Through the lens of vintage film cameras
‘The Magnificent Five’ exhibition at Paragon Cineplex displays the classic film devices of yesteryear
The five cameras are displayed in a glass box in the glitziest multiplex in town. Spot the irony? The quintet of vintage cameras in “The Magnificent Five” exhibition are film devices — meaning they record motion pictures through chemical reaction and imprint them on a strip of celluloid. These antiquated machines are on show at Paragon Cineplex, which, like virtually all cinemas in the world today, screens film using the digital system, by which a technician playbacks packaged data stored in a hard drive.
In short, film was once physical — you could actually touch it. Now it’s abstract, ephemeral, all 1 and 0.
Curated by Thai Film Archive (Public Organisation), “The Magnificent Five” brings back five classic film cameras — sturdy and sophisticated in body and mechanism, while their appearances in a modern multiplex inspire a philosophical reflection on the voyage of motion picture technology in the past 120 years. These are the handsome grandfathers who make a surprise visit to the house of their distant, digital grandchildren.
But the allegory preferred by Dome Sukvong, film historian and Thai Film Archive director, is not one about technology but about religion. The Thai title Dome has given to the exhibition is “Benjapakee” (literally “The Fellowship Of The Five”), a term borrowed from the amulet trade referring to the five most coveted, most sacred Buddha amulets. Those who possess all five of them are said to be the most powerful. For Dome, these five cameras exhibit the same holy vibe as the spiritual talismans.
Even if you’re not an expert and couldn’t care less if Suicide Squad or City Light you’re watching on the screen is projected by 35mm film or a digital drive, the five cameras at the lobby of Paragon Cineplex are just beautiful to look at — a marvel of early-20th century handmade apparatuses and functional design, all in the service of a new invention that would soon become one of the biggest industries in the world.
In “The Magnificent Five”, Dome explains that the oldest model on show is called Pathe Studio. Developed by the Frenchman Charles Morand Pathe in 1903, the camera is covered in Moroccan pig skin and houses a complicated film mechanism. Before World War I, it was the most popular film camera in the world. It was also the camera used by Prince Sappasart Supakit, the pioneer of filmmaking in Siam.
During the silent film era, the Bell & Howell 2709 camera, first built in 1909, was the reliable workhorse. It was originally a manual camera, requiring the cameraman to roll the film while shooting, before an electronic motor was attached in a later upgrade. Charlie Chaplin owned one of this beauty; in Siam, it was the camera used by Henry McRae to film Nang Sao Suwanna ( Suwanna of Siam) in 1923.
Next is the Debrie Parvo camera, made by Joseph Jules Debrie in 1908. A machine of cubist elegance, it can load 390 feet of 35mm film and was a favourite camera of the Soviet masters such a Sergei Eisenstein and Dziga Vertov. It was also used extensively by Siamese cameramen to record newsreel footage.
Iconic in its look, the Mitchell Standard is perhaps what people today still remember how a film camera looks. Built in 1921 by Henry Boger and George Alfred Mitchell, it can load up to 1,000 feet of 35mm film, and it became popular among Hollywood filmmakers when “talking pictures” replaced silent film in the 1930s.
And finally we have Ariflex, developed in 1937 by August Arnold and Robert Richter. Boasting a simple loading system with three rotating lenses, this lightweight camera was a standard device after World War II. Thai filmmakers in the 35mm era, beginning in the 1970s, relied on this camera in their shooting, even when the model was discontinued in 1978.
It may be difficult for the smartphone generation, where moving images can be recorded through a few pushes of a button, to imagine a time when motion pictures required bulky machines to ensure that atomised light and shadow could be captured. “The Magnificent Five” is about old-fashioned tools, but they are also a precious reminder of how the magic of cinema has evolved over time. “The Magnificent Five” is on view at Paragon Cineplex until Sept 18. Tomorrow film historian Dome Sukvong and Thai cinematographer Panya Nimcharoenpong will give a talk at the venue.
It may be difficult for the smartphone generation to imagine a time when motion pictures required bulky machines