Journal of Film Preservation - FIAF

well offer little means of gaining access to the European cinema of the
Tens, a coy and obstinate object. It requires a willing suspension of the
feeling of oddness it provokes at first sight, a basic trust in its aesthetic
and narrative procedures, and the perceptivity of accumulated experience.
Concepts and vocabulary which would enhance the perception of
the specific qualities of these films are still very scarce.
Eric de Kuyper, former deputy director of the Nederlands Filmmuseum
and professor of cinema studies at Nijmegen University, has recently
published an essay on Alfred Machin (1877-1929), a Belgian-born director
whose filmography, according to the present state of research, lists
156 titles (145 until 1920 of which 24 are preserved and 11 after 1920
of which 8 are preserved – the numbers and preservation rates tell the
tale). His Images and imaginary of Alfred Machin dispenses with academic
appearences and presents itself, unassumingly, as a loose sequence of
personal notes, fragmentary, musing, easily detracted by associations,
and deviating to asides on Barthes and Pirandello. But its overall effect
proves this to be a mise-en-scene with didactic and heuristic aims, the
translation of an enormous knowledge and aesthetic sensitivity into
tableaux vivants and sketches: a method as unorthodox as it is efficient. It
lets us experience essential qualities of the cinema of the Tens, namely its
aesthetic and emotional radiance. If the standard procedure of academic
studies consists in transforming experience into knowledge and presenting
the product, Eric de Kuyper has found a way to condense experience
itself and so to open the royal path to these films. Basing his reflexions
on a narrow choice of highly representative material, he proposes useful
concepts and terms and a plethora of finds in a slim and beautiful text.
Obviously, it never hurts to be a good writer, but in this case, the writer
is excellent and the freedom he allows himself is to the profit of his
object and of his readers.
Eric de Kuyper’s essay is the centerpiece of a volume edited by the
Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique which also contains a short biography
of Alfred Machin (by Marianne Thys), 20 scenarios of lost films (edited
by Emmanuelle Toulet), a filmography (compiled by Sabine Lenk) and
illustrations. The publication is bilingual, but the English translation
does not always seem to convey the magic of the French original.
(Mariann Lewinsky.)
Le Cinéma de Lumière
by Michel Agnola, André Gardies, Christian Straboni. CD-ROM published by
CAPA Production / CNERTA / MACT Production / MICROFOLIE’S / Réunion
des musées nationaux.
CD-Rom production has quickly become a powerful aid to the development
of filmographic information. This guide to the Lumière Brothers is
especially worth of attention, thanks to its match of scholarly ambition
and user-friendly approach to an extremely complex subject. The CD-
Rom is organized along the following “chapters”: the invention of cin-
72 Journal of Film Preservation / 53 / 1996