A Light Affliction: a History of Film Preservation and Restoration

by Michael Binder

From the earliest attempts at film preservation to the modern days of digital techniques, A LIGHT AFFLICTION is the story of a few people who cared enough to devote their working lives to preserving for present and future generations the cinematic treasures of the past. Film historian Professor Jeffrey Richards called A LIGHT AFFLICTION "an outstanding achievement. It is an absolutely enthralling read and I learned much from it." Biographer Robert Sitton wrote, "It is a necessary and thorough review of the past and present of film restoration and preservation, arriving just in time ... a splendid book." The cinema was invented in the Victorian era, but for the first four decades of its existence almost no effort was made to preserve the millions of feet of celluloid that rolled through the cameras and projectors of the world. Instead, through a combination of accident, neglect and deliberate destruction, thousands of movies were lost forever. Then, in the 1930s, the first concerted attempts at film preservation were begun by pioneering individuals such as Iris Barry at New York’s Museum of Modern Art; Ernest Lindgren at the British Film Institute and the indomitable Henri Langlois at the Cinémathèque française. Langlois performed heroics in occupied France to save the world’s cinematic heritage from destruction by the Nazis, and became so popular with French filmmakers and cineastes that his ejection in 1968 from his own archive led to fighting on the streets of Paris. Other heroes in the story of film preservation include Kevin Brownlow, who painstakingly pieced Abel Gance’s NAPOLÉON back together. Robert A. Harris worked miracles with LAWRENCE OF ARABIA and Martin Scorsese led a campaign to compel Kodak to produce a film stock less prone to deterioration. METROPOLIS was saved by an Argentinian collector, and missing sequences from KING KONG and A STAR IS BORN were preserved in private hands long after their makers had discarded the footage. The 1980s video boom encouraged the studios finally to instigate asset protection programmes and in the digital age new methods of producing, exhibiting and preserving motion pictures emerged - which led in turn to controversial restorations of movies such as STAR WARS and DR STRANGELOVE. Michael Binder is also the author of HALLIWELL'S Leslie Halliwell and his Film Guides. Available now on Amazon.

Genres: Film, Nonfiction

334 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 13, 2014

Reviews

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story of film preservation as thrilling, heartbreaking, and heroic as the stories in the films themselves. Binder doesn't merely lament lost films, but tells you exactly which mishap, often horrific, claimed each title--I had no idea that London After Midnight was destroyed so recently--and by the end, I was less worried about stumbling on an undetonated bomb somewhere than a rusty old can of nitrate. Even better, however, is that there's still hope that those prints, if discovered, are salvageable. Binder does an excellent job of explaining the chemical composition and problems associated with various film stocks, and the initial chapters on the Silent era and WWII were riveting enough to make me yell at the (kindle) screen. Post 1970s chapters less so, but that has more to do with having lived through the age of betamax and laserdisc than the quality of the writing. A wonderful book.

[Catnaitab · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very good book for someone who wants some kind of introduction to the history f preservation of film. It is well written (though quite plain, the author does not have a particular, different style) and it encompasses a lot of time and a lot of archives. Although concentrating more on USA, England and France and particular personalities that seem to be pioneers in this industry it still manages to go all around the world. It at times feels like too much in fact, with a lot of small stories about particular film restorations or personalities getting forgotten in the middle of so muc information. Maybe a bit more focus would have helped, but in a way more information is better than less. The one thing that I found odd was the way th book was referenced. It seemed a bit messy and not very easy to follow.

[Matt Micucci · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was always going to give this book a five-star rating because it is a major starting point for any research on the history of film preservation. Of course, as often is the case with books of this kind, a major part of the world is missing from this mostly Westernized account of movie history. But, that's where the opportunity for future generations of African, Asian, Latin American and even Eastern European scholars to fill in the gap.

[Justin Decloux · Rating 4 out of 5]

My mouth starts to water when I get to read about the history of film archives, so of course, this book about the history of film preservation was right up my alley! It's the most engaging during the fist half when the big personalities like Henri Langois and Iris Barry get to be at the forefront, but there's still some fascinating stuff that is discussed in the back half as the format wars happen and the switch from film to digital begins.

[Deanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Utterly fascinating to this historic film-lover and former librarian/archivist! Sometimes a bit too much information for me, but so amazing to see the debt of gratitude we owe to those who, decades ago and recently, saw the value of film preservation.

[Lisa Musil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really interesting read--well researched and well-written.