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Temps forts des archives
2010-07-22 | La société de production Mitchell et Kenyon, dont le siège est à Blackburn et Lancashire, comptait au début du siècle parmi les premières sociétés cinématographiques nationales et était connue, entre autres, pour ses représentations fictives de la guerre entre la Grande-Bretagne et les Boers. La collection Mitchell & Kenyon contient presque uniquement des films de non fiction qui ont été produits sur commande de forains, et présentés sur des marchés et autres fêtes dans toute la Grande-Bretagne. Après dissolution de la société, le matériel a été déposé dans des fûts pendant plusieurs décennies avant d’être découvert au début des années 1990 à Blackburn par un homme d’affaire et historien local, Peter Worden. Ce qui est devenu la « Peter Worden Collection of Mitchell & Kenyon Films » est aujourd’hui conservée au British Film Institute.
Recherchez les titres disponibles de la collection Mitchell & Kenyon au British Film Institute sur filmarchives online
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2009-10-20 | In the summer of 1935 Friedrich Alwin Hutzli, a priest from Reichenbach, produced a “cultural and commercial film from the Kiental Valley” on behalf of the Reichenbach-Kiental Valley tourist office (Bernese Oberland, Switzerland). In this film called Im Silberlicht der Blüemlisalp (“In the radiant light of the mountain ‘Blüemlisalp’”), “he shows the beauty of the valley, its flora and fauna, and he immerses us in the world of the inhabitants and their activities. Like no other he understood how to find the most intimate corners of the Kiental Valley and how to make a film interesting and diversified…” (sales letter of the tourist office). This 70 minute silent film is a unique contemporary document of life in the Bernese Oberland, presenting in great abundance vivid details of the people, mores, local customs, activities and artisanry that have long-since disappeared.
In addition to his pastoral activities, for years Hutzli recorded the everyday life of his ‘charges’ in colored photographs – in a time in which many mountain residents wanted to leave their home for the city due to the hardships and privations of their living conditions. With this photographic mission he paid great respect to the local population, sensitized the ‘flatlanders’ with his numerous lectures centered on his photographic depictions of the hardships of the mountain population, and also frequently brought back natural goods to the Kiental Valley.
In his only film, he turned his profound familiarity with the region and the people into expressive images. The only existent positive copy of this 16mm film can be found in the Lichtspiel – Kinemathek Bern and was able to be restored and copied in 2008 thanks to a cantonal contribution. A new internegative and a 16mm copy were printed and the Bernese composer and pianist Christian Henking provided the musical accompaniment. 75 years after its creation, the film will be exhibited in Berne and in the Bernese Oberland with live piano accompaniment, with a DVD edition planned as well.
Im Silberlicht der Blüemlisalp on filmarchives online:
Im Silberlicht der Blüemlisalp
2009-08-05 | 20 years ago, Idrissa Ouédraogo released his fairy-tale outsider-drama "Yaaba". It was honoured with the Critics’ Award at the Festival de Cannes and marked Ouédraogo’s breakthrough. It is little known that for some days the Senegalese filmmaker Djibril Diop Mambéty attended the troublesome shooting of "Yaaba" in the dry north of Burkina Faso. Mambéty – being one of the major directors of francophone African cinema – realized his own documentary in the context of the shooting: Parlons grand-mère („Tell Us Of Grandmother“).
Parlons grand-mère is more than a simple behind-the-scenes documentary, since Mambéty takes up questions that lead beyond the context of the production of "Yaaba". He is interested in the specific conditions of production for motion-pictures in post-colonial West Africa in general – e.g. the work with lay actors, the shortage of appropriate equipment, or the problems of shooting on location resulting from the periodical rainy season. Nonetheless, Mambéty looks on "Yaaba" in detail, even analyzing specific sequences of the film. In particular he carefully observes Ouédraogo’s work with his leading actors and actresses: namely, the over 80-year-old Fatimata Sanga and the kids Noufou Ouédraogo and Roukietou Barry.
Mambéty in his visual language and his cautious commentary uses a distinct, poetical style, which clearly distinguishes Parlons grand-mère from the production style of a conventional making-of documentary. Unlike "Yaaba" – which was accused of satisfying the desires of Western audiences for exotic images of a folkloristic, rural and “timeless” Africa –Parlons grand-mère shows scenes from the social reality in present-day Burkina Faso.
