Fairground attraction
Prior to World War II, conservation was an unknown term in the film world. Film was a disposable commodity. Once the audience had tired of a film, it would be destroyed. No one hankered after old films, it was all about the new ones. Film was seen as a kind of fairground attraction, fleeting entertainment. The realisation that films are part of our cultural heritage was completely lacking not only in the Netherlands, but in the film world internationally. An attitude that didn’t change until the 1930s. Gradually, the insight dawned that films have a cultural value and so it is important to preserve them. A film museum was set up in Paris in 1936 (La Cinémathèque française), followed two years later by the Belgian Cinematek in Brussels.