The Soldier's Courtship found (July 2011)

The Giornate del Cinema Muto, or Pordenone Silent Film Festival, has announced that a copy of the long-lost The Soldier's Courtship, probably the first British fiction film, has been found in the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome. The film was made by Robert Paul in April 1896 and was filmed onthe roof of the Alhambra Theatre, Leicester Square, where he was then exhibiting. The film starred Fred Storey (shown left), Julie Seale, and Paul's wife Ellen. Paul did produce a remake in 1897, on account of the film's huge popularity, but it is apparently the original that has been discovered. The film will be shown at Pordenone 1-8 October 2011.

Méliès in colour (May 2011)

The Cannes film festival is the venue for the unveiling of the colour restoration of Georges Méliès' La voyage dans la lune (A Trip to the Moon) (1902). The unique hand-painted colour print was discovered in 1993 but originally considered to so deteriorated that it was beyond hope of restoration. But the print was acquired by Lobster Films of Paris, who were able to produce an internegative for some of the film and digitally photograph the individual frames of the remainder. It then took ten years until technology was able to manage the rest of the restoration process, which was undertaken in 2010 by the Technicolor Foundation. The restored film has a score by French band Air. A detailed history of Méliès, the film and its restoration is available in PDF format on the Technicolor website.