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In August BFI Southbank, Britain’s only venue with a licence to show nitrate film, gives audiences a further opportunity to witness a selection of nitrate prints that haven’t been screened in the UK for over a decade with part 2 of Dangerous Beauty: The Joy of Nitrate Film taking place as part of Long Live Film: Celebrating 75 Years of the BFI National Archive, the two-month celebration of the world's most significant archive of the moving image that launched in July.

This is an unmissable opportunity to enjoy the unique quality of nitrate film on a big screen. Thanks to its high silver content, nitrate film in black and white has a wonderful lustre, while the vibrant colour of an original dye transfer Technicolor nitrