Serge Bromberg, a collector and passionate advocate of silent film, will guarantee a unique spectacle tomorrow night : very old 3D. Bromberg will also be making another remarkable contribution to the programme: he was responsible for the colourful and expensive restoration of the Méliès classic Le voyage dans la lune from 1902.
Serge Bromberg is a private collector and Méliès expert who also happens to be a documentary filmmaker, a DVD publisher and the director of the Annecy International Animated Film Festival. A few years ago, his label Lobster Films released a beautiful boxed set of all the material that was then known to have been made by Georges Méliès the illusionist and cinematic pioneer (1861-1938). This consists of almost 200 films which, thanks to being owned by private individuals, escaped their maker’s destructive impulse. One inauspicious day, the disillusioned Méliès set fire to his entire collection of negatives burning all 520 of his films. As part of his show
Retour de flamme Bromberg always demonstrates how incredibly flammable old fashioned nitrate film is. “The show has an exceptional Méliès surprise at the end, but also includes a lot of other beautiful material. Most people think the first 3D experiments date back to the 1930s, but we found examples dating back to 1900. We will be screening the Lumières’ film of a train arriving (officially the first film in history ed.) in stereographic 3D. It is wrong to think that 3D is a modern hype: the phenomenon comes and goes like the tides. Retour de Flammes is a unique trip through the world of 3D and I accompany the films on the piano and tell stories.”
Back to Méliès. Martin Scorsese’s three-dimensional homage
Hugo should stoke public interest in the ‘first magician of cinema’. In France, the 150th anniversary of Méliès’ birth has just been celebrated. Bromberg’s restored version of the former’s most celebrated work Le voyage dans la lune, from 1902, was premiered on that occasion. It was the metaphorical cherry atop the birthday cake. “It is hard for us to appreciate its impact at the time, but rest assured that some people were actually convinced they were looking at the real moon. I would also assert that – at the time – the film was more convincing than all today’s special effects put together. Le voyage was the first blockbuster. Méliès was also a pioneer in other ways. He was the first to use special effects, he was almost the first to tell stories, to create ambitious productions and the first to build a dedicated film studio. That adds up to a lot of firsts! A Trip to the Moon was an immediate, international success. Naturally, the moon is a universal given, but the true secret of its success was the shot of the rocket in the moon’s eye. That single image tells the whole story. Countless people know it, without knowing where it comes from. That image is timeless.”
After multi-year restoration, the IFFR audience will be able to watch this 14-minute ‘epic’ in colour for the first time! This is not a modern, coloured-in version, but an authentic print which had been lost since 1912. Every two years, one or two lost Méliès productions are found, but a print that was hand coloured, frame by frame more or less represents the holy grail. In 1993, the colour version turned up in the Spanish Film Archive and was subsequently swapped with Bromberg. He thinks the turn of events is very reminiscent of Méliès in spirit, as the latter was a dedicated illusionist before he took up filmmaking: “It’s pure magic: the film disappeared in 1912 and surfaced in Spain in 1993. That’s what I call an incredible magic trick.” The same can be said for the restoration which at a price of € 400,000 for 14 minutes, is the most expensive in cinema history. Bromberg shot a documentary about it,
Le voyage extraordinaire , which shows how the film arrived as a congealed lump. “The material was in such an appalling state that we entertained no hope of being able to save any of it. Its purchase was folly, but those are often the actions you never regret.” Thanks to technological progress and support from funds “the most incredible, ambitious restoration in cinema history” became a reality. “Not everyone understands why it is so important to retain films for future generations. They are however a crucial part of our identity and lives. 100 years after its release, the feeling of astonishment that the screening of Le voyage dans la lune elicits is still intact. It feels like an entirely new film. The response is often: ‘I’ve never seen anything like this in my entire life.’ And that is the miracle of cinema.”
Retour de flamme - Serge Bromberg
Sat 28 January 19:00 Pathé 4
Le voyage extraordinaire + Le voyage dans la lune - Serge Bromberg & Eric Lange / George Méliès
Sun 29 January 13:15 Pathé 3, Sat 4 February 16:30 Pathé 4