celluloid.” (Claes, p.26) It is a matter of common knowledge that we now have better digital formats than DVD, and the question is, of course, whether a good digital projection is not a better representation of the art of cinema than an incomplete, damaged, or badly projected 35mm or 16mm print. But to Alexander Horwath and others it is not, as mentioned, a question of “quality” but about maintaining the physical medium and engaging the audience in the experience of film as film. Thus future archives and cinematheques may become museums for a past medium and a resting place for the historical practice of watching film on 35mm in a cinema. Apart from dedicated musicians, almost nobody plays the harpsichord anymore, but you can enter a music museum and experience a harpsichord being played. “It’s at least one possibility I see for film museums, and I’d have no problem with it if it were to become a reality,” says Horwath. This article is based on conversations with: Geoff Andrew (BFI Southbank, 24.10.07), Alexander Horwath (Österreichisches Filmmuseum/Austrian Film Museum, Wien, 15.01.08), Laurent De Maertelaer (Musée du Cinéma, Bruxelles, 20.01.07), Jean-François Rauger (Cinémathèque Française, Paris, 28.02.08), Rajendra Roy, Jytte Jensen, Joshua Siegel (The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 18.03.08), James Quandt, Andréa Picard (Cinematheque Ontario, Toronto, 20.03.08), Edith Kramer, Susan Oxtoby, Kathy Geritz, Steve Seid, Mona Saitz (Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, 24-25.03.08), Andrea Alsberg (UCLA Film & Television Archive, Los Angeles, 27.03.08), Gwen Deglise (American Cinematheque, Los Angeles, 28.03.08), Kjell Runar Jenssen (Cinemateket, Oslo, 22.04.08), Kajsa Hedström (Cinemateket, Stockholm, 24.04.08), Catherine Gautier (Filmoteca Española, Madrid, 29.04.08), René Wolf (Nederlands Filmmuseum, Amsterdam, 02.05.08). Where nothing else is cited, the quotes are from these conversations. 23 Journal of Film Preservation / 81 / 2009
Page 1 and 2: Journal of Film Preservation 81 •
Page 3 and 4: Publications / Publications / Publi
Page 5 and 6: emarquable (le congrès de Berlin d
Page 7 and 8: Showing a Film is Not Enough On Cin
Page 9 and 10: dans le contexte du débat très ac
Page 11 and 12: de las retrospectivas, en especial
Page 13 and 14: Filmmuseeum Wien, Hitchcock Series.
Page 15 and 16: though we knew beforehand that a nu
Page 17 and 18: Egyptian Theatre, home of American
Page 19 and 20: (American Cinematheque), on the oth
Page 21 and 22: presented with English subtitles fo
Page 23: The National Film Archive of London
Page 27 and 28: Eileen Bowser - A Life Between Film
Page 29 and 30: Eileen on her father's lap with the
Page 31 and 32: I was active in helping the Giornat
Page 33 and 34: eal work in FIAF began. I could tak
Page 35 and 36: Cette interview a été conduite da
Page 37 and 38: archives there are, the more resour
Page 39 and 40: Esta entrevista tuvo lugar en el ma
Page 41 and 42: Slapstick Symposium, held in Brusse
Page 43 and 44: Eileen Bowser and Wolfgang Klaue in
Page 45 and 46: Jacques Ledoux and Eileen Bowser in
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Page 49 and 50: Le Catalogue Albatros à la Cinéma
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Page 61 and 62: Helsinki, ikuisesti / Helsinki, For
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Page 67 and 68: Créé à la fin 2005, le Film Heri
Page 69 and 70: Anita Falk, conservadora del Swedis
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Page 73 and 74: Stagestruck Filmmaker: D.W. Griffit
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What Is Cinema? A new translation f
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La Corse, les Corses et le Cinéma.
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Treasures IV - American Avant-Garde
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Svenska Stumfilmsklassiker (Swedish
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From the shooting of Herr Arnes pen
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The bonus materials include Weekend
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political points of view of republi
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Markens Grøde Éric Le Roy DVDs On
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Publications received at the FIAF S
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Pacini, Nicoletta (a cura di), Mari
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93 Journal of Film Preservation / 8
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FIAF Classification Scheme for Lite
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Contributors to this issue... Ont c
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