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| Conrad Veidt, Lil Dagover and George Alexander in Liebe macht blind |
In the summer of 2025, the Valparaíso Recovered Film Festival in Chile announced that they were planning to screen a newly discovered print of Liebe macht blind, a 1925 silent film previously considered lost to the ravages of time. For the ride or die Conrad Veidt fans, this was a pretty big deal. Of Veidt's 100+ title filmography, nearly half are thought to be lost. The combination of volatile materials, inadequate storage and preservation, and/or the destruction by state or national governments under the guise of censorship and erasure all mean that the vast majority of films produced before 1930 have effectively disappeared off the face of the Earth, or at the very least are in such poor condition that restoration isn't an option. The numbers vary depending on who you ask, but as many as 90% of all silent films could be lost to us.
So naturally, when one of these films resurfaces, it's major news. Over time, one becomes resigned to the very real possibility that you'll never get to see these lost treasures. But when one is found, it feels like a little glimmer of hope, you think maybe there are other gems somewhere out there too.
With Liebe macht blind, it's a rare, and nearly miraculous, case of a complete print being found in relatively good condition. Jaime Cordova, director of the Valparaíso Recovered Film Festival, was lucky enough to come across the 35 mm nitrate print seemingly randomly in Santiago, Chile. This discovery is unique, says Cordova, because Chile wasn't a big hub for cinephiles in the early 20th century the way neighboring countries were. Apparently there had also once been another copy of the film in the United States, but it was reportedly in really bad shape, rendering salvage attempts virtually impossible. Old film is incredibly fragile and susceptible to extensive deterioration, but thankfully there are a number of archival institutions working with prints and fragments of existing films, such as Mexico's Cineteca Nacional where Cordova sent his copy of Liebe macht blind.