Film as a Set of Practices: a performative distension of film restoration

Abstract

In this article I intend to explain how, in cinema, two fundamental concepts of film restoration (authentic and original) lack a total explication and comprehension. The concept of original film is one that usually manifests a mercantilist ideology of constant monetary renewal of the archive. However, there are some examples of films that having several versions escape the mercantilization of these concepts. Based on some of those examples, I propose the notion of film as a set of practices, that is to say, understanding a cinematographic work not as a singular and historically limited object, but rather as a plural object presenting its multiple versions as a permanently updated set (of practices) – paying special attention to the way different musical and sound practices embody an open notion of a filmic work. This notion of film as a set of practices in the context of film restoration, proposes in practical terms (with regard to the public visibility of the films), a distension of the film object proportional to the number of preserved versions. An example of film as a set of practices I  analyze, is the DVD which includes three distinct versions of Douro, Faina Fluvial (1931) by Manoel de Oliveira - three versions that differ in editing as well as in the score. This proposal derives from the transposition of the cataloguing practices of film archives into the home cinema universe (in the form of DVDs, Blu-rays, torrents, and streaming packages).