Journal of Film Preservation N° 60/61 - FIAF

ut the editor believes that the above mentioned future perspective
will soon have to be taken into consideration.
Sweden
The Swedish Film Archive started to collect films and film related
material in 1933 under the name of ”Svenska Filmsamfundet” later
”Filmhistoriska samlingarna”. In 1964 The Swedish Film Institute
took over this private collection and formed ”Cinemateket” as a part
of the Institute. Prior to 1964 nothing much had been restored in the
modern meaning of the word.
The Swedish Filmography was not published and we didn’t know
exactly what was produced and even less which films had survived.
The first organized co-operation, with the other Nordic countries,
was to make a list of feature-length films produced in the country up
to 1953, the end of the nitrate period. The next step was to make an
inventory of surviving material in our own collection, in other
archives and in the vaults of the production companies.
Nitrate
From the silent period 478 ”feature” films were released and we have
so far been able to locate and restore 200 of them (42 %). From the
sound era we have located and restored 694 titles of 740, almost
94%. 46 titles are still missing. Of the total Swedish production from
the nitrate period (1897 – 1953) of 1.218 feature films we have
located and restored 894 titles. 27% is still missing.
Short film production is more difficult to handle. Thousands of titles
are already lost and, of the more than 1.000 titles we have in our
collection, about half of them have been restored.
We are able to copy about 50 films a year, but the input of short
films from the nitrate period is about just as big, and it looks like we
will forever have 500 titles still to copy.
Acetate
The reality of vinegar syndrome and colour fading forced us to take a
closer look into films made on safety stock. Since 1970 our vaults
have a controlled climate of –5 degrees Celsius and 35 %Rh. Most of
the original negatives were stored outside this film friendly climate,
with production companies, laboratories etc.
From 1996 we got SEK 5.000.000 (approximately 800,000 euros) a
year to take care of the colour films. As for the nitrate period we
started with an inventory. The number of feature films produced in
Sweden from 1954 – 1989 is 996. We have been able to locate the
original negative for about 800 of them. Of the 753 films produced
from 1953 to 1979, the period chosen for the start of colour
restoration, 301 were in colour.
Our intention is to convince production companies of the
importance of optimal storage and care. When we started our colour
3 Journal of Film Preservation / 60/61 / 2000
Les archives du film dans les pays du
Nord de l’Europe
L’ Avenir des archives cinématographiques
évolue avec les nouvelles technologies au
même titre que le phénomène de
consommation modifie notre façon de voir
les films. Les nouveaux matériaux et les
nouveaux lieux permettent à un plus grand
nombre de personnes de voir des films à
travers le monde et cela dans un
environnement qui n’est plus limité aux
salles de projection de cinéma. Dans ce
contexte, il importe de reconsidérer le rôle
des archives du film et de faire un retour sur
le passé afin d’avoir une vision de ce que
nous prépare.
Cette compilation, éditée par Dan Nissen du
Danish Film Institute, propose un état des
lieux sur la situation des archives du film en
Suède, au Danmark, en Finlande et en
Norvège, quatre archives nationales qui
créent un programme dans le but de
sauvegarde et de préservation de leur passé
audiovisuel. Chaque rapport présente
l’historique de l’archive, l’inventaire des
films restaurés de fiction, documentaire et
court-métrages sur nitrate et acétate ainsi
qu’une description des défis qu’ils doivent
relever.