Cinema of the month: The Munich Film Museum
Since its establishment in 1963, the Munich Film Museum has committed itself to the restoration and archivisation of major works of German cinematic history. A section of the film museum is the municipal cinema, which with its extensive silent film screenings, brings retrospectives, film series and old and new cinematic gems back into the limelight.
"For the restoration of films, digitisation plays a big role. At this stage, most films are being restored digitally" says Claudia Engelhardt, the acting director of the cinema of the Munich Film Museum.
The Munich Film Museum has become known internationally since the 1970s for its pioneering work in the restoration of films. Silent films such as those of Fritz Lang, Ernst Lubitsch, Georg Wilhelm Pabst and Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau have been restored, and through various cinema projects, publicly screened. Today the municipal cinema is a place where international films outside the spectrum of established film-making countries are shown, and are attended not only by established directors but also by Munich's next generation of talent.
The acting director of the film museum, Claudia Engelhardt, recounts her experiences: "For the restoration of films, digitisation plays a big role. At this stage, most films are being restored digitally. It is cheaper, quicker for colour corrections and offers a range of possibilities. Only a few archives have the funds to transfer a digitally restored film to 35mm. Therefore there are a lot of restored classics that only exist in a digital format. There are also archives that do still have 35mm film copies in stock, but they have become so valuable in the meantime that they cannot be loaned to other film archives for screenings anymore. This means that if you want to put on a complete retrospective of the works of Carl Theodor Dreyer, for example, you have no choice but to screen them digitally. Many do not understand this and equate digital cinema with American blockbusters."
For the complete interview with Claudia Engelhardt see http://www.finest-film.com/press
"For the restoration of films, digitisation plays a big role. At this stage, most films are being restored digitally" says Claudia Engelhardt, the acting director of the cinema of the Munich Film Museum.
The Munich Film Museum has become known internationally since the 1970s for its pioneering work in the restoration of films. Silent films such as those of Fritz Lang, Ernst Lubitsch, Georg Wilhelm Pabst and Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau have been restored, and through various cinema projects, publicly screened. Today the municipal cinema is a place where international films outside the spectrum of established film-making countries are shown, and are attended not only by established directors but also by Munich's next generation of talent.
The acting director of the film museum, Claudia Engelhardt, recounts her experiences: "For the restoration of films, digitisation plays a big role. At this stage, most films are being restored digitally. It is cheaper, quicker for colour corrections and offers a range of possibilities. Only a few archives have the funds to transfer a digitally restored film to 35mm. Therefore there are a lot of restored classics that only exist in a digital format. There are also archives that do still have 35mm film copies in stock, but they have become so valuable in the meantime that they cannot be loaned to other film archives for screenings anymore. This means that if you want to put on a complete retrospective of the works of Carl Theodor Dreyer, for example, you have no choice but to screen them digitally. Many do not understand this and equate digital cinema with American blockbusters."
For the complete interview with Claudia Engelhardt see http://www.finest-film.com/press