Parlons grand-mère was the prelude to Mambéty’s spectacular late work: In 1992, he presented an impressive adaptation of Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s play “The Visit” (“Der Besuch der alten Dame”). Afterwards he began the trilogy “Tales of Ordinary People”, starting with Le Franc (1994) and La petite vendeuse de soleil (1998). The project remained unfinished: Mambéty died in Paris in 1998.
Parlons grand-mère on filmarchives online:
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2009-04-06 | 50 years ago, the Cuban Revolution ended with the flight of dictator Fulgencio Batista. ¡Cuba Sí! is an early work of the French documentary and essay filmmaker Chris Marker. It portrays the island in the formative year of 1961, when Cuba defeated an U.S. invasion force and intensified its contacts with the Soviet Union.
Marker was involved with the French Resistance movement in World War II and in 1953 made one of the first anti-colonial films (“Les statues meurent aussi” / “Statues Also Die”). From the mid-1950s on, he concentrated on essayistic travelogues and visited China, Israel and Siberia (amongst others). Evolving from this context, ¡Cuba Sí! is characterised by a basic sympathy for the revolutionary project. The film shows scenes of political, social and cultural change and comments on preceding events. It is not only evidence of the emerging sense of a new era in Cuba, but also a witness of a new generation of young French filmmakers emerging in the 1950s, characterised by enthusiasm to experiment: ¡Cuba Sí! is a poetic, curious, and dedicated film, bearing the signature of Marker’s unique personal style and thus already pointing to his later masterpieces “La Jetée” (“The Jetty”, 1962) and “Sans Soleil” (“Sunless”, 1983).
France banned the film and tried to prohibit its distribution in foreign countries by refusing an export permit. However, copies were spread in various European countries through smuggle. In the Federal Republic of Germany the film was shown on TV, although earlier films from Marker had been banned. However, ¡Cuba Sí! was mutilated in content and statement by means of cuttings, adding of scenes, a differing commentary, and a new title (“Castro’s Betrayal of Cuba”). Until today, ¡Cuba Sí! is not available on the market. filmarchives online records a copy in the uncensored original version (French commentary, Spanish interviews) in possession of the Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek (Berlin). It can be borrowed for screenings or booked for on-site viewing.
2009-01-04 | Les Archives Centrales de l´Etat de Lituanie Lietuvos Centrinis Valstybės Archyvas présentent un film de la collection des actualités de cinéma « Soviet Lithuania », produit en 1954 à l´occasion du 10ème anniversaire de la libération de Vilnius des troupes d´occupation nazies. Comme toutes les actualités de cinéma de la série « Soviet Lithuania », ce film se tient strictement aux directives de la propagande soviétique et glorifie en particulier le Parti Communiste et le libérateur soviétique. Ce qui est surtout intéressant dans ce film est la représentation des changements historiques à Vilnius en l´espace d´une décennie. Des prises de vue de la capitale lituanienne en 1944 avec des combats de rue, des immeubles en flammes et des ruines sont mises directement en contraste avec des impressions d´après guerre : reconstruction, construction de nouvelles usines et d´entreprises, d´écoles et de nouveau jardins d´enfants, d´hôpitaux et d´immeubles d´habitation. De plus, le film montre les plus belles places et les endroits emblématiques de la ville : les collines verdoyantes le long de la Vielle Ville, la Place Gediminas (aujourd´hui la cathédrale avec son clocher), la colline de Gediminas et sa tour, le palais présidentiel, la faculté de Vilnius – la plus ancienne université d´Europe de l´Est, les portes du Soleil Levant, l´église Sainte-Anne, le chef-d´œuvre l´architecture gothique de le coude du fleuve Neris, des ruelles étroites des la Vielle Ville… Avec son enchaînement d´informations et de prises de vue pittoresques, ces actualités sont un excellent exemple de la « propagande poétique » de l´Union Soviétique.
La collection « Soviet Lithuania »comprend environ 1500 titres et inclut des actualités qui ont été réalisées entre 1941 et 1988 par les Studios de Cinéma Lituanien. La sélection pour filmarchives online comprend les films réalisés jusqu´en 1971. Habituellement un film comprenait entre 5 et 6 reportages des ressorts politique, économie, culture et sport en Lituanie.
Temps forts des archives #7
2008-10-13 | filmarchives online is now featuring digitised videos online! The combination of most different materials from the participating archives allows exceptional perspectives into Europe’s film history, as can demonstrated on the example of the topic mobility.
Fascinating shots showing a parade of Royal Navy torpedo boats in Manchester can be found in the contribution of the British Film Institute, which has digitised its collection of newsreels from around 1900. The parade can be regarded as a demonstration of the Royal Navy’s global range on the occasion of the war in the Cape Colony.
Torpedo Flotilla Visit to Manchester (1901):
In those days, the “Gordon Bennett Cup” was not less popular than ship parades. This car race was well known all over Europe and every year hold in the country of the previous year’s winner. When it came to Germany in 1904, an amateur filmmaker from the Taunus region positioned his camera at the racetrack. The Deutsche Filminstitut – DIF has brought the results to filmarchives online..
Gordon-Bennett-Autorennen (1904):
In the years before the First World War, a broad range of means and practices of mobility emerged in Europe. The whole variety becomes visible in these shots, which have been recorded in Prague in 1912. They are part of the Narodní Filmový Archiv‘s contribution.
An also everyday, but nonetheless very special experience of mobility is shown by a 1924 short film contributed by the Greek film archive Tainiothiki tis Ellados: Finished gardening, a monk gets lifted up to a rock pillar in the region of Metéora where his monastery has been built up:
It seems striking that the shots of the monk’s transport device originated in a time of fast technical progress. Just a short time after, this documentary on the first crossing of the Sahara desert with a motorcycle was produced in Belgium. It has been contributed by the Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique.
Première traversée du Sahara à moto (1927):
As a contrast to all these success stories of over and over faster and more far-reaching movements, the short feature “Peter will an die Landi” (1940) humorously broaches the issue of failing: Without success Peter is trying to reach an exhibition in Zurich by different means of transportation. Just before reaching the goal, the general mobilization at the breakout of World War II is frustrating his plans.
Peter will an die Landi (1940):
The number of digitised films in the database is constantly growing. The potential of filmarchives online as a tool for exploring European film history has been further increased. You can find a list of all films made available for online viewing by now here.
Temps forts des archives #6
2008-06-09 | On the occasion of the current UEFA European Football Championship, we would like to highlight moving image material on football in European film archives. Since the dramatic composition of a football match, the high number of protagonists involved and the interaction within a team makes it a difficult task to handle this sport by the means of cinema, many different attempts of adapting football for the screen have been made in the history of cinema and TV. Astonishingly, there are hardly any films on football themes that could take advantage of the massive popularity of the sport and became box-office hits.
The records of European film archives as represented in the database of filmarchives online give a rich impression of this history. From British newsreels on football matches in ca. 1900 up to the Polish short feature Miasto Ucieczki produced in 2006 and telling – based on real events – the story of a fanatic hooligan of Widzew, more than 150 records in connection with football can be found in our database. Among them there is, for example, an Italian documentary from 1963 on what is happening in the catacombs of a stadium right before a football match (Fra qualche istante), footage from the 1969 UEFA European Under-18 Football Championship final in Leipzig/GDR (Der Augenzeuge 1969/24), a Swiss experimental film from 1973 depicting a football match with players made of plasticine (Die Fussballspieler), or an interview with the German football star Günter Netzer on the interplay of sports, society and money, also produced in 1973 (Günter Netzer). Many more fascinating pieces from the field of “football in film” can be found by browsing our database.
2008-02-06 | Renowned Bern Photographer Kurt Blum (1922-2005) shot a total of 16 films between 1956 and 1971, most of these were commissioned short documentaries. Thematically these works can be categorised according to three main topics: portraits of countries and tourist commercials, industrial films (in particular steel works and stamp manufacturing) as well as portraits and documentaries from the field of fine arts. Whereas some of these films display a highly sophisticated visual aesthetic (eg. "L’uomo, il fuoco, il ferro"), others are mainly of interest as documents of their time.
Apart from his short documentaries Blum produced only a single motion picture: "Rabio – Thoughts of a Prisoner", which was however highly acclaimed. The portrait of an inmate gains a documentary quality through its sobriety. The simple images and emphatic commentary delighted contemporary critics and still make it an enjoyable feature even today.
The Lichtspiel Cinematheque Bern has acquired the entire film material owned by Kurt Blum – a total of 300 cans (including rights of use). At least a single screening copy is available for each of the films. Only few of the original negatives have survived; however, large stocks of camera negatives, sound reels and unused material for a grat number of films is aavilable. Furthermore, the Lichtspiel Cinematheque Bern holds substantial collections of materials regarding the individual film projects.
