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YANGON : The restoration of a 1934 black and white action film, famous for its majestic aerobatics, including a hot air balloon escape and a jungle shootout against thieves. teak, helped to save
The survival of Myanmar's first film, "Mya Ga Naing" (The Emerald Jungle), and its rise to international scale is perhaps an equally unlikely feat as the triumph of his leading role on pythons and bandits. his bare hands.
The once flourishing film scene of the Southeast Asian country experienced a major setback with the arrival of a military junta in 1962 which imposed a rigorous censorship and emptied the country. economy for 50 years. the heat, torrential rains and stifling humidity wreaked havoc on delicate film reels in a country that had neither the resources nor the know-how to store them properly.
Some reels have been recycled to save money. black and white images remain
"Mya Ga Naing", originally a silent movie that later had music and printed title cards, is the oldest to have been found up to # 39, now.
He languished in state archives for decades before Italian specialists spent a year editing the film frame by frame, projecting the restored version in 2016.
Experts passed Hundreds of hours at the laboratory of L'Immagine Ritrovata (The Rediscovered Image) in Bologna removing all the little scratches and stains from the film and digitizing using various resources, including a film found in the archives in Berlin – a testimony of the distance traveled by the original film.
"Whenever the restoration progressed, it was like a new birth for the film," said Severine Wemaere, co-founder of MEMORY! Cinema, who oversaw the restoration and raised funds from donors for a price of $ 100,000 (RM404,000)
"It was very moving because we could say that we were in a country of cinema. "
or the color?
The classic has also performed at festivals in Singapore, Thailand and Switzerland, and has been regularly broadcast at home in Myanmar
. performance in Yangon, remaining faithful to an original soundtrack added in 1954 mixing local traditional music with western jazz.
The film gained international renown this year after Unesco granted the film a place on the list of documentary heritage of the Asia-Pacific. of influence "- a nod not only to the film, but also to the film tradition of Myanmar
The country's first film was screened in 1920.
In the 1950s, Industry was at its peak with Burmese filmmakers dozens of features e
But the plot has returned in the second half of the 20th century when military leaders have crushed creativity and have closed the country with foreign influences and technology
While almost all the first films were lost, the successful renaissance "Mya Ga Naing" stimulates a movement to preserve what remains.
The next film to be restored in 2017 was Pyo Chit Lin (My Darling), a comedy shot in 1950 on such a tight budget that director Tin Myint had to choose between sound and color.
He opted for this latest film, which makes it the oldest surviving color film
Every Second Counts
The filmmaker Myung Okkar plays a leading role in the effort to save the classics of his country. Few could be better placed – the thirty-one-year-old had films with his father and grandfather.
In 2012, Maung Okkar realized with horror that some of her family's original reels had been damaged.
"Some movies could not be restored and, for me, it was as if I had lost one of my parents," he recalls.
"I learned that there were other films. After receiving training in restoration and archiving techniques in Italy, he launched "Save Myanmar Film" in 2017 with a group of comrades
. slogan is "Every second account!" and they aim to find and preserve as many old reels and other movie props – cameras, projectors and movie posters – as possible.
Some 2,000 people saw an exhibition and screenings organized by the group in May Construction of the building is underway, and plans are underway to restore the third film.
The clock turns, all surviving films being still crammed into metal boxes in the ruined archive building of Yangon
an improvement of the past, but the temperature, at 16 ° C, is still far above the optimal level of four degrees C.
Actress Grace Swe Zin Htaik, 65, starred in many Myanmar films in the 70s and 80s faces the challenge of organizing the next 100th anniversary of the country's film industry.
"People in this country have no idea how to value old movies," she says wistfully, tracing her finger along the ram. "[À travers] old movies, we can see our history, we can see our culture, we can see our identity and our values". – AFP
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