Since 1957, the Netherlands Film Museum in Amster- dam has been in possession of the Desmet Collec- tion, which contains the estate of the Dutch cinema IVO BLOM DUTCH FILM TRADE JEAN DESMET AND THE EARLY owner and film distributor Jean Desmet (1875-1956). FILM FILM The history of this strangely retiring ‘showman’ offers not simply an abstract of an individual character and CULTURE CULTURE his personal ambitions and motivations, but also IN TRANSITION IN TRANSITION epitomises the transformation of cinema into a dis- tinctively modern industry. Between 1907 and 1916, the world of cinema experienced radical structural change, which Desmet not only wit- nessed but also helped to bring about. Given the insufficiencies of Dutch film production, Desmet became a link between film production abroad and film exhibition in the Netherlands. In this original and wide-ranging study, Ivo Blom uses the career of Jean Desmet as a means of exploring the history of cinema from the ground-level perspective of film distribution and exhibition. His sociologically nuanced, co- piously illustrated and scrupulously documen- ted story of ‘Citizen Desmet’ swells into an epic narrative of early urban cinema culture. Ivo Blom (1960) is a lecturer in Film Studies at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. JJEANEAN DESMETDESMET andand thethe ISBN 90-5356-463-2 EarlyEarly DutchDutch FilmFilm TradeTrade 9 789053 564632 ivo blom Amsterdam University Press AmsterdamAmsterdam UniversityUniversity PressPress WWW.AUP.NL Blom DEF 05-01-2004 12:24 Pagina 1 Jean Desmet and the Early Dutch Film Trade Blom DEF 05-01-2004 12:24 Pagina 2 Jean Desmet c.1915 Blom DEF 05-01-2004 12:24 Pagina 3 Jean Desmet and the Early Dutch Film Trade Ivo Blom Amsterdam University Press Blom DEF 05-01-2004 12:24 Pagina 4 Deze publicatie werd mede mogelijk gemaakt dankzij financiële bijdragen van: – Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds – Leerstoelgroep Film- en Televisiewetenschap van de Universiteit van Amsterdam – Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek Front cover illustration: una tragedia al cinematografo (Cines 1913) Back cover illustration: Jean Desmet Translated by James Lynn Cover design: Kok Korpershoek, Amsterdam Lay-out: Magenta, Bussum isbn 90 5356 570 1 (hardcover) isbn 90 5356 463 2 (paperback) nur 672 / 674 © Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam, 2003 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, me- chanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permis- sion of both the copyright owner and the author of the book. Blom DEF 05-01-2004 12:24 Pagina 5 Film history, as every discipline, is somewhat like a gang of vandals. Once a territory has been dug up, the barbarians (in this case our- selves) start looking for another area to ravage. The good thing is that the results of this sudden, violent and creative event were spectacular. Once left alone, the Desmet Collection will probably be able to deliver other ideas and unexpected directions of research we have never thought of. But it will take time, and maybe a little less obsession for discovering the new at any cost. Paolo Cherchi Usai to the author, 23 December 1995 Blom DEF 05-01-2004 12:24 Pagina 6 Blom DEF 05-01-2004 12:24 Pagina 7 Ta b le of Contents Preface 11 Abbreviations, Unidentified Films and Historical Currencies 16 Introduction 19 1. The Story Behind the Collection: A Career and Its Perspectives 22 2. Film Distribution as the Missing Link 25 3. The Career in Perspective 33 I. La Comète Belge Jean Desmet’s Travelling Cinema, The Imperial Bio (1907-1910) 37 1. Desmet’s Debut in Dutch Film Culture 37 2. Lutte pour la Vie: Jean Desmet on the Fairground 44 3. The Imperial Bio Grand Cinematograph 52 II. In The Beginning… Film Distribution in the Netherlands Before Desmet 77 1. Nöggerath 77 2. Pathé 80 3.Fresh Developments 82 III. Gold Rush In the Throes of Cinema Mania (1909-1914) 89 1. Desmet in Rotterdam 90 2. Desmet Goes to Amsterdam 102 3. The Hierarchy of Permanent Cinemas 112 4. New Desmet Cinemas Outside Amsterdam: the Gezelligheid in Rotterdam, the Cinema Palace in Bussum 128 IV. Film Market Europe Buying Films Abroad (1910-1914) 133 1. Second-Hand Films (1910-1912) 133 2. Between Brussels and Berlin. Desmet’s Purchases 1912-1914 144 Blom DEF 05-01-2004 12:24 Pagina 8 8 Jean Desmet and the Early Dutch Film Trade 3. Survey of Desmet’s Purchases 1910-1914 184 V. White Slave Girls and German Kultur Film Rental and Distribution Strategies in the Netherlands (1910-1914) 187 1. The Beginnings of Desmet’s Distribution Business and the Consolidation of His Clientele (1910-1912) 188 2. Films by the Kilometre 191 3. ‘Monopoly’ Films. Distributing the Exclusive Film in the Netherlands (1913-1914) 199 4. Mature Clients. Desmet’s Shifting Clientele (1912-1914) 206 5. Expansion. Distribution in Belgium, the Dutch East Indies and Elsewhere 212 VI. Onésime et Son Collègue Competition (1910-1914) 217 1. Gildemeijer versus Desmet. The Tug-of-War for Asta Nielsen 218 2. Desmet versus Pathé. Competitor and Client 222 3. Nöggerath, Desmet and the Italian Costume Epics 227 4. New Competitors 232 5. The Ranks Close. The Trade Journals and Control of the Cinemas 238 VII. Das Ende vom Lied The Impact of the First World War (1914-1916) 243 1. The Impact of the Outbreak of the First World War on the Dutch Film Trade and Film Availability in the Netherlands 243 2. Jean Desmet’s Wartime Purchases 251 3. Desmet’s Wartime Clientele 267 4. Mounting Competition 272 VIII. Quo Vadis? Desmet’s Film Rental and Cinema Operation During the Great War (1914-1916) 277 1. The Exhibition and Reception of Desmet’s Films During the War Years 277 Blom DEF 05-01-2004 12:24 Pagina 9 Table of Contents 9 2. Desmet’s Cinema Operations and Dutch Cinemas (1914-1916) 291 3. New Cinemas in the Desmet Family 298 IX. Afterlife A New Career and the Beginning of a Collection 305 1. The Dutch Film World from 1916. The Demise of Desmet as a Motion Picture Exhibitor 305 2. Desmet’s Activities after 1916 314 3. The End of Desmet’s Film Distribution Business 318 4. Jean Desmet’s Career after the First World War: Cinema Royal and the Flora Project 322 5.From Film Stocks to Museum Pieces 327 X. In Retrospect Jean Desmet’s Place in Film History 337 1. The Netherlands in an International Perspective: ‘Open’ and ‘Closed’ Situations 337 2. The Institutionalisation, Internationalisation and Localisation of Cinema 341 3. Who’s in Charge? 343 4. Between Conservatism and Modernity 349 5. Business Archive or Trade Press? 353 6. The Perspective of the Present 355 Notes 361 Bibliography 437 Photo Credits 453 Index of Film Titles 455 General Index 463 Blom DEF 05-01-2004 12:24 Pagina 10 Blom DEF 05-01-2004 12:24 Pagina 11 Preface It’s fighting a losing battle. Even if I were able to decipher all the hand- writing, even if I had a decent amount of Dutch and European history at my fingertips, I would still be looking through the keyhole of an other- wise sealed door, my vision confined to what the impassive keyhole deigned to show or conceal. Each of these letters is a keyhole like this.1 Some writers may have to struggle with a lack of source material, but the principal source of this book – the business archive of Jean Desmet – is a wall of written paper. The keyhole metaphor is entirely appropriate, although there are, properly speaking, many keyholes. I looked in on Desmet himself, but also on his customers, suppliers and competitors. Hundreds of different stories, sometimes contradicting each other, yet all revealing the complexity of (film) history. In a Pathé farce called un coup d’oeil par étage (1904), a concierge peeps through the keyholes on each floor of his building and dis- covers a fire on the top floor. We come upon signs of damage by fire and water in Desmet’s business archive as well. In 1938, a fire broke out at the top of the Cinema Parisien, his cinema in Amsterdam. Both Desmet’s films and his business records were very nearly lost, and this book would never have been written. My book is a condensed and reworked version of a dissertation, originally written in Dutch, which was awarded a doctorate by the University of Am- sterdam in March 2000. The original idea of the study goes back to the end of the 1980s. In 1988 Nelly Voorhuis and I were organising a festival of Italian cinema before 1945 entitled ‘Il primo cinema italiano 1905-1945’, which marked my introduction to early Italian film, to the Giornate del Cinema Muto at Pordenone, Italy, and to the international community of film histori- ans. I became fascinated by the ‘mainstream cinema’ of the decade 1910-1920. It was only then that I became properly acquainted with the Desmet Collec- tion, and we selected several of Desmet’s Italian films for the festival pro- gramme. Together with the film historian and festival programmer Paolo Cherchi Usai, I looked at unrestored Desmet films at the Netherlands Film- museum’s auxiliary branch in Overveen. It was the first time I had seen ni- trate films, with their bright monochrome tinting, or caught the stale odour of decomposing nitrate stock. I soon got used to this smell as it happened, for a month later I joined the archive staff at Overveen, where I spent the next five Blom DEF 05-01-2004 12:24 Pagina 12 12 Jean Desmet and the Early Dutch Film Trade years looking at nitrate films.