Film Review: ‘Film, the Living Record of Our Memory’: The Medium Is the (Often Ailing) Star

NR | 1h 59min | Documentary, Film History | 5 March 2023 (Spain/Canada)

This book is divided into 4 distinct chapters. “Film, the Living Record of Our Memory” FTLROOM explores a neglected and often overlooked area of film history. Even industry professionals will be shocked to discover how similar they can be.

Ines Toharia, writer and director of the film is presenting images showing multiple film cans being open and their contents. It is mostly dust and film stock that has been left in warm, humid storage rooms for too long. The bulk of these are silent films that went ignored so long—80 percent of all ever produced are forever lost.

Scrap

There are then “talkie” From the late 1920s until the mid 1940s, productions that had been released were intentionally sold to various studios. The silver in these films was then removed and the film pieces were melted down. The belief at that time was that once a film had completed its theatrical run, the movie would no longer generate any revenue. “recycling” This was just an easy way to get a few extra dollars.

These movies used nitrate stock (a volatile, highly flammable substance which was discontinued in 1950).

The worst part of this first salvo, easily, was the 1940s. Not content with conquering Eastern Europe, the Nazis confiscated artworks from those countries. The Nazis started destroying thousands of film footage they had and they lost the war. They were able to do this because of Russian intervention.

The segment is a good fit for another profile of early collectors, those who saw the potential cultural importance of film. They were more preservationists and pioneers than hoarders. These generous individuals worked tirelessly to save all the movies that they could. One in particular, Cinémathèque Française founder Henri Langlois, was able to rescue two early German classics: “Faust” (1926) “Nosferatu” (1922).

Revealing Home Movies

Toharia next throws us an unexpected curve ball. He includes a short and insightful history of amateur golf. “home” Movies and their place in the title of Th