“Dazzling” and “Snow White”: Light Sources for Film Projection in Germany, 1909–1929

During the silent film era, various light sources for film projection were available on the market. The choice of illuminant was determined on the one hand by the screening context and its infrastructure (e.g., electrification of the venue, etc.), and on the other hand by its optical and esthetical properties—luminosity, luminance, color hue, and so on—which could be more or less ideal for film projection. These properties could be inherent to the light source but could also be related to factors associated with the projection environment (e.g., diligence of the projectionist, distance to the screen, etc.). The present article highlights the esthetic properties—and problems—of different light sources and their usage context in Germany between 1909 and 1929, a period in which light technology was constantly subject to a desire for development and improvement, and thus to change. By means of the technological discourse that accompanied these developments in projection technology—for example, specialist literature, publications and advertisements by the manufacturers, as well as trade journals—, the carbon arc lamp, gas lights, and incandescent light sources are analyzed regarding the characteristics attributed to them within the discourse. In doing so, we aim to identify objectives of quality that were or were not explicitly or implicitly regarded as critical by professionals, and the extent to which color played a role in these considerations. The findings show that there was a wide variety of factors determining the visual properties of any film projection, and that their interactions need to be taken into account when restoring films and recreating historical projection formats, thus relativizing restoration policies such as wanting “the film to look as it did when it was first shown in cinemas […]” (While this particular quote was taken from Jørgen Christiansen, project manager at the Danish Film Institute, in a documentary about their archive, his words are representative of a recurring discourse that can be found among many film archives/film restorers, for example on the occasion of the Restauration Talks at the annual festival Il Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna [IT]).