The Brilliant Biograph: Earliest Moving Images of Europe (1897-1902)

The film documents a debate about early 20th century films, mainly 1910 to 1920, from short news reels to excerpts from full-length movies. At Amsterdam's Film Museum, film directors, students, and film researchers and archivists look at the moving images and discuss their meaning, in the social and technical contexts. Moody live music was added to the edited film.

The most transcendent and controversial event since the invention of the seventh art: the disappearance of photographic film. What for many people seems to be simply the result of technological evolution, brings with it paradoxes and contradictions that endanger photographic film heritage and accelerate its deterioration.

Part of the series made for VPRO TV comprising films from the silent era. This part is a compilation of short films restored by the Netherlands Film Museum from the period 1897 to 1899. They were made by the Biograph & Mutoscope Company in Holland and abroad. The films were shot on the 68mm format that soon went out of fashion.

An archival fiction feature about the eternal battle of the sexes, in which two star-crossed lovers trapped in a kingdom of shadows fight to keep their love alive as they gradually fall in hate. Their names are Forever Man and Forever Woman. They are embodied by actors and actresses from long-gone eras, but also by cartoon characters and puppet animations. Together they narrate the story of the euphoric ups and tragic downs of human existence. When Forever Dies, a virtuoso collage of film fragments from the Eye Filmmuseum archive, is an epic ode to largely unseen cinema anchored in the polarizing world of today.

After World War I jazz music unites the divided countries of Europe. The new formed Jazz Republic introduces an unlimited amount of Eurobonds for all Europeans to live upon the interest of one's money. It leads to a complete bankruptcy. This film is an adaptation of a screenplay that the Flemish poet Paul van Ostaijen wrote in Berlin and Antwerp between 1919 and 1921.

Various MGM stars from yesterday present their favorite musical moments from the studio's 50 year history.