Movie meme - Day 31 *Bonus question

[la_samtyr]

Day 31 -- What would you do -- if you had a time machine?

The first thing I would do is find a way to copy all of the old, *lost* silent films, and some of the older talkies too.

It would be fascinating to see some of Georges Méliès silents; iirc, a lot of them were short documentaries.

Part of the reason for this is that (a) the silver nitrate film used was very flammable and hard to store and (b) the films themselves were considered to have no value except as "throwaway entertainment. Plus the films were often chopped up and burned for the silver content, there were several major studio fires... and so it goes.

It would be so fascinating to see the world that was captured on them though. Sometimes I think that is one of the reasons I love films so much; they give us a rare moment of insight into the past.

I hope that this made some sense and isn't too garbled. I'll probably be back to the occasional meme "tomorrow", lol.

Comments

[ysilme]

This makes absolute sense, and I totally see your point. When I lived in Paris I often went to the "film library" there (I forgot the name), where, among all kinds of old films and documentaries, also copies of some old treasures were stored. I've been able to watch quite a number of witnesses of a period this way (although not of the silent movie period, though) and am glad I could.

[chaotic-binky.livejournal.com]

We have lost so much actual life commentary because of the instability of those films. Thank goodness we have a choice of recording mediums now :)