Just as a falling tree makes no sound if no one is around to hear it, preserving a film makes no sense if no one is allowed to see it. *
On November 13, 2010,Kevin Brownlow received an Academy Honorary Award at the 2nd Annual Governors Awards given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Brownlow, born on 2 June 1938, Crowborough, Sussex is a filmmaker, film historian, television documentary-maker, author, and now, an Academy Award recipient. Brownlow is best known for his work documenting the history of the silent era. Brownlow became interested in silent film at the age of eleven. This interest grew into a career spent documenting and restoring film. He has rescued many silent films and their history. His initiative in interviewing many largely forgotten, elderly film pioneers in the 1960s and 1970s preserved a legacy of cinema.
In 1968 Brownlow's first book on silent film, The Parade's Gone By..., was published. The book had many interviews with the leading actors and directors of the silent era and began his career as a film historian. Brownlow subsequently has published nine more books, written countless articles and made 18 documentaries on the topic of the history of film.
Brownlow's documentary series Hollywood: A Celebration of American Silent Film was an entertaining, informative masterpiece in 13 parts. Unfortunately,it was met with legal entanglements of copyright issues and clip clearances, and pulled from distribution.
Brownlow also spent many years getting support for the restoration of Abel Gance's 1927 French classic, Napoléon, a 'lost' epic film that used an early example of split screen or widescreen triptych form that Gance called Polyvision which was similar to the later Cinerama. Brownlow's championing of the film succeeded and the restored, re-scored version was shown in London and New York in 1980 and 1981. Gance lived to see the acclaim for his restored film.
However, a previous version of the Napoléon film was produced by Francis Ford Coppola’s Zoetrope Studios (which was shorter in length than Brownlow’s 1980 version due to Coppola-supervised editing), and featured an original music score by Carmine Coppola. Coppola’s exclusive contract protecting his 1981 version prevents Brownlow from showing his 1980 version in American theaters or from releasing that edition on home video in the US.
Brownlow's frustration at the red tape of copyright issues that has hampered public access of his preservation efforts is understandable. The irony is that Brownlow was honored along with Coppola at the Governor's Awards at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on November 13, 2010. The following is a portion of his speech when he accepted his Oscar:
"Have you ever wondered what the reflected glory looks like, this is it? On behalf of all those film historians and preservationists and film collectors I heard an intake of breath...My God, your predecessor did a terrible job of preserving the silent era; historian David Pierce is about to reveal 73% has been destroyed; that is like a publisher taking Trotsky, Dickens, Scott Fitzgerald de-pulping every copy and you can’t even see the manuscript because they have burned that as well.
So it is up to us to do our damndest to find the films that your predecessor destroyed and bring them back into the canon, an awful lot is being done as you know the recent find in New Zealand and the recent generosity from Russia but when I think of some of the titles that are gone it is really heartbreaking.
Now, I was told when I started this business that silent films were a complete waste of time. They were jerky, flickery, ludicrously badly acted and appalling photographed, and I couldn’t understand it as I was already a film collector, and what I saw were in beautiful prints, although sometimes abridged, were a stroke by freshness, vitality, the inventiveness and the exquisite photography. Oh, I really do regret the loss of black and white it was a beautiful medium…It called upon, you to do some work, like silent film itself; you had to supply the voices and sound effects, and with black and white you supply everything the film suggested and therefore you become part of the creative process and it means that much more.
…Now, it is amazing what is turning up and if you would only relax your copyright laws where silent films are concerned, you would see an awful lot more suddenly appear that has been one of the worst chains on this whole affair of ours to try and rescue the past of the cinema…"**
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I, myself, believe that Mr. Brownlow showed great restraint in his frustration. In my own research into Alice Calhoun, I have met with roadblocks by collectors who buy and sell memorabilia and film and then hide it away in their private vaults. While it is within their rights, it is also hoarding, and absolutely maddening to a researcher.
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In conclusion of the topic of Film Preservation and Public Access, I concede to the experts; that is, the perfect words in the statement of The Committee For Film Preservation and Public Access:
Our position is simple. We strongly support the creation of a national policy to preserve our motion picture heritage. At the same time, that program will be incomplete -- utterly pointless -- unless there is a guarantee of access to the films that are being preserved at public expense.
– from the Summary of Statement by The Committee For Film Preservation and Public Access, 1993. Members include motion picture screenwriters, directors, producers, distributors, historians and journalists: Joe Dante, William K. Everson, Robert A. Harris, Ed Hulse, Richard T. Jameson, G. William Jones, Ph.D., Robert King, Timothy Lucas, Gregory Luce, Leonard Maltin, Steven Newark, L. Ray Patterson, Samuel A. Peeples, David Pierce, Fred Olen Ray, Michael V. Rotello, Bonnie Rowan, Anthony Slide, George Turner, Bill Warren, Matthew Weisman.
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(c) Susann Disbro Gilbert
References:
* Also from the Summary of Statement by The Committee For Film Preservation and Public Access. http://www.cinemaweb.com/access/pre_stmt.htm
** Thank you to Marilyn Slater for the photo of Mr. and Mrs. Brownlow and her transcription of Kevin Brownlow's acceptance speech. It can be read, in its entirety at http://looking-for-mabel.webs.com/brownlow2010award.htm
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