Excerpts from Eva Novrup Redvall's short article about her visit to Francis Ford Coppola's Rubicon Estate where Henning Carlsen's collection of laterna magica is open for exhibition:
Only a handful of people know that Francis Ford Coppola worked at Laterna Film in Copenhagen in the 1960s. Inspired by the company's owner Mogens Skot-Hansen, Coppola became interested in Laterna Magica, the prototype of the modern slide projector, also known as magic lanterns. Among the lanterns is the zoetrope, a device that produces an illusion of action from a rapid succession of static pictures.
Coppola's passion for the early experiments of the moving image and his respect for the innovative pioneers led him to call his own company American Zeotrope. So, for years Coppola collected the antique projectors, and upon hearing the availability of Henning Carlsen's collection of magic lanterns and zoetropes, he became interested.
The Henning Carlsen Collection has found its ideal owner. Coppola bought the complete collection and has installed it on the first floor of his vineyard home, The Rubicon Estate, in California. Here you can see the antique projectors behind exhibition cases and learn of the mechanics behind the first projections of what later was to be the moving picture image. Both Coppola and Carlsen talk about the collection in a short film screening at the exhibition.
Read more about Coppola's Rubicon Estate. Henning Carlsen is an awardwinning Danish director. Currently working on a film project and reviewing the English translation of his latest book "Flyvske billeder"—about his interest in laterna magica. www.henning-carlsen.com.