Mutoscope & Biograph Collection: a selection

DCP.

info_outline
T. it.: Italian title. T. int.: International title. T. alt.: Alternative title. Sog.: Story. Scen.: Screenplay. F.: Cinematography. M.: Editing. Scgf.: Set Design. Mus.: Music. Int.: Cast. Prod.: Production Company. L.: Length. D.: Running Time. f/s: Frames per second. Bn.: Black e White. Col.: Color. Da: Print source

Film Notes

The Mutoscope and Biograph Collection is the oldest film collection held at EYE Filmmuseum. It includes over 200 films, most of which were made in Europe between 1897 and 1902. This constitutes the largest existing collection of Mutoscope and Biograph films surviving in the world, followed by the BFI’s holdings. The Mutoscope and Biograph Company was founded by film pioneer and inventor William Kennedy-Laurie Dickson, who had worked with Thomas Edison since the 1880s. The films in this collection are all photographed with the unique Mutograph camera, resulting in innovative and groundbreaking large-format films (approximately 68mm wide, without perforation) with an extremely high resolution providing extraordinarily rich detail. EYE Filmmuseum appreciates the funding from the European Commission’s European Tribute to Film Heritage programme, which allowed the digitisation of 50 selected films from the EYE and BFI collections, making them available within today’s technology. Given the obsolete format, digital restoration was done with custom-made equipment at a resolution of around 8K. After digitisation, image restoration was applied to reproduce as closely as possible the characteristics of the original material. The lab work was done at Haghefilm Digitaal and at Cineric, supervised by EYE. A compilation programme under the title The Brilliant Biograph showcasing some of these recently restored films will be made available from the Eye Filmmuseum later in 2020, to be booked in DCP format. 

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