Four of the films have been restored and reproduced in 2005. Beside the new negatives, screening copies and a DVD including many of Kurt Blum's films are available, including "L’uomo, il fuoco, il ferro", an impressive and widely awarded documentary on steel production in the Northern Italian steelworks of Italsider and FIAT. Accompanied solely by the pounding of the machines and music by Prokofiev, Blum documents the clash of humanity, fire and iron with surprising images in this industrial symphony. All of Kurt Blum's works are accessible for research through MIDAS:
05/07/2007 | Walter Heynowski et Gerhard Scheumann ont compté parmi les réalisateurs de documentaires les plus productifs et les plus célèbres de l’ancienne RDA et ils jouissaient d´une reconnaissance internationale. Ils se situaient dans la tradition du pionnier du cinéma soviétique Dziga Vertov et comprenaient le documentaire comme un élément de l’intervention politique. De 1965 à 1991, ce duo a produit plus de 70 films, e ce parfois indépendamment de la DEFA dans leur propre studio « Studio H&S » (1969-1982). Heynowski et Scheumann construisaient très souvent leurs films sur des interviews, au cours desquels ils se faisaient passer pour des journalistes ouest-allemands, et ils amenaient leurs interlocuteurs (pour la plupart de l’ouest) à faire des déclarations dans lesquelles ils se confondaient eux-mêmes. Ils montaient ensuite ces interviews sous forme de matériel de documentation, ajoutant des commentaires en voix off à caractère polémique et moralisateur, afin d’obtenir un mélange particulier entre propagande et journalisme d’investigation.
Alors que pour Heynowski et Scheumann, il s’agissait initialement de discréditer la République Fédérale d’Allemagne (comme par exemple dans « Geisterstunde », 1967), les conflits portant sur la décolonisation et les guerres post-coloniales dans le cadre de la guerre froide prirent une importance centrale dans leur travaux. Leurs nombreux films sur le Congo (« Der lachende Mann » de 1966), sur le Chili (« Ich war, ich bin, ich werde sein » de 1974), sur le Vietnam (« Piloten in Pyjama » de 1968), sur la Lybie (« Bye bye Wheelus » de 1971), sur le Cambodge (« Kampuchea, Sterben und Auferstehen » 1980), contiennent un matériel unique provenant des événements décisifs de l’histoire mondiale. Ces témoignages des bouleversements du XXème siècle ont une haute valeur historique.
Outre la contribution de la fondation DEFA, 37 autres titres de Heynowski et Scheumann peuvent être consultés sur filmarchives online.
Films de Heynowski et Scheumann
02/04/2007 | Le film de Lionel Rogosin « Come back Africa » fut tourné en 1958 en Afrique du Sud. A travers l’exemple des travailleurs Zoulous de Johannesburg, le film traite de la lutte des Africains noirs contre le régime de l’Apartheid. Il dut être tourné puis transporté hors du pays dans le plus grand secret. Le gouvernement sud-africain condamna « Come back Africa » comme un acte de propagande communiste, alors qu’il fut hautement salué par la critique en Europe et en Amérique du Nord.
Le film allie des éléments du documentaire et de la fiction, et se caractérise par une description précise du système inhumain et violent de l’Apartheid. Afin d’atteindre la plus forte authenticité possible, Rogosin attribua les rôles à des profanes. C’est par ailleurs dans ce film que débuta la carrière internationale de la chanteuse africaine Miryam Makeba.
Fils d’immigrants russes juifs et né à New York, Lionel Rogosin réalisa avec « Come back Africa », l’un des plus importants films anti-apartheid qui ait jamais été tourné. Le titre s’appuie sur le slogan lancé par le African National Congress pour s’opposer à la domination blanche. La Cineteca di Bologna a restauré cette production en 2004 et elle est désormais accessible sur filmarchives online.
24/01/2007 | Venant à point en cette période de l’année, nous souhaitons attirer votre attention sur le documentaire en deux parties « Das Wunder des Schneeschuhs » du réalisateur Arnold Fanck. Il a été réalisé entre 1919 et 1921. Des critiques de l’époque comme Siegfried Krackauer ont loué des images d’une rare beauté qui ont apporté aux spectateurs « le miracle des hautes montagnes que seuls les alpinistes et les skieurs peuvent admirer de près ». Fanck réussit à lier le savoir-faire artistique des skieurs audacieux , les impressionnants paysages hivernaux de la Forêt Noire et des Alpes suisses, et les impressions pittoresques et grisantes de l’hiver.
Des copies de ces deux parties du film se trouvent sur filmarchives online: