Marshall and the Movies

Clearly I’m gasping for air with the factoid column as I dig way back into the annals of the bookmark folder I call “Factoid Material” for something to write about today.  I need to take a step back, take a deep breath, and remind myself that I like this column.  Also, I need to look at the number and remind myself that I have now been blogging for an astounding 549 days.  Wow.

I’ve had this article saved since September from io9, a site I don’t normally read (which means I must have stumbled across this article on IMDb’s Hit List), about the future of film and how it could be destroyed.  No, I don’t mean by Michael Bay’s movies, I mean by fungus.  Get this:

“Cinematographic film has a layer of gelatin on its surface. This emulsion layer is where the image is formed but also provides ideal food for fungi like Aspergillus and Penicillium.

If the fungus forms a layer of mould on a film it produces enzymes which allow it to use the film as food and to grow.

So the damage it can cause is irreversible as the mould ‘eats’ the image stored on the film’s surface.

While all film is potentially at risk, it is film that has been stored in damp conditions that is most likely to become infected in this way.”

This is obviously frightening to any film enthusiast, but at the same time, is there any need to be worried in a digitized age?  If everything exists on the Web out there, I don’t feel like any film could ever be truly lost.  From what I’ve read, only one Best Picture nominee has been lost, which is pretty good.  Never have I feared waking up and losing “The Social Network” when a disc sits on my desk with the movie on it.  As far as I’m concerned, cinematic history is as good as gold as long as it’s preserved somewhere other than celluloid.