Released 96 years ago, this absolute masterpiece of cinema is almost gone forever

Published by the US Library of Congress in 2013 A study with absolutely dramatic conclusions : 75% of American films shot and produced during the silent era between 1912-1929 were irretrievably lost. Of the 11,000 films produced, only 1,575 still exist.

And this applied not only to small films forgotten by everyone, but also to famous works, such as Tod Browning’s fantastic London After Midnight with Lon Chaney, or the first adaptation of The Great Gatsby, which was released in 1926, a year later. Publishing a book by F. Scott Fitzgerald. This shows the extent of the disaster.

If the observation in France seems less alarming, because of the lesser influence of censorship and the firmer policy of studio conservation, as written A Slate article was also published in 2013 In the wake of research by the Library of Congress, the fact remains that these works have presented many conservation problems, particularly due to the great fragility of the film wheels made of ammonium nitrate, which is extremely flammable.

Add to that various legal problems, wheels sometimes being stored somewhere and not being inventoried at all through pure carelessness, just to name a few, and a large number of works have been declared lost forever.

The coil goes up in smoke

An absolute icon of burlesque cinema with Charles Chaplin, possessing an incredible physical performance, a master of stunts both amazing and ultra-risky, always with the tireless air of a sad clown, Buster Keaton left an indelible mark on the history of silent cinema. .

The first film in which he acted from a script he wrote, The Cameraman, released in 1928, is a pure masterpiece in which he portrays Luke Shannon, an apprentice reporter for a film news company. Obviously, nothing goes as planned and it’s off to a disastrous start…

In 1965, a massive fire destroyed MGM’s warehouse after an explosion caused by nitrate tiles. Among the losses to be regretted were the downsides operatorThen it is considered lost.

A copy of the film was found three years later in Paris. Another one, but many years later, in 1991. For the record, MGM wanted the movie to end with Keaton finally smiling.

Filmed and then presented to the public in a test screening, this final scene was roundly rejected by the audience. And fortunately. Still, nothing remains of this famous ending scene: it went up in smoke in a 1965 fire.