A Hundred Years Ago 7 – The Past Is a Foreign Country.
Presentano Mariann Lewinsky e Hiroshi Komatsu. Grand piano: Gabriel Thibaudeau. Viewed in Bologna, Cinema Lumière, 1 July 2009.
The global view a hundred years ago. Filmed journeys were very popular before the age of mass tourism. The films were also documents of colonialism. In Japan the survival rate of early cinema is close to zero, but some rarities exist.
[NOT SHOWN: Nationale stoet ter verheerlijking vande inlijving van Congo bij België Antwerp (6.6.1909). BG 1909. 16mm. 60 m. B&w. From: Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique]
Au Maroc: Tanger. FR 1908. PC: Pathé. 35mm. 120 m. B&w. From: NFM. - Non-fiction, transporting cattle by boat, black workers. Good print.
Dans l’Afrique mystérieuse. FR 1909. PC: Pathé. 35mm. 135 m. B&w. From: BFINA. - Non-fiction, black muslims bowing towards the Mecca, a black tribe armed with spears, gathering cocoanuts from the trees, transport by camels. Ok print.
Récolte, manipulation et exportation du café / Der Aufbruch zur Ernte. FR 1909. PC: Pathé. 35mm. 120 m. B&w. From: BFINA. - Marks of water damage in the original material. - Non-fiction, fascinating, in the jungle, all the phases of the production of coffee from the jungle to the coffee being served to a lady.
Tame Animals at Work / Wunder der Dressur. GB 1909. PC: Cricks and Martin. 35mm. 117 m. B&w. From: BFINA. - Print from damaged original material, titles missing. - At work: the pig, the camel, the dromedary, riding the ostrich, cattle, the zebra, the donkey, the horse, the yak, the lama.
ADDED: D'ou viennent les faux cheveux. FR 1909. Tinted. From: AFF/CNC. All the phases of the fabrication of a wig. Women's hair is cut, washed, sorted out, etc.
Revolución de Mayo. AR 1909. D: Mario Gallo. PC: Mario Gallo; 35mm [frammento]. ca. 75 m. B&w. From: Cinemateca Argentina. - This restoration reduced to be screenable on a widescreen format. - See my note from May 2009 in Buenos Aires.
Grande fête du cinquantenaire de Yokohama. FR 1909. PC: Pathé. 35mm. 83 m. Pochoir. From: BFINA. - From damaged material. - A parade film with archers and geishas.
Otello. IT 1909. D: Gerolamo Lo Savio. B.o. William Shakespeare. PC: Film d’Arte Italiana. 35mm. 228 m. Pochoir. English intertitles. From: National Film Center Tokyo, Komiya Collection. - A good print with fascinating colour and original intertitles. - Stately but not touching. - Reportedly the only surviving material of this film.
Asagao nikki / [Diary of a Morning Glory]. JP 1909. D: Shokichi Umeya. PC: M. Pathé. 16mm. ca. 60 m. B&w. From: Waseda University Tokyo. - From Hiroshi Komatsu's introduction: in Japan, the name Pathé was synonymous with the cinema, and that is why a Japanese company was named M. Pathé, although it had nothing to do with Charles Pathé. - A famous short story was the basis for a kabuki play and a puppet play. It is the tragedy of one who becomes blind. Rarely all acts are played. - [In the 1960s?] a 35mm nitrate print was found, a 16mm print was produced, and the nitrate was thrown away. In Bologna, the film is shown to a general audience for the first time in almost one hundred years. - Filmed kabuki theatre with long takes and long shots. The image is badly damaged.
Showing posts with label Argentina. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Argentina. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Buenos Aires 23-30 May 2009
I was for the first time in Buenos Aires and in Argentina for the FIAF Congress. These are my first impressions of the mighty country.
I was impressed by the intelligence, culture and style of the Argentinians. The people I met were friendly and dignified. I wish I knew Spanish, as English is not very widely spoken in Argentina. Interestingly, though, there is a touch of British dignity in the Argentinian manners.
Our Congress took place in the San Nicolas Theatre District, on Avenida Corrientes, the Broadway of South America, which may be even bigger a theatre street than the Broadway of New York. There are big and evidently popular theatres of all kinds one after another. On a parallel street, Lavalle, there were also a lot of cinemas and multiplexes. There were lots of bookstores, cd stores, and dvd stores, and on almost every block there were magazine stands which also sold books, including volumes of Goethe and Cervantes.
There are many good restaurants, I never tired of the delicious bife de lomo, and Argentinian wines are excellent. I got to see street tango shows, but there was no chance to experience the famous nightlife.
