Journal of Film Preservation - FIAF

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pero el comentario atribuye mayor importancia al material de archivo en sí. Además, von Bagh no se conforma con utilizar material de archivo, sino que retoma secuencias de películas de ficción rodadas en Helsinki y cuadros (algunos de los cuales son anteriores a la invención del cine) que agregan un elemento de color del que por supuesto carecen los documentos en blanco y negro. Como en el caso de Davies, el comentario se construye con numerosos préstamos y música tomada de las películas de ficción citadas, pero las reflexiones de von Bagh sobre el material de archivo y la ficción son el elemento más original del comentario, en especial, las relaciones entre el presente y el pasado. Por supuesto, la película de Peter von Bagh es una película sobre Helsinki, pero es a la vez una película sobre la magia de las viejas imágenes. Y la asombrosa secuencia inicial, con un carguero que rompe el hielo del puerto de Helsinki en medio de mirones que están sobre el hielo, es ya una demostración de ello, al igual que la magnífica secuencia final, con la vuelta de las tropas, que le permite a von Bagh concluir sus reflexiones con las palabras: «La historia nos mira.» El último «city film» reseñado es muy distinto. The London Nobody Knows (Norman Cohen, Reino Unido 1967) se inspira en un libro de Geoffrey Fletcher que propone una visita a los lugares de Londres desaparecidos y olvidados en general por todos, salvo por sus habitantes. En este caso, se trata de filmar lugares que están por desaparecer, como un teatro del barrio de Bedford, que fue derribado dos años después del rodaje de la película. Otro elemento especial es el recurso a un «guía»: James Mason, con gorra de visera y traje de tweed, nos pasea de manera muy convincente por los lugares. Por último, el comentario, a veces irónico, insiste en el hecho de que este Londres, en parte devastado, sigue teniendo una verdadera vida de barrio. PD. Como indica el autor en sus párrafos finales, la visión (y la proyección en pantalla grande) de estas películas, todas ellas de calidad excepcional, plantea muchas cuestiones relacionadas con el uso de los archivos en esta época de lo digital. Lo cual no es el menor de sus méritos. Cohen with a most attractive quirkiness and style. There is a host, and a surprising one – James Mason in flat cap, tweed jacket, pullover, and furled brolly. But he does not come across as a movie star slumming in a lowbudget documentary. He seems genuinely interested, perhaps because he had a degree in architecture from Cambridge. The narration is by turns ironic, humane, sardonic. This London may be run-down, but still brims with street life. One startling aspect of the film now is the intensity with which it shows the poor, the homeless, the alcoholic – portraits held long enough to feel the pain. One sequence has Mason in a Salvation Army hostel interviewing residents, men “down-on-their-luck”. It is awkward, this meeting between a Hollywood movie star and the three poor yet unashamed men. But it feels real. And that side of our old cities is still with us. As with the other three films, music plays an important role – in this case, old music hall songs. The overall feeling of The London Nobody Knows is encapsulated in the film’s last lines, with Mason standing in front of a building being attacked by a wrecking ball: “There is no need to be too sad about it because, after all, most of Victorian London was fairly hideous. And we can also console ourselves with the knowledge that the same fate attends our least favourite modern monstrosities.” There are no DVD extras with The London Nobody Knows. It is packaged with another film from that period, a short 1968 romantic comedy, Les Bicyclettes de Belsize. Since there are no extras, I explored the Internet and discovered a lot of references to The London Nobody Knows. It gained a minor cult status during its years of being hard-to-find. There are sites which, for example, debate the identities of characters who appear unidentified in the film. Despite the Internet discussion, I think it would have been enlightening if the distributors had included some background in the actual DVD package. As has been discussed elsewhere in these pages and in several issues of this journal, the digital revolution is affecting both the archival and screening worlds. I have seen La Mémoire des anges in the theatre in HD, and it looks and sounds splendid. I first saw Of Time and the City in Montréal at a film festival. The screening was horrendous, the sound continually breaking up. I saw it a second time some months later on release in Montréal. This time the sound was fine, but the picture was unsatisfactory. I am not going to blame the producers. Complaints about cinema digital projection are widespread. Some cinemas even project DVDs. However, I did find on the Internet a note from Michael Brooke of the BFI, where he quotes a comment made by the technical supervisor of the digital Of Time and the City: “Of Time and the City was produced through the Digital Departures Initiative by Hurricane Films in association with Northwest Vision and Media, Liverpool 08, BBC Films and UK Film Council. For reasons of a micro-budget and the basic fact that the film relied so heavily on footage from regional archives (only available in SD), the film was produced PAL standard definition and delivered on Digibeta.” Which brings us to a quandary faced by all of us who work with archives, the necessity of getting the best possible quality sources, always with the supposition that our films may make it to the big screen; and then to the very real question about the digital projection facilities in theatres. As an 62 Journal of Film Preservation / 81 / 2009
aside, one archive in the USA told me that they knew this was the age of HD, but regardless of that, and unapologetically, they only supplied Beta SP. These four city films are a fascinating experience, and they link up with each other in all sorts of ways. They are an archival treasure trove, and as Luc Bourdon points out in the interview with him, such films as his could be made about cities throughout the world. La Mémoire des anges. A Film by Luc Bourdon. Colour and black & white. DVD, Region 1; 80 minutes. French and English versions, with extras. Montréal: National Film Board of Canada, 2008. Of Time and the City. A Terence Davies Film. Colour and black & white. DVD, Region 2, aspect ratio 1.77:1; 74 minutes. English, with optional hard-of-hearing subtitles, with extras and 21-page illustrated booklet. London: British Film Institute, 2008. Helsinki, ikuisesti / Helsinki Forever. Screenplay and Direction by Peter von Bagh. Colour and black & white. DVD, Region 2, 75 minutes. Finnish, with English and Swedish subtitles. Helsinki: Illume Oy, 2008. The London Nobody Knows. Directed by Norman Cohen. Plus Les Bicyclettes de Belsize, directed by Douglas Hickox. DVD, Region 2, aspect ratio 1.33:1; colour; 46 + 27 minutes; English. London: Optimum Releasing. 63 Journal of Film Preservation / 81 / 2009
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Showing a Film is Not Enough On Cin
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Page 49 and 50: Le Catalogue Albatros à la Cinéma
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Page 73 and 74: Stagestruck Filmmaker: D.W. Griffit
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Page 77 and 78: La Corse, les Corses et le Cinéma.
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