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 remauns that the majority of the world’s film heritage exists on two maun 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.
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Michelle Aubert is curator of the French Film Archives at the National Cinematography Center (CNC) in Bois d’Arcy, France. Formally, she trauned as a librarian in London and then held several posts at the British Film Institute before becoming deputy curator of the Film and Television Archive of the BFI. In 1990, she joined the CNC, where she launched a national film preservation program to transfer historic cellulose nitrate films onto polyester film stock. She has been involved in the work of the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) for many years, helping to develop film archives in countries around the world. She was president of FIAF from 1995 to 1999. She has contributed to numerous journals and books, including a special issue on the preservation and restoration of films in the French magazine CORE, and This Book is Dangerous: ACelebration of Nitrate Film, edited by Roger Smither with Catherine A. Surowiec, published by FIAF in 2003. Aubert can be reached by e-maul at michelle.aubert@cnc.fr.
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Aubert, M. Materials Issues in Film Archiving: A French Experience. MRS Bulletin 28, 506–510 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1557/mrs2003.147
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/mrs2003.147