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25/3/1898: Matuszewski: Forgotten Visionary
The name of Polish cameraman Boleslaw Matuszewski is little more than a footnote in cinematic history today but, had his words been heeded in 1898, the world may today possess a far richer store of moving images, faithfully preserved for all future generations.
On the 25th March 1898, in an article published in Le Figaro (before being printed later in the year as a 12-page pamphlet: Une nouvelle source de l'histoire: création d'un dépôt de cinématographie historique), Matuszewski proposed the creation of a national "cinematic museum or depository" in which animated photography could be preserved and made available for future generations. Matuszewski had in mind the archiving of factual film, as fiction films were still largely a thing of the future. Perhaps inspired by his filming of the visit of French President Felix Faure, and the subsequent use of his film to disprove Chancellor Bismarck's claim that Faure failed to bare his head to the Russian flag, Matuszewski argued that historical inaccuracies and disputes would be a thing of the past if the films made of the events in question were available for scrutiny. Certainly, Matuszewski's foresight was greater than that of his employer, Lumiere, who famously remarked that film was an invention without a future. As cinema was little more than a couple of years old, there were only a few hundred films in existence and, had his suggestion been considered seriously, it is entirely possible that the vast bulk of early films would still be in existence today, instead of being destroyed when their distribution life came to an end, or being allowed to deteriorate irretrievably due to poor storage conditions. While Matuszewski's proposal was initially met with some enthusiasm, nothing was done, and, like its originator, it was soon forgotten.
In August 1898, Matuszewski would also publish 'La photographie animée, ce qu'elle est et ce qu'elle doit être', arguably the first theoretical treatise on film.
The full text of Matuszewski's Une nouvelle source de l'histoire: création d'un dépôt de cinématographie historique can be viewed here. [ADD]
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