06.19.06
Lobster Films, C’est Tres Bon
While doing a little research on Georges Méliès this weekend, I learned of Lobster Films. (Site in English et Francais, but beware — most pages have embedded Quicktimes, and the lame Javascript “faux frames” text-scrolling doodad does not work until the damn movie loads all the way.) Call me slow on the draw, but somehow I had not heard of them before.
This amazing French private archive and restoration lab, helmed by Serge Bromberg and Eric Lange, holds some 20,000 rare, old films — a number of them unspeakably rare, as in “sole surviving print” rare. What led me to them was learning, for example, that in 1999 they discovered 250 nitrate prints (some 200 pounds!) made between 1896 and 1903 stashed in a cupboard in an old French house up for sale. They were only able to save 98 of the films, but amidst the cache were no less than 17 Melies films previously thought to have been lost forever. (Alas, extensive Googling produced no list of titles, dag blast it.)
In 2002, Bromberg found in Spain the longest print known — hand-colored and tinted no less — of A Trip to the Moon, running a full 25 minutes. Better yet, they were able to save and restore the film (mostly: the 100 year old nitrate was apparently in pretty bad shape) and premiered it at a free open air screening in downtown Paris.
In recent years Bromberg has been taking portions of the Lobster Films archive on the festival circuit, mainly in Europe (particularly Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, aka the Pordenone Silent Film Festival, in Italy), but with occasional stops Stateside in NY City and at the San Francisco International Film Festival.
I was also pleased to learn that Lobster Films has produced a series of DVDs, Retour de Flamme volumes one through 4 (scroll down at that link for links to other volumes). These drool-inducing collections of short films from various periods are thoughtfully produced with both French and English language options. There is also (brace yourself) Les Premiers pas du Cinéma (”First Steps of Cinema”), a 2-DVD set of early color and sound films with material dating as far back as 1898. The damn thing even has 1908 sound films of freakin’ Caruso singing!
The catch? Not a one of those is available in the States and they are all Zone 2 (so you’ll need a all-region player). Thanks to l’internet you can buy them from French online retailers such as Amazon.fr (which has help info, including overseas shipping details, in English), Alapage.fr, or Heeza.
If that doesn’t suit you for whatever reason, you can still get an appreciation for the fine work that Lobster Films is doing by checking out the fantastic Charley Bowers 2-disc set, as well as their collaboration with Kino on some pretty great-looking silent comedy and slapstick collections.
Bon appetit, mes amis!
Ingrid Lazet said,
September 29, 2008 at 3:30 am
Dear Sirs, Last year I watched and heard the reading of Mr. Bromberg about L’Enfer with Romy Schneider in the Filmmuseum in |Amsterdam. I was speechless about the rushes I saw, wonderful! I wonder how it is with the making of L’Enfer with this original material. Best regards, Ingrid Lazet