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- Peter Delpeut
- Netherlands
- Found Footage
Diva Dolorosa and EYE Filmmuseum
Between 1907 and 1916, narrative films became increasingly sophisticated and transitioned from fairground presentations and small "Nickelodeon" theaters housing a few people in removable chairs to ever-expanding movie palaces that evoked comparisons with the monumental spaces devoted to live theater and opera. It was during those years that pioneering Dutch film trader Jean Desmet was most active. Desmet worked in every area of the film industry, kept meticulous records, and (unusually) preserved nitrate prints of many of the films he distributed. The collection is now part of the UNESCO Memory of the World Register and is the centerpiece of the EYE Filmmuseum in Amsterdam.
In the years before 1918, the Italian silent cinema was considered one of the greatest in the world, lauded both for its increasingly grand epic productions and for its stylistically adventurous Diva films. It is largely thanks to the Desmet collection and the efforts of EYE that it is still possible to see some of the great masterworks of the Diva film in beautifully restored prints that convey the rich gradations of color in the original prints.
The Italian Diva Films and the Desmet Collection Film Program makes it possible to see some of the extraordinary films from the EYE collection alongside the lyrical found footage films of Peter Delpeut (former deputy director of the Filmuseum). A full Exhibition on Delpeut, his collaborators, and the Desmet collection will premiere later in 2024.
Diva Dolorosa, Journey to a Century (1999-2024)
The twenty-fifth anniversary edition of Peter Delpeut's book about the making of Diva Dolorosa - a combination of travelogue, essay, and analysis that perfectly complements the film - is now available for free through the link below.
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Isabelle Huppert
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Film Music
