Cinematographic Pleasures
Highlights of Eye Filmmuseum

Pera Film's program for May continues with a partnership with Eye Filmmuseum, one of the foremost film museums in Europe. Taking place in parallel with International Museum Day and curated by Elif Rongen-Kaynakçi, the program titled Cinematographic Pleasures: Highlights of Eye Filmmuseum invites the audience on a journey that sheds light on the 128-year history of cinema.

As the national film archive of The Netherlands, Eye Filmmuseum has the duty to safeguard the Dutch film heritage. However, practically since its creation in 1946, the institute has adopted a wider policy and made its mission to preserve and promote the Dutch cinema culture in the broadest sense. This means that all cinematic manifestations taking place in the Netherlands are considered to be part of the collective cinematic memory. 

Every national archive exists first and foremost to keep and restore its country’s lost films. Although the Dutch film industry was not very prolific in the first decades, there were pioneers who made films, sometimes against all odds, such as the diva of the screen Annie Bos. For various reasons, many Dutch silent films are lost today. As a case in point, Carmen van het Noorden (featured in this program) was found in the USA in 1974 and repatriated to the Netherlands.

Eye’s policy of including foreign and lesser-known films within its artistic vision is given by the nature of the Eye's core museal holdings. Among others, two of the most important collections are included in the Pera Film program; The Mutoscope and Biograph collection consists of circa 200 films shot around the world between 1897-1902, still preserved in their 68mm format. Desmet Collection was recognized by Unesco as a world heritage in 2011 and consists of over 900 films made between 1906-1917 and the complete company archives of Jean Desmet, cinema owner and film distributor. 

In the early 1990s, the appointment of the filmmaker Peter Delpeut as artistic director created a new impulse for the Filmmuseum to explore the limits of a film archive in every sense. During his tenure, Delpeut made numerous ‘found footage’ films. The Forbidden Quest, for which Delpeut sifted through hundreds of fragments showing polar expeditions in the film archive, went well beyond the archival circuit, and was awarded at regular film festivals. Today, decades later, Delpeut’s legacy is still alive in Eye’s archival approach.

The program Cinematographic Pleasures: Highlights of Eye Filmmuseum will be at Pera Film between May 18 - June 4!

Tickets are available at Biletix and the museum. As per legal regulations, all our screenings are restricted to persons over 18 years of age unless stated otherwise.