Helmut
I’m glad you noticed too. The famous Metropolis robot poster is also a repro as
are quite a few of the other rare titles. Hopefully the museum also holds the
originals. They are canny in using that old fashioned milky kind of
non-reflective glass. When I first went to the museum I thought the rarer
posters looked odd but assumed that the glass was playing tricks with my eyes.
They do obviously have many originals on the walls too and these are wonderful
to look at – I remember a lovely 1931 “Mädchen in Uniform” for example.
I am for preserving cultural heritage as much as anyone else but I think you
have to draw a balance between that and the pleasure that comes from seeing the
real thing. Part of the thrill of going to a museum, and a justification for
making the effort to go there and pay the admission, is the sense of wonder
and/or fascination that you can get from being so close to a real and often
unobtainable or wildly expensive object – whether it is a poster, a dress worn
by Marilyn, or the briefcase JFK had with him on that fateful day in Texas
(which I also saw in Berlin a year or two back, unfortunately along with only a
photocopy of his famous and hand-annotated “ich bin ein Berliner” speech. I
would take this even further; when I go to a photography exhibition my pleasure
levels are much higher when I am looking at the rich dark sepia tones of a
creased vintage original than when I am looking at a glossy, grey-toned,
perfect condition “printed later” type, even if the latter was also printed by
the photographer and is not strictly a “copy”.
Perhaps in this digital age most people are not worried about whether something
is real or not, or even whether it still exists in a physical state at all. If
that is the case we could just as well do away with physical museums and just
access everything on-line. That would be a sad day.
Martin
P.S. New Year greetings to Marcel at MovieArt here in Zurich. I do have a lot
to do, even if it doesn’t look like it! Sushi sometime?
Von: MoPo List [mailto:[email protected]] Im Auftrag von Helmut Hamm
Gesendet: Donnerstag, 14. Januar 2016 05:29
An: [email protected]
Betreff: [MOPO] Aw: [MOPO] Best Actress: Underwhelming exhibition in Berlin
Martin,
the CALIGARI poster at the Filmmuseum is indeed a reproduction. Years, I
privately complained about this to the (now retired) head of the collectibles
department. He pretty said that for one, the posters would suffer, even with
maximum UV-protection and for two, I had noticed, but who else would? I still
can't really argue his points here.
Helmut
Galerie filmposter.net
Berlin
Gesendet: Mittwoch, 13. Januar 2016 um 13:18 Uhr
Von: "martin last" <[email protected]>
An: [email protected]
Betreff: [MOPO] Best Actress: Underwhelming exhibition in Berlin
I was in Berlin on business yesterday and managed to squeeze in a quick visit
to the film museum there.
I wanted to catch their current special exhibition “Best Actress”, which
(unsurprisingly) covers the Best Actress Oscar winners of the last 73 years.
Having seen an excellent film stills exhibition on a previous visit to Berlin,
I was anything but impressed with “Best Actress”. Perhaps I’m being a bit harsh
but the majority of the show appeared to consist of a few stills and publicity
photographs of each of the actresses. Many of these did not appear to be
“vintage original”. There were also a few uninspiring posters (e.g. German A1
of Butterfield 8), common magazine covers (literally stuck on a wall) and some
fairly uninspiring costumes (one was a Leigh dress from Gone With The Wind
admittedly). Not an Oscar in sight. I was seriously underwhelmed. At the risk
of bragging, I am sure that I could rustle up a much more interesting selection
of (vintage original) photographs and posters for the bigger names.
This is not my first underwhelming exhibition experience. I remember a
particularly small Monroe exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in
London. For the amount and quality of material on show the entry charge was
incredible. I think there were one or two really nice things but I remember
thinking then as well that I could have given the curator a good run for his or
her money.
Another thing about the Berlin museum is that some of the rarer posters
displayed (e.g. for Caligari and Metropolis) appear to be good quality repros.
While I appreciate that light is the enemy of posters and care needs to be
taken, if I visit a museum I expect to see the real thing. If posters are
rotated and “rested” regularly it should be possible to show real stuff all the
time - I know museums “rest” vintage photographs to help preserve them.
Despite all my moaning I would still recommend the Berlin museum, especially
for those into the 20s/30s German films and Dietrich. As I said, the stills
exhibition I saw there a couple of years back was excellent. Their next special
show is “Things To Come” (science fiction). I’ll definitely give that one a try
too.
A few questions to members:
1. Have you also had such underwhelming exhibition experiences?
2. What do think about museums displaying copies?
3. What is the best and worst movie-related exhibition or museum you
have ever visited?
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