News

November 2011

2k restoration of the film „The Soldier’s Courtship“, 1896

Recently rediscovered in the archive of the Cineteca Nazionale in Rome, the film „The Soldier’s Courtship (R.W. Paul, 1896) already proved to be a little sensation. It’s considered to be one of the first films worldwide with narrative content and, being aged of 115 years, having been shot in a time where filmmaking only began.

OMNIMAGO now did the scanning and a complete digital restoration of the original 1896 nitrate-positive in 2k. By using special software and tools we restored the already strongly damaged images, but this only to the extent that was technically possible and ethically correct of course.

This new restored version of the film had its world premiere at the festival „Il Giornate del Cinema Muto“ in Italy. Since then, further screenings and presentations about the work took place at a symposium in London, on the day of audio-visual heritage at the Murnau-foundation in Wiesbaden and the cinefest in Hamburg.

You’ll find further information on the topic in this blog, as well as on this site of the Cineteca Nazionale and of course, on our Facebook-site @ www.facebook.com/omnimago.