Lost film

A -lost film is a film whose existence is no longer detected, either in archives or in private collections. A film that is no longer fully present is (only) refers to fragments are preserved as.

Most lost films come from the silent and early sound film period between 1895 and 1930. It is believed that about 80 percent of all silent films are lost or permanently lost.

Almost lost films

Many major silent and sound films exist only in a single copy in museums, archives and private collections - the only copies that were not further copied or digitized.

Conceptual problems

As almost always copies for specific distribution channels are made from the original negative of the film, the concept of lost film is problematic in several respects. The copies differ in part considerably in the material, the cut, the length, quality, etc.

A problem of definition also different versions and versions of movies dar. For example, Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau's Tartuffe (1926 ) only in the American version available for hire, which issued in Germany Mr. Tartuffe version no longer exists. Therefore, it is doubtful whether one can call Mr. Tartuffe as a lost film.

The digitization of film raises many fundamental questions, as peculiarities of the film material and the projection of way are not transferable. In addition, digital artifacts.

Reasons for the loss of films

Celluloid - an unstable material

Until about 1951 footage was made ​​on nitrocellulose base. This then usual nitrate film had excellent optical properties and a long lifetime ( under optimal conditions, the film more than 100 years to survive ), but was highly flammable and today falls under the Law on explosive substances. Many early films were victims of this instability, they burned. Fire destroyed many cinemas, warehouses and all film archives. For example, in 1937 burned a storage room of Fox Pictures and down with him all the original negatives produced prior to 1935 the firm. Similarly, several chapters of the early history of the Finnish film art at the camp fire of the Finnish film company Adams Filmi in 1959 have been lost completely.

In addition, nitrate films decompose even if they are not stored at the correct temperature and humidity, and damage nearby storage material by acidic gases released during this process. The Self-Destruction of the footage can be slowed by ideal storage, but never stopped.

Help promised you from the heavy inflammatory, safe acetate, which was launched in the first half of the 1940s by Eastman Kodak in the U.S. market. But this material also used in Europe from 1952 onwards destroyed by chemical change gradually itself, especially under unfavorable storage conditions. The film carrier contracts, acetic acid is formed ( the so-called acetic acid syndrome); the decay phenomena are even more serious than in the nitrate film.

Nitrate will not wait is therefore the premise of film archives, digitizing or data copy to the new footage sensitive and dangerous material for the above reasons - a time-consuming, expensive and contentious enterprise, which is always associated with quality losses.

The issue of long-term archiving also arises in the digital age. As a DVD version of Toy Story (USA 1995), the first fully computer-animated full-length feature film, to be produced, it was found that twelve percent of the digital originals were gone. In a three- month search, although some missing parts could be tracked, about one percent of the film was lost, however, and had to be reassembled.

But the carrier materials themselves that are problematic in ever shorter intervals technology is being replaced by a new one, the digital data have copied ( " data migration" ) are. There is a danger that by now outdated digital storage media can not be read and the contents are lost.

Early sound film process

Many early talkies, which in Needle sound like produced the Vitaphone system, are now assumed to be lost because the image is separate from the records were damaged or destroyed, while the image survived. Conversely, there is some of Vitaphone films only the soundtrack, while the images are lost.

The development of the Tri -Ergon optical sound recording in which the Tonrandspur was connected to the ongoing film strips, solved this problem. Many of these films, however, are available only with monophonic optical sound today. Magnettonverfahren resulted in chemical reactions between the magnetic particles, which were adhered to the Triacetatfilmbasis, in many cases self- decomposition of the films.

It is controversial whether films that either video or sound only exists, are to be classified as lost films.

Transport losses

The sending of copies of films, namely the transport of movie roles from the film stock to cinema and back implies a complex and error-prone in practice logistics. Movies can be sent to the wrong address, they may be lost during transport and even in the film stock or in the movies., Films, which is lost by about only a part of a plurality of unusable in this way.

Deliberate destruction

By far the largest part of the now lost films but was deliberately destroyed, mostly for financial reasons.

Torn copies and movies, one of which was to collect any commercial gain more were melted down by the studios, to win the silver content obtained in the material. Twice this has been done during the silent film era in large scale: To 1915, when feature films became the norm, not destroyed it many commercially evaluable short films, and in the late 1920s led the transition from silent to sound film to a massive destruction of the mute works, since you this now regard as worthless.

Many films have been utterly destroyed, to make room for new ones in the storerooms of the studios. Other copies were sold either intact or fragmented into short scenes to individuals, the early home theater projectors and had wanted to play scenes from their favorite films.

The situation today

Although the Polish cinematographer Boleslaw Matuszewski in 1898, in his eponymous manifesto the medium of film as "a new source of history" turned out (a new source of the story ) and asked to store the products of these " authentic, accurate and infallible " technique, it is possible to not today.

While the first film archives were from the 1930s in Europe and the United States founded and since 1938 there is the Fédération Internationale des Archives du Film ( FIAF ), which now has more than 120 members from over 65 countries counts - but even today there are films untraceable whose Premiere dates back only a few years. The Federal Film Archive, the central German Film Archive, complaining that the tradition of German feature films has decreased steadily over the seven German film archives on the contrary by the year 1995. " Only from the time of the two German dictatorships, the archived because they controlled the tradition is almost complete. "

Only in recent decades, the view prevailed that film alongside his mere economic benefits also has a cultural value. Drastically in this respect was the " Recommendation for the Safeguarding and Preservation of Moving Images " by UNESCO, was found in 1980: "moving images are On expression of the cultural identity of peoples, and Because of Their educational, cultural, artistic, scientific and historical value, form integral part of heritage of a nation 's. " ( " moving pictures are an expression of the cultural identity of peoples, because of their educational, cultural, artistic, scientific and historical value, an essential part of the cultural heritage of a nation " )

With the inclusion of films in the World Documentary Heritage by UNESCO in 1995 this declaration was confirmed. Since 2001, the restored and reconstructed negative of Fritz Lang's Metropolis (D 1925/1926 ) part of the World register in 2005 were all previously identified and restored original film ( negatives or positives ) of the Lumière Brothers and The Battle of the Somme (GB 1916) and in 2007 The Story of the Kelly gang (AUS 1906) was added.

There are still but in Germany no legal obligation and deposit systematic collection worth preserving films that has already been introduced in 1969 for books and recordings and as called for in 2005 by the EU by all Member States. A first important, but not sufficient, step 2004 is the agreed binding commitment of all states that one such copy shall be lodged by any film that is promoted by the Federal Government or any of the countries in production or rental. The agreement says nothing about the form of archiving and comprises anyway - according to the Federal Film Board in 2006 - only 50 percent of Germany's total production.