AMSTERDAM.- Eye Filmmuseum and the British Film Institute (BFI) are presenting a compilation of one-minute films by the Mutoscope and Biograph Company. The fifty 68mm films – unrivalled in terms of depth of field and clarity – have been digitally restored (8K resolution) with support from the European Commission. The oldest moving images of such cities as London, Paris, Amsterdam and Berlin will soon go on show at the filmmuseum. Concert pianist Daan van den Hurk will provide live musical accompaniment with a specially written score.

The Brilliant Biograph: Earliest Moving Images of Europe (1897-1902), Eye, Cinema 1; 31 August, 17.00.

Pathé, Lumière, Edison and Gaumont are all celebrated as pioneers of film history. This is much less the case with the Mutoscope and Biograph Company, co-founded in 1896 by William Kennedy-Laurie Dickson, a brilliant engineer and former employee of Thomas Edison.

Mutoscope and Biograph made films of approximately one minute each to be shown at fairs, dance halls and cabaret music halls. The images were screened at such venues as the Wintergarten in Berlin, Folies Bergères in Paris and Carré in Amsterdam.




However, the 68mm format on which Mutoscope and Biograph recorded events became obsolete when most suppliers of ‘news reels’ switched to 35mm format.

Guardian
Some of the Mutoscope and Biograph collection has survived and is now unique film-historical material. The films are renowned for their excellent resolution: the 68mm nitrate negative yielded the sharpest and most richly detailed images in film history; rarely have you seen images as clear as those in the black-and-white films in ‘Brilliant Biograph’.

With almost two hundred 68mm nitrate films in its vaults, Eye is the most important guardian of the Biograph heritage, followed by the BFI in London and the MoMA in New York. The films are also the oldest items held in the filmmuseum’s collection.

Stunning technology
‘Brilliant Biograph: Mutoscope and Biograph Earliest Moving Images of Europe (1897-1902)’ transports viewers back to around 1900, when cities such as Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam and London were undergoing rapid growth and modernity was emerging. To demonstrate the stunning technology of cameras and projectors, recordings were made of fast-moving metropolitan life, spectacular landscapes and sports events. The images shot in the Netherlands include the coronation of Queen Wilhelmina, the fierce Zuider Sea and the boulevard at Scheveningen.

Live music
To accompany the screening, composer and concert pianist Daan van den Hurk (1987) will play a specially written score. Van den Hurk is a specialist in providing musical accompaniment for screenings of silent movies. He has played at such events as the Pordenone Silent Film Festival, the Locarno Film Festival and the Bristol Slapstick Festival. He is also the founder and director of the Nederlands Silent Film Festival.

Restoration
Eye worked with Haghefilm Digitaal in Amsterdam and the laboratory of Cineric Inc. in New York on the high-quality digital restoration (8K resolution), making use of the latest techniques to approximate the original experience of 68mm nitrate film as faithfully as possible.