Long Live Film: A Dangerous Beauty: Nitrate Film
Brighton Rock
We heartily recommend the BFI’s short season of nitrate films, which start today with a screening of Brighton Rock.
From 1895 to 1952 films were shot on cellulose nitrate stock, which can be highly flammable and subject to drastic deterioration. Archives the world over have tried, sometimes in vain, to preserve this fragile medium which, Dracula-like, can crumble away into dust.
This short season, which continues in August, gives audiences the first opportunity in ten years to view some of our nitrate prints in the only public cinema in the UK with the licence to screen them.
The higher silver content in nitrate prints is what lends black and white films a wonderful lustre, while an original dye transfer Technicolor nitrate print with its vibrant colours offers an unmissable experience. Don’t deny yourself these pleasures.
