Materials Issues in Film Archiving: A French Experience
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Materials Issues in Film Archiving: A French Experience Michelle Aubert Abstract The following article is based on a presentation given as part of Symposium X— Frontiers of Materials Research on December 4, 2002, at the 2002 Materials Research Society Fall Meeting. The cinema is just over 100 years old. From the beginning of motion pictures in the mid-1890s, the materials used for films have been at the heart of cinema technology. The material first used was cellulose nitrate film—unrivaled in its mechanical, physical, and aesthetic qualities, and also dangerously flammable. In the 1950s, cellulose nitrate was replaced, for safety reasons, by cellulose triacetate. Today, polyester film is widely used; nevertheless, the fact remains that the majority of the world’s film heritage exists on two main material formats, cellulose nitrate and cellulose triacetate, both of which decay over time. Film archivists are engaged in a race to save historic film footage from being lost forever. Digital technology, now widely used in cinema, does not resolve the issue of the long-term preservation of films because digital formats are still evolving. This article discusses the materials used in motion-picture technology over the years, the mechanisms active in film decomposition, and international efforts to preserve and restore historic films. Keywords: cellulose nitrate, cellulose triacetate, cinema technology, degradation processes, motion-picture film preservation, polyester film.
ducers destroyed large numbers of them. It was then that the first cultural movement emerged to save the silent-film heritage from further losses. Between 1933 and 1936, film archives were created in Sweden, Germany, Britain, Italy, the United States, and France. In 1938, the curators of these emerging archives created the International Federation of Film Archives to cooperate in the collection, protection, and preservation of the international film heritage. The introduction of legislation regulating the conservation of motion pictures was seen as an essential means of protecting historic films for the future. Two countries introduced legislation at that time, Germany and the former Soviet Union. In this presentation, I will explain the nature of the materials used for motion pictures over the decades. Using the Archives Françaises du Film, Centre National de la Cinématographie (CNC), as an example, I will describe the work and goals pursued by similar archival institutions worldwide. Both the cultural and scientific roles played by the international community of film archivists in preserving our film heritage are discussed.
Decomposition of Film Materials Motion-picture films are fragile (see Figure 1). The physical medium of motion pictures over the years has mainly comprised two basic materials: cellulose nitrate and cellulose triacetate. Since the 1990s, polyester film has replaced triacetate in film restoration, although triacetate is still frequently used in the production of new motion pictures because it is more flexible than polyester film.
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