19/11/2002 - In Paris the festival dedicated to films rediscovered by Lobster Film presented a color copy of Voyage dans la Lune

During the Cined@ys 2002, the Parisian cinema Le Trianon presented a color copy of Georges Méliès most famous 1902 film, Voyage dans la Lune, which was recently found again in Spain.
This “premier” was organized by the Lobster Films association for the occasion of the 10th edition of ‘Retour de flammes’, a festival dedicated to films that have been serendipitously discovered in cellars, flea markets, and old barns.
Serge Bromberg and Eric Lange took two years to restore this nitrate copy of Voyage dans la Lune, thanks to their expertise in chemistry and the latest in digital technologies. The original was made in black and white and then colored one image at a time. The film was found in an advanced state of deterioration, but its restoration was imperative, as Voyage dans la Lune, was the first film to be declared as part of our human heritage by UNESCO. Other works presented included Excursion dans la Lune – a colored movie by Spanish artist Segundo del Chomon. This is the latest title to be added to Lobster Films’ impressive collection. The association owns about seventy thousand reels that range from the dawn of cinema to the 1960’s. Lobster Film is planning to organize its own festival-market in London next year (at the British Film Institute), as well as in Vienna and New York. These events represent a worldwide journey to confirm France’s renown in the field of film restoration: the same Film Archives Service of the National Center of Cinematography, for example, has discovered and restored Bucking Broadway, a silent western made by John Ford in 1917.

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(Translated from French)