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Lost 1916 Sherlock Holmes silent film found, currently being restored.

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Sorry for the blog-post, but the original link is in French.


79PqmPK.jpg


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Cinémathèque Française said:
[This] is a complete nitrate duplicate that, to date, appears to be unique. Originally intended for the French operations, it contains duplicate French intertitles, and annotations of hues. The latter feature is still surprising because Essanay films have rarely been exploited in color in the United States. It seems therefore plausible that color version was created specifically for France. [The duplicate] is currently being restored by the French Cinematheque digital and the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, an organization with which we have restored American films of our collections for 2 years now. This restoration is made ​​possible through the generous support of individuals who are passionate about Sherlock Holmes.

I'm not a Holmes-maniac, but my understanding that this film stars William Gillette, who was widely renowned for playing Sherlock in stage plays and such. This is the only full-length film he acted in. He took the role seriously and consulted with Arthur Conan Doyle to make sure he had his approval for any change he made to the character.

So that's neat.
 

RatskyWatsky

Hunky Nostradamus
Sweet, I love when "lost" films are found. It makes me sick to think of how many old films have been permanently lost.
 
Funny enough, I found out about this from Mark Gatiss' Twitter this morning. Really cool that it was found and is being restored.

Can't wait to see it once done. Should be great.
 
D

Deleted member 80556

Unconfirmed Member
This sounds so amazing. I hope this they release this as public domain!
 

Blader

Member
Sweet, I love when "lost" films are found. It makes me sick to think of how many old films have been permanently lost.

As crazy as it is to discover 100-year-old film prints that still exist and are in relatively good condition, what's even crazier is where they end up getting found. The original edit of The Passion of Joan of Arc was considered lost for decades until a print showed up in a janitor's closet in a Norwegian mental hospital. Like, what the fuck?
 

RatskyWatsky

Hunky Nostradamus
As crazy as it is to discover 100-year-old film prints that still exist and are in relatively good condition, what's even crazier is where they end up getting found. The original edit of The Passion of Joan of Arc was considered lost for decades until a print showed up in a janitor's closet in a Norwegian mental hospital. Like, what the fuck?

Yeah, I'd love to know how it ended up there. If nitrate film canisters could talk!
 

odiin

My Apartment, or the 120 Screenings of Salo
Sorry for the blog-post, but the original link is in French.


79PqmPK.jpg


IMDB Page



I'm not a Holmes-maniac, but my understanding that this film stars William Gillette, who was widely renowned for playing Sherlock in stage plays and such. This is the only full-length film he acted in. He took the role seriously and consulted with Arthur Conan Doyle to make sure he had his approval for any change he made to the character.

So that's neat.

This is pretty trippy to think about, and really puts into perspective just how old the movie industry is now.
 

Rest

All these years later I still chuckle at what a fucking moron that guy is.
Hey, that's cool news. It was made in 1916, that should put it in the public domain, shouldn't it? How long until we can watch it?
 
that's pretty cool. nuts how it takes 100 years to find some guy's film.

There are 1000's of lost films. It's insane how many are lost due to improper care. I'm not just talking about those that were damaged. John Ford's silents disappeared (the ones that weren't damaged}. Although they did find a few of them in 2009 in New Zealand Film Archive storage. It's crazy.
 

Blader

Member
There are 1000's of lost films. It's insane how many are lost due to improper care. I'm not just talking about those that were damaged. John Ford's silents disappeared (the ones that weren't damaged}. Although they did find a few of them in 2009 in New Zealand Film Archive storage. It's crazy.

And not just films, but TV too. Decades of iconic tapes gone forever. The first Super Bowl. The moon landing for god's sake! What asshole at NASA taped over that?
 

Rydeen

Member
As crazy as it is to discover 100-year-old film prints that still exist and are in relatively good condition, what's even crazier is where they end up getting found. The original edit of The Passion of Joan of Arc was considered lost for decades until a print showed up in a janitor's closet in a Norwegian mental hospital. Like, what the fuck?
If you think about it though, it makes some sense. I mean, if a film was considered lost, the first place you'd look would be in places like studio vaults, film archives and national archives. If "lost" films don't turn up in the places you'd most expect to find them, chances are they'd be found in places you'd least expect to find them.
 
And not just films, but TV too. Decades of iconic tapes gone forever. The first Super Bowl. The moon landing for god's sake! What asshole at NASA taped over that?

considering the moon landing was fake, they shoulda had plenty of cameras in the studio!
 
Gillette's influence on the dramatic portrayals of Sherlock Holmes cannot be overstated

Gillette introduced the curved or bent briar pipe, instead of the straight pipe pictured by illustrators, supposedly so that Gillette could pronounce his lines more easily; since it is as difficult to pronounce lines clearly whether the pipe is bent or straight, it may have been that Gillette's face was easier to see from the seats with a bent briar in his mouth. Gillette also made use of a magnifying-glass, a violin and a syringe, which all came from the Canon and which were all now established as "props" to the Sherlock Holmes character. Gillette formulated the complete phrase: "Oh, this is elementary, my dear fellow", which was later reused by Clive Brook, the first spoken-cinema Holmes, as: "Elementary, my dear Watson", Holmes's best known line and one of the most famous expressions in the English language.
 

davepoobond

you can't put a price on sparks
And not just films, but TV too. Decades of iconic tapes gone forever. The first Super Bowl. The moon landing for god's sake! What asshole at NASA taped over that?

i think TV is even worse than the situation with film. At least with film it was "lost," but with TV they INTENTIONALLY recorded over a ton of the earlier stuff to save costs.

its really sad.


There are 1000's of lost films. It's insane how many are lost due to improper care. I'm not just talking about those that were damaged. John Ford's silents disappeared (the ones that weren't damaged}. Although they did find a few of them in 2009 in New Zealand Film Archive storage. It's crazy.

yeah, its just at some point I would figure people would just give up on ever finding certain things, but they end up being preserved and found in some fashion.
 
i think TV is even worse than the situation with film. At least with film it was "lost," but with TV they INTENTIONALLY recorded over a ton of the earlier stuff to save costs.

its really sad.




yeah, its just at some point I would figure people would just give up on ever finding certain things, but they end up being preserved and found in some fashion.

Yeah, the Beeb was really bad about that; most of the Monty Python tapes were to be reused but Terry Jones bought the physicals just to have them safe.
 

Amalthea

Banned
I somehow wish there was some kind of official silent-movie streaming database. Despite how many films were lost it's still overwhelming to get a clear overview if you're not an affictionado IMO.
 
I'm not a Holmes-maniac, but my understanding that this film stars William Gillette, who was widely renowned for playing Sherlock in stage plays and such. This is the only full-length film he acted in. He took the role seriously and consulted with Arthur Conan Doyle to make sure he had his approval for any change he made to the character.

So that's neat.

Awesome, will watch this when it gets restored & released.

Yeah, the Beeb was really bad about that; most of the Monty Python tapes were to be reused but Terry Jones bought the physicals just to have them safe.

Patrick Troughton's era really got shafted on Doctor Who. :(
 
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