Bolesław Matuszewski

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Boleslaw Matuszewski (October 21, 1856 Pinczow, Poland, died c.1943) was a Polish cameraman and employee of the Lumière company. In 1897, after assuming the position of photographer to Tsar Nicholas II, he used the Lumières' Cinématographe to record the official visit to St. Petersburg, of the French President Félix Faure. After the visit, Otto von Bismarck accused Faure of not baring his head before the Russian flag on his disembarkation. However, this accusation could be confidently rejected -- and Bismarck's malevolent manoeuvre exposed - thanks to the proof provided in black-and-white by Matuszewski's documentary. He wrote two of the earlist books on cinema: Une nouvelle source de l'histoire (Paris, 1898) and La photographie animée (1898). Une nouvelle source de l'histoire is recognised as the first written work to consider the historical value of film and to suggest the importance of Film Archives.

[edit] References

• Editing Boleslaw, Who's Who of Victorian Cinema, Retreived October 26, 2006.
• 100 Years of Cinema: Remembering Boleslaw Matuszewski, Kinema, Spring 2005.