Foaming At The Mouth
Miracles, Great & Small
Maybe there are a handful of you who have actually read my profile. The 'Makes Me Sad' part is devoted to the cause of lost films. Lost films are movies that were once theatrically released but all copies of them have since vanished. For the most part, that refers to films from the very early days of motion pictures, when film was made with copper nitrate as a base. The problem is that it would deteriorate into a highly explosive compound and would literally turn to dust if not transferred to what is known as 'safety stock' before it got too old. That or some more technologically durable medium like video tape or digital media.
The point of all this being that there were movies, ones of great power and beauty, that were lost forever because there wasn't the money or the interest to make sure they were preserved for posterity. But from time to time, a lost film turns up. And always in the oddest of places: "The Passion of Joan of Arc" was long thought lost until a complete copy was found locked in a closet in a mental asylum in Oslo back in the '90s. Well, guess what happened yesterday?
Long-lost original cut of "Metropolis" discovered in Argentina
I don't mind admitting that stuff like this makes me actually weep for joy. I even used the missing footage from "Metropolis" as an example in my profile. The film got a critical restoration in 2002, but it came with the disclaimer that much of the original negative was lost, and scenes had to be summarized with intertitles because they couldn't be found.
The only thing I can think of to do is add more examples to the 'Makes Me Sad' entry on my profile. I've already listed "Greed"; it got a major restoration in 1999 so perhaps it's overdue to find some lost footage. What else? "Human Wreckage"? "That Royle Girl"? Some of Colleen Moore's flapper movies from the '20s? I'll not get greedy. Every instance is a miracle, both great and small, to me.
Miracles, Great & Small
Maybe there are a handful of you who have actually read my profile. The 'Makes Me Sad' part is devoted to the cause of lost films. Lost films are movies that were once theatrically released but all copies of them have since vanished. For the most part, that refers to films from the very early days of motion pictures, when film was made with copper nitrate as a base. The problem is that it would deteriorate into a highly explosive compound and would literally turn to dust if not transferred to what is known as 'safety stock' before it got too old. That or some more technologically durable medium like video tape or digital media.
The point of all this being that there were movies, ones of great power and beauty, that were lost forever because there wasn't the money or the interest to make sure they were preserved for posterity. But from time to time, a lost film turns up. And always in the oddest of places: "The Passion of Joan of Arc" was long thought lost until a complete copy was found locked in a closet in a mental asylum in Oslo back in the '90s. Well, guess what happened yesterday?
Long-lost original cut of "Metropolis" discovered in Argentina
I don't mind admitting that stuff like this makes me actually weep for joy. I even used the missing footage from "Metropolis" as an example in my profile. The film got a critical restoration in 2002, but it came with the disclaimer that much of the original negative was lost, and scenes had to be summarized with intertitles because they couldn't be found.
The only thing I can think of to do is add more examples to the 'Makes Me Sad' entry on my profile. I've already listed "Greed"; it got a major restoration in 1999 so perhaps it's overdue to find some lost footage. What else? "Human Wreckage"? "That Royle Girl"? Some of Colleen Moore's flapper movies from the '20s? I'll not get greedy. Every instance is a miracle, both great and small, to me.
VIEW 8 of 8 COMMENTS
the shot is for HPV, completely irrelevant to the fact i'm going into college.