I had the chance to visit the Recoleta, Palermo, and San Telmo districts, as well as Retiro and Microcentro. No one could miss the poverty, the homeless, and the beggars. Two of my colleagues became victims of theft on the day of arrival. Many streets and buildings are in bad shape, including the building where our Congress took place. In the mornings, as we arrived to start the daily session, we met homeless people, even families, sleeping on the sidewalk of the Congress building. Argentina is struggling mightily against economic adversity, and Argentinians are suffering and embarrassed by the dark sides of the current situation.
The world's grave economical injustice was dramatized daily. In San Telmo, beggars came to steal food from the restaurant table. The image of Argentina's rebel hero, Che Guevara, was ubiquitous.
I was impressed by the intelligence, culture and style of the Argentinians. The people I met were friendly and dignified. I wish I knew Spanish, as English is not very widely spoken in Argentina. Interestingly, though, there is a touch of British dignity in the Argentinian manners.
Our Congress took place in the San Nicolas Theatre District, on Avenida Corrientes, the Broadway of South America, which may be even bigger a theatre street than the Broadway of New York. There are big and evidently popular theatres of all kinds one after another. On a parallel street, Lavalle, there were also a lot of cinemas and multiplexes. There were lots of bookstores, cd stores, and dvd stores, and on almost every block there were magazine stands which also sold books, including volumes of Goethe and Cervantes.
There are many good restaurants, I never tired of the delicious bife de lomo, and Argentinian wines are excellent. I got to see street tango shows, but there was no chance to experience the famous nightlife.
I had the chance to visit the Recoleta, Palermo, and San Telmo districts, as well as Retiro and Microcentro. No one could miss the poverty, the homeless, and the beggars. Two of my colleagues became victims of theft on the day of arrival. Many streets and buildings are in bad shape, including the building where our Congress took place. In the mornings, as we arrived to start the daily session, we met homeless people, even families, sleeping on the sidewalk of the Congress building. Argentina is struggling mightily against economic adversity, and Argentinians are suffering and embarrassed by the dark sides of the current situation.
The world's grave economical injustice was dramatized daily. In San Telmo, beggars came to steal food from the restaurant table. The image of Argentina's rebel hero, Che Guevara, was ubiquitous.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Acto de apertura del 65:o Congreso de la Federación Internacional de Archivos de Films (FIAF). Celebrando los 100 años del cine Argentino
Salón Dorado-Hipólito Yrigoyen del Palacio Legislativo (Av. Julia A. Roca 575). The opening of the FIAF Congress in Buenos Aires in the banquet salon of the City Hall, 24 May 2009. - A couple of hundred film archive experts from around the world getting together. Celebrating the Centenary of Argentinian cinema two films were shown on video to charming live music on the guitar and on the flute:
La revolucion de mayo [The May Revolution] AR 1909. D: Mario Gallo. A historical tableau on the birth of independent Argentina, the first Argentinian fiction film, restored by the Argentinian film archive in 2009, Spanish intertitles, originally 25 min, the surviving excerpt at sound speed 5 min*
Buenos-Aires. FR 1924. A French travelogue restored by AFF / CNC, with French intertitles, 14 min
* On the May Revolution in Wikipedia: "On 25 May 1810, after confirmation of the rumors on the overthrow of King Ferdinand VII by Napoleon, citizens of Buenos Aires created the First Government Junta (May Revolution). Two nations emerged in what is now Argentina: the United Provinces of South America (1810) and the Liga Federal (1815). Other provinces, as a result of differences between autonomist and centralist quarters, delayed taking part in a unified State; Paraguay seceded, declaring its independence in 1811."
La revolucion de mayo [The May Revolution] AR 1909. D: Mario Gallo. A historical tableau on the birth of independent Argentina, the first Argentinian fiction film, restored by the Argentinian film archive in 2009, Spanish intertitles, originally 25 min, the surviving excerpt at sound speed 5 min*
Buenos-Aires. FR 1924. A French travelogue restored by AFF / CNC, with French intertitles, 14 min
* On the May Revolution in Wikipedia: "On 25 May 1810, after confirmation of the rumors on the overthrow of King Ferdinand VII by Napoleon, citizens of Buenos Aires created the First Government Junta (May Revolution). Two nations emerged in what is now Argentina: the United Provinces of South America (1810) and the Liga Federal (1815). Other provinces, as a result of differences between autonomist and centralist quarters, delayed taking part in a unified State; Paraguay seceded, declaring its independence in 1811."
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