Opening Night
Two weeks ago, we celebrated the opening of the new season. The archive lives on! For an entire semester, we will be bringing treasures from our 35mm collection to the big screen. But before the curtain rose for the first time, there were a few surprises. Here is a brief look back at what happened before the first screening.
The start of the new semester required a lot of preparation. Drinks had to be ordered, posters hung up, and flyers distributed. Film copies had to be viewed, checked, and prepared for projection. We spent many nights in the film archive—among dusty cans, flickering screenings, and anticipation for what was to come.
But then came the shock: our Technicolor premiere copy from the 1970s had visibly suffered over the past 50 years. A successful film that had been shown countless times in theaters across Germany and had finally ended up in our archive via a circuitous route.
Thanks to Technicolor, the colors were still as vibrant as on the first day. But the ravages of time had left their mark: small tears, curved edges, areas that had to be carefully glued and restored.
With a lot of patience, adhesive tape, coffee, and a few night shifts, we succeeded: the copy shines again in new splendor. And now, just in time for the start of the semester, it is ready for the screen – as vivid as it was back then.
Und dann kam der große Tag. Es war ausverkauft und wir haben uns sehr gefreut. Der Film war lustig.
Vielen Dank an die großartige Arbeit von allen Beteiligten, die diesen Abend möglich gemacht haben, und vielen Dank an unser tolles Publikum, das diese Arbeit seit Jahren mit treuer Wiederkehr belohnt!