Memory of the World; 2012 - unesdoc - Unesco

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Desmet collection
Inscribed 2011
What is it
A collection of over 900 films on 35 mm cellulose nitrate,
related original posters and publicity publications,
company administrative records, and international
correspondence with film-producing companies
worldwide and film exhibitors in the Netherlands,
between 1907 and 1916.
Why was it inscribed
The Desmet collection is important both in film history
and as a socio-historical record of one of the most
important decades in modern history.
Where is it
EYE Film Instituut Nederland, Amsterdam,
the Netherlands
Jean Desmet (1875–1956) was a businessman with
contacts not only with many film-trading companies
around the world, but also with the local Dutch market
of film exhibitors.
Desmet’s film-distribution company operated when the
film industry was in relative infancy and he experienced
the major changes in the business’s early years: from
travelling shows to permanent cinemas in cities and the
sudden flourishing of film distribution towards the end
of the decade. He witnessed changes in organization
within the film-distribution industry and in the way
cinema was viewed by the public, the move from short
films to longer films, and the growth from a ‘cinema of
attractions’ to a narrative cinema. By the time he wound
up his distribution company, the cinema industry had
grown from infancy to maturity.
The 1910s were years of enormous upheaval: this was
the decade of the First World War and the associated
societal flux; technological and scientific advances; and
the Russian Revolution. The cinema was at the centre
of these developments.
Most of the films in the collection are fiction, but there
are also almost 150 non-fiction films recording historic
events, travelogues of city centres, tourist attractions
and architectural monuments. All the films have the
intertitles which indicate projection prints for show,
rather than the original negatives. As well as black-andwhite
stock, many of the films are hand-coloured, either
in their country of origin or locally by the distributors.
Many of the film prints are lost in their countries of
origin, and there are many others of which the copies in
the collection are the sole ones presumed extant. When
Jean Desmet was in the industry, distributors had to buy
film prints outright, rather than temporary licences as
now. Consequently he, like many distributors, built up a
collection over time.
The collection also contains stills, film posters and other
publicity materials. Similar archive material from the
time is rare, and the Desmet collection is noted for its
comprehensive and complete nature.
However, the collection’s strength is not in the presence
of masterpieces of cinema but rather that it gives a
representation of daily cinema programming: the everyday
and unremarkable documents and films that seem
marginal become valuable within the setting of such a
comprehensive collection.
Desmet collection 425