A museum of the cinema

Malta has a very long history of film making. Some very important films have been made in Malta, in total or in part. Yet, we seem incapable of exploiting this fact at all. While others manage to exploit every link of some kind, even if only one feature film was made there, we simply do not, and hardly any visitor to Malta knows of our experience in film making.

Sicily is one region that is trying hard to exploit the fact that a number of films, even for television, have been made there. They have organised trips to cities and sites where these have been shot. They have printed brochures about it. Above all, they are thinking of opening new museums while we seem content with revamping only what we have.

Various proposals I have put to the authorities about new museums have fallen on deaf ears.

I have recently had the occasion to visit the Museum of the Cinema, in Catania, which was only inaugurated in 2003. The work of Francois Confino, the same architect responsible for the National Museum of the Cinema in Torino, the one in Catania is proving to be one of the most visited museums in Sicily. It forms part of the cultural centre of Le Ciminiere. This industrial heritage has been turned into a place for museums, auditoriums, exhibition space etc., without doubt an example of very successful re-use of industrial heritage.

The museum is not at all a large one. It only covers 900 square metres. The experience is not only meant to acquaint the visitor with the historic development of the cinema but also an attempt to "involve" the visitor in that sentimentality that the cinema arouses.

What is incredible, in comparison to our situation, is that the museum is meant mainly to give value to the heyday of the cinema production industry in Catania, which only flourished in the first 15 years of the 20th century! Various films have however been made in the province, particularly on Mount Etna, and these are all given prominence in the museum.

The first part of the museum is a simple collection of projectors and other equipment coming from cinemas and dating between 1915 and 1964. A secondary part then explains, in a very innovative and attractive way, the first projection systems going back to the late 19th century. A very large animated installation by French artist Patrice Ferrasse, made for the museum, tries to raise interest in the mechanism and, at the same time, the myths of the cinema.

From the first part of the museum one walks through a passage with a number of closed cabinets that open up to reveal working models of systems of projections that preceded the ones we know today. I have no doubt that children in particular would be fascinated to see the simple but effective ways of the initial experiments with projections.

The next room is a gallery of large life-size "speaking" photos. These are interviews with important personalities and one can listen to people such as Claudia Cardinale and Lina Wertmuller speak about their experience of doing cinema in Sicily, particularly in Catania. There are also projections of parts of some of the most important films made there.

One is then asked to sit down in a miniature cinema and witness excerpts from some of the best known Italian and international films. The presentation, though short, manages to take the visitor through all the sentiments the cinema creates, including comedy, tragedy and love stories.

The visitor is then taken through a number of reconstructed rooms that represent typical cinema sets. Projected on large TV screens are scenes from a number of films related to the set in question. These rooms include a kitchen, a dining room, a bedroom, a bath and even a garage. In all there are nine such rooms that recreate the ambiance we are so used to see in films. It is all done in such a way as to promote interest and admiration.

The last part of the museum gives information about the cinema production companies.

Throughout the museum there is also a very large collection of cinema publicity posters, most of which have been lent to the museum by private collectors.

As in everything else, Sicily is also moving very fast to establish interest once more in the possibility of making films there. There are a number of film commissions that are working to offer the variety of sites, both natural and cultural, to production companies. Whenever this subject came up for discussion during my various meetings with politicians there I have always emphasised that they should try to collaborate with Malta rather than compete with us (and they are certainly ready to do so).

Catania, with so few film productions, has managed to organise a really interesting museum. Malta, with such a multitude of important film productions to its name, does not have such a museum. I have no doubt that such a museum, in a joint venture between Heritage Malta and the Film Commission, would be an extremely attractive site especially if we can reproduce parts of the original sets of some of the well-known films shot here.

It need not be a very costly proposition and there are a number of sites where this could be done, particularly in the Cottonera area. Part of the museum could actually show how the modern productions are made, including both the building of the sets by our excellent craftsmen and also the use of modern computer technology.

When I mention to colleagues of mine some of the films made in Malta they are quite surprised as they never knew that some of the scenes of those films were shot here. I have no doubt that this is the case with most tourists who come our way. If we show them that such big films were made here then they will consider this as added value to Malta, in terms of what the island has to offer, its heritage and the skills of its talented artistes.

A museum of the cinema in Malta would without doubt prove to very popular. We should commemorate the films made here both to record the fact for posterity but also as an added tourist attraction. Malta needs new attractions. We need to give more added value to the Malta "product". This could certainly be one of them.