Eye Filmmuseum is a film archive, museum, and cinema in Amsterdam that preserves and presents both Dutch and foreign films screened in the Netherlands.

Location and history

Eye Filmmuseum is located in the Overhoeks neighborhood of Amsterdam in the

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. Its predecessor was the Dutch Historical Film Archive, founded in 1946 by David van Staveren, Felix Halverstad, and directors of Filmtheater Kriterion Piet Meerburg and Paul Kijzer. Following the accession of the archives of the Filmtheater de Uitkijk, the archive was renamed the Netherlands Filmmuseum under the leadership of its first director, film collector Jan de Vaal. The Filmmuseum was located in Kriterion and

Stedelijk Museum The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (; Municipal Museum Amsterdam), colloquially known as the Stedelijk, is a museum for modern art, contemporary art, and design located in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

until 1975, when de Vaal succeeded in acquiring a discrete space for the Filmmuseum in the Vondelpark Pavilion. In 2009, Nederlands Filmmuseum merged with Holland Film, the Netherlands Institute for Film Education and the Filmbank and plans were announced for a new home on the north bank of Amsterdam's waterfront. The Filmmuseum was renamed the Eye Film Institute Netherlands and was officially opened on April 4, 2012, by

Queen Beatrix Beatrix (Beatrix Wilhelmina Armgard, ; born 31 January 1938) is a member of the Dutch royal house who reigned as Queen of the Netherlands from 1980 until her abdication in 2013. Beatrix is the eldest daughter of Queen Juliana and her husba ...

Buildings

Eye Filmmuseum

The Eye Filmmuseum building is designed by

Delugan Meissl Associated Architects Delugan Meissl Associated Architects (DMAA) is an Austrian architecture firm based in Vienna, Austria. DMAA has designed notable buildings including the Porsche Museum, StuttgartSchembari, James (4 September 2017)Where Your Mercedes-Benz and Porsc ...

,Schuetze, Christopher F. (12 September 2013)
A New Dutch Focus on Film.
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' whose other projects include the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart. The building features two gallery exhibition spaces, one 300-seat cinema, two 127-seat cinemas, and a fourth intimate cinema of about 67 seats. One of the gallery spaces is devoted to a permanent exhibition on the technical and aesthetic histories of cinema. The exhibit includes historical equipment drawn from the Museum's collection of approximately 1,500 cinematic apparatuses, as well as an immersive presentation of about one hundred film clips from the Museum's archive, including Dutch and international films dating from the silent era and beyond. The second gallery space is dedicated to experimental cinema or expanded cinema, a commitment which dates back to the Filmmuseum's founding and the weekly screenings it organized at the

in the 1950s under the emerging aegis of cinema as a " seventh art." Past exhibitions in this space have focused on auteurs and cinematographers, as well as video artists and visual artists like

Ryoji Ikeda Ryoji Ikeda (池田亮司 ''Ikeda Ryōji'', born 1966) is a Japanese visual and sound artist who currently lives and works in Paris, France. Ikeda's music is concerned primarily with sound in a variety of "raw" states, such as sine tones and noi ...

and Anthony McCall.

Eye Collection Center

Eye opened its revamped Collection Center in 2016. The collection is made up of analog, digitized, and born-digital materials which are situated beside a sound restoration and digitization studio, a digital image restoration studio, and a grading and scanning suite. The collection includes 210,000 cans of acetate film, 57,000 film titles, 2.5 petabytes of digital data, 82,000 posters, 700,000 photographs, 27,000 books, 2,000 journals, 1,500 pre-cinema and film apparatuses, 4,500

magic lantern The magic lantern, also known by its Latin name , is an early type of image projector that used pictures—paintings, prints, or photographs—on transparent plates (usually made of glass), one or more lens (optics), lenses, and a light source. ...

slides, 7,000 musical scores, and 250,000 press cuttings.

