There is an episode of Mr. Bean where he is tearing pages out of an archive/old book (sorry I can’t remember the precise details)

 

 

 

"Defence of the Realm" has Gabriel Byrne trying the old cough-loudly-while-ripping-out-a-record trick when investigating a government cover-up. Also, Abel Ganz's "Napoleon" has a scene in a vast records centre, where staff are pulled up and down on rope pulleys to find or return records; the focus is on one worker who surreptitiously ate the records of aristocrats so that the revolutionaries would not identify and execute them. I read (afraid I cannot now recall the source) of a similar response to the possible use of archives by Dutch archivists who misfiled, though didn't destroy, records of Jewish citizens, in order to protect them from the Nazi regime.

 

From: Archivists, conservators and records managers. [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of David Hay
Sent: 21 September 2007 14:12
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: RM in cinema

 At least we're spared the ethical dilemmas faced by our museum colleagues - given the undoubted antiquity and historical significance of the 'One Ring' is it really responsible of Gandalf to chuck into a fire so he can read it better (surely he could conjure up some UV from his staff, even if he didn't have a Phial of Galadriel?), and then demand it be destroyed in a volcanic eruption?

 

The again this wasn't in a museum context so that's all right then.

 

Any fictional or non-fictional instances of archives being destroyed because of alleged evil corrupting powers associated with them? Or archivists being corrupted by such records in their custody?

 

David Hay
Head of Heritage
BT Group plc
Phone: 020 7440 4227  Fax: 020 7242 1967
Email: [log in to unmask]  [log in to unmask]
 
BT Archives, Third Floor, Holborn TE, 268-270 High Holborn, London WC1V 7EE
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 ----- Original Message -----

From: [log in to unmask]">Steven Davies

To: [log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask]

Sent: Friday, September 21, 2007 1:25 PM

Subject: RM in cinema - Lord of the Rings

 

Dear All

Just to throw this a little wider - a good clip to use for both RM and Archives is found in "The Fellowship of the Ring"

In a clip lasting only a few seconds, Gandalf is shown into an archive where just about everything that can be done wrong in an archive, happens...

• He is led there by a servant who carries a burning brand
• He is left alone in a strongroom without supervision
• He is allowed to smoke (a lot)
• He is provided with a big cup of water that he slurps while poring over documents
• Documents are stored in piles all over the place, no boxes in sight
• He is allowed as many documents as he wants at the same time
• Archives are covered in dust and cobwebs, that produce great clouds when he blows on them

And of course...the archives are at the bottom of a winding stair, in some dungeon!

The vital document is in there somewhere, and he eventually finds it, and without the information contained within it the good guys would have lost, it would have been the end of the world etc...very valuable archives then, strange how they were not being cared for properly!

Seriously, though, I think it would make a good clip for a training video ("spot the mistakes...") if anyone wants to negotiate the use of it with New Line Cinema, particularly given the popularity of the film

Steven Davies
Archivist
Flintshire Record Office

James Lowry <[log in to unmask]> Sent by: "Archivists, conservators and records managers." <[log in to unmask]> 21/09/2007 12:41 Please respond to James Lowry <[log in to unmask]>

To [log in to unmask] cc   Subject RM in cinema.

Again, apologies for cross-posting.

Further to my recent enquiry on this list about records management training videos, I am trying now to think of films or television programmes that portray the practice or effects of record keeping (good or bad). I have seen a number of espionage/political thriller films like this, but can't remember any of the titles.

I've seen this topic discussed on this list before, so I apologise for returning to the subject again.

Can anyone recommend to me, perhaps off list, any films that might illustrate records management fundamentals?

Thanks in advance,

James Lowry.

---

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