EYE Film Institute Netherlands - Eye Study - Collection building - Front - 2017

The collection originally consisted of films from the Uitkijk archive, compiled by members of the Dutch Filmliga (1927-1933). After joining the

International Federation of Film archives The International Federation of Film Archives (french: Fédération internationale des archives du film, FIAF) was founded in Paris in 1938 by the Cinémathèque Française, the Reichsfilmarchiv in Berlin, the British Film Institute and the Museu ...

(FIAF) in 1947, the Filmmuseum started to actively collect and preserve Dutch film productions. Since then, a number of significant collections have been acquired, ranging from Dutch distributors ( Desmet, Centra, and UIP); filmmakers (

Joris Ivens Georg Henri Anton "Joris" Ivens (18 November 1898 – 28 June 1989) was a Dutch documentary filmmaker. Among the notable films he directed or co-directed are '' A Tale of the Wind'', '' The Spanish Earth'', ''Rain'', ''...A Valparaiso'', '' ...

, Johan van der Keuken, and Louis van Gasteren); and producers ( Matthijs van Heijningen and Kees Kasander) to institutions and organizations, such as the

Netherlands Film Academy The Netherlands Film Academy ( nl, Nederlandse Filmacademie) (NFA) was founded in 1958. The academy is the only recognised institute in the Netherlands that offers training to prepare for the work in the various crew disciplines. Specialisation ...

; the Netherlands Film Fund; and the Netherlands Institute for Animation Film (NIAf). The collection also includes many seminal silent film works, Hollywood classics, international arthouse productions, and independent filmmakers of international renown.

Nitrate Bunkers

Martin van Leuven standing before the Eye Filmmuseum nitrate bunker in Overveen

Eye stores 30,000 cans of flammable nitrate film in bunkers near the coast of North Holland in

Overveen Overveen is a village in North Holland in the Netherlands, in the municipality of Bloemendaal. Overveen lies on the eastern fringe of the North Sea dunes. To the east it borders the built-up areas of Haarlem. A few kilometres to the west of the to ...

Castricum Castricum () is a municipality and a town in the province of North Holland in the Netherlands. Castricum is a seaside town in the province of North Holland. It draws in a fair share of tourists who mainly come to visit the beach and nearby dune la ...

and

Heemskerk Heemskerk () is a municipality and a town in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. It is located in the Kennemerland region. Local government As of March 2022, the municipal council of Heemskerk consists of 25 seats, which are divide ...

. These nitrate films date between 1896 and the mid-1950s and include a unique collection of 68mm film. Two of these bunkers were built during the Second World War to protect Dutch art museum holdings from theft and destruction; Rembrandt's

The Night Watch ''Militia Company of District II under the Command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq'', also known as ''The Shooting Company of Frans Banning Cocq and Willem van Ruytenburch'', but commonly referred to as ''The Night Watch'' ( nl, De Nachtwacht), i ...

was among a few of the paintings which were stored in the Castricum bunker for part of the war.

Restorations

Recent silent film Eye restorations include the formerly lost film '' Beyond the Rocks'' (1922) starring

Gloria Swanson Gloria May Josephine Swanson (March 27, 1899April 4, 1983) was an American actress and producer. She first achieved fame acting in dozens of silent films in the 1920s and was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, most f ...

, '' J'accuse!'' (1919) by

Abel Gance Abel Gance (; born Abel Eugène Alexandre Péréthon; 25 October 188910 November 1981) was a French film director and producer, writer and actor. A pioneer in the theory and practice of montage, he is best known for three major silent films: ''J ...

, '' The Seashell and the Clergyman'' (1928) by Germain Dulac, '' Raskolnikov'' (1923) by

Robert Wiene Robert Wiene (; 27 April 1873 – 17 July 1938) was a film director of the silent era of German cinema. He is particularly known for directing the German silent film ''The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari'' and a succession of other expressionist films. W ...

, '' Flower of Evil'' (1915) by Carmine Gallone, and ''

Shoes A shoe is an item of footwear intended to protect and comfort the human foot. They are often worn with a sock. Shoes are also used as an item of decoration and fashion. The design of shoes has varied enormously through time and from culture to ...

'' (1916) by

Lois Weber Florence Lois Weber (June 13, 1879 – November 13, 1939) was an American silent film actress, screenwriter, producer and director. She is identified in some historical references as among "the most important and prolific film directors in the ...

. Restorations of Dutch films include '' Wan Pipel'' (1976) by Dutch-Surinamese director

Pim de la Parra Pim de la Parra (born 5 January 1940) is a Surinamese- Dutch film director. Between 1967 and 1976, he directed films under the independent production company Scorpio Films with Dutch film director Wim Verstappen, who manages all of its achieve ...

, '' Zeemansvrouwen'' (1930) by Henk Kleinmann, '' Karakter'' (1997) by

Mike van Diem Mike van Diem (born 1959, in Druten, grew up in Sittard) is a Dutch film director. In 1990, his short film ''Alaska'' won a Golden Calf for best short film and the Student Academy Award for best foreign student film in the drama category. In 19 ...

, ''

Spetters ''Spetters'' (English translation: ''Splashes'') is a Dutch film released in 1980 and directed by Paul Verhoeven. The film follows the lives of three young men who have little in common but their love for dirt-bike racing. Set on the outskirts ...

'' (1980) by

Paul Verhoeven Paul Verhoeven (; born 18 July 1938) is a Dutch director, producer and screenwriter, active in the Netherlands, France and the United States. His blending of graphic violence and sexual content with social satire is a trademark of both his dra ...

, and ''

Abel Abel ''Hábel''; ar, هابيل, Hābīl is a Biblical figure in the Book of Genesis within Abrahamic religions. He was the younger brother of Cain, and the younger son of Adam and Eve, the first couple in Biblical history. He was a shepherd w ...

'' (1986) by

Alex van Warmerdam Alex van Warmerdam (born 14 August 1952) is a Dutch screenwriter, film director, and actor. He is also a painter. Life and career Van Warmerdam was born in Haarlem, a city in the province of North Holland in the Netherlands. He was cofounder of ...

. Other restorations include ''

Eve Eve (; ; ar, حَوَّاء, Ḥawwāʾ; el, Εὕα, Heúa; la, Eva, Heva; Syriac: romanized: ) is a figure in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible. According to the origin story, "Creation myths are symbolic stories describing how the ...

'' (1962) by

Joseph Losey Joseph Walton Losey III (; January 14, 1909 – June 22, 1984) was an American theatre and film director, producer, and screenwriter. Born in Wisconsin, he studied in Germany with Bertolt Brecht and then returned to the United States. Hollywood b ...

, '' M'' (1931) by

Fritz Lang Friedrich Christian Anton Lang (; December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976), known as Fritz Lang, was an Austrian film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in Germany and later the United States.Obituary ''Variety'', August 4, 1976, p. 6 ...

, and '' We Can't Go Home Again'' (1979) by

Nicholas Ray Nicholas Ray (born Raymond Nicholas Kienzle Jr., August 7, 1911 – June 16, 1979) was an American film director, screenwriter, and actor best known for the 1955 film '' Rebel Without a Cause.'' He is appreciated for many narrative features p ...

Projects

Eye is performing a major film digitization and preservation project together with IBM and Thought Equity Motion, a provider of video platform and rights development services. The project involves scanning and storing more than 150 million discrete

DPX Digital Picture Exchange (DPX) is a common file format for digital intermediate and visual effects work and is a SMPTE standard (ST 268-1:2014). The file format is most commonly used to represent the density of each colour channel of a scanned n ...

files on LTO Gen5 Tape in the Linear Tape File System format.

Annual Events

International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) is the world's largest documentary film festival held annually since 1988 in Amsterdam. Over a period of twelve days, it has screened more than 300 films and sold more than 250,000 t ...

(November) * Eye International Conference (May)

Publications

In 2009, in collaboration with

Amsterdam University Press Amsterdam University Press (AUP) is a university press that was founded in 1992 by the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. It is based on the Anglo-Saxon university press model and operates on a not-for-profit basis. AUP publishes scholarl ...

(AUP), Eye began publishing academic books on restoration, preservation, archival and exhibition practices through their "Framing Film" series.

Collection

The Adopted Brother - Christy Cabanne, D.W. Griffith - 1913, Biograph - EYE FLM24373 - OB 685502 - 720 x 404.ogv, ''The Adopted Brother'' by

Christy Cabanne William Christy Cabanne (April 16, 1888 – October 15, 1950) was an American film director, screenwriter, and silent film actor. Biography Born in 1888, Cabanne (pronounced CAB-a-nay) started his career on stage as an actor and director. He a ...

and

D.W. Griffith David Wark Griffith (January 22, 1875 – July 23, 1948) was an American film director. Considered one of the most influential figures in the history of the motion picture, he pioneered many aspects of film editing and expanded the art of the n ...

. Silent film, 1913. Running time: 10:41 Charlie in Turkey Pat Sullivan Keen Cartoon Corporation 1916 685703 FLM11263.ogv, ''Charlie in Turkey'', silent

animation Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...

by Pat Sullivan, 1916. 9:39 Bits & Pieces - BP374 - Test flight of Pescara's helicopter - 1922 - EYE FLM7760 - OB105716.ogv, Flight tests with the helicopter Pescara 2R of

Raúl Pateras Pescara Raúl Pateras Pescara de Castelluccio (1890 – 1966), marquis of Pateras-Pescara, was an engineer, lawyer and inventor from Argentina who specialized in automobiles, helicopters and free-piston engines. Pescara is credited for being one of t ...

. Silent film 1922. 1:25. Les Vampires de la côte - Cândido de Faria - 1908 - EYE A03060 - neg0069.jpg, Poster by Cândido de Faria for the silent

Pathé Frères Pathé or Pathé Frères (, styled as PATHÉ!) is the name of various French businesses that were founded and originally run by the Pathé Brothers of France starting in 1896. In the early 1900s, Pathé became the world's largest film equipme ...

film ''Les Vampires de la côte'', 1908 Nieuw Weekblad voor de Cinematografie - 1 - 6 oktober 1922 - EYE.tif, Nieuw Weekblad voor de Cinematografie 1, 6 oktober 1922. Dutch weekly of cinematography. Lilian Harvey - Alexander Binder - EYE FOT136677.jpg, Filmstar

Lilian Harvey Lilian Harvey (born Helene Lilian Muriel Pape; 19 January 1906 – 27 July 1968) was an Anglo-German actress and singer, long based in Germany, where she is best known for her role as Christel Weinzinger in Erik Charell's 1931 film '' Der Kong ...

by Alexander Binder, 1920s Truus van Aalten - Alexander Binder - EYE FOT168482.jpg, Filmstar

Truus van Aalten Geertruida Everdina Wilhelmina van Aalten (August 2, 1910 – June 27, 1999) was a Dutch actress who appeared in many German films in the 1920s and 1930s. Biography Early life van Aalten was born on August 2, 1910, in Arnhem in family of ...

by Alexander Binder, 1920s Greta Garbo - Alexander Binder - EYE FOT57148.jpg, Filmstar

Greta Garbo Greta Garbo (born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson; 18 September 1905 – 15 April 1990) was a Swedish-American actress. Regarded as one of the greatest screen actresses, she was known for her melancholic, somber persona, her film portrayals of tragic c ...

by Alexander Binder, 1920s EYE Film Institute Netherlands - Nitrate film decay - 2.jpg, Film restoration

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Eye Film Institute Netherlands 1952 establishments in the Netherlands Amsterdam-Noord Archives in the Netherlands Cinema museums Film archives in Europe Film organisations in the Netherlands Media museums in the Netherlands Museums established in 1952 Museums in Amsterdam Articles containing video clips FIAF-affiliated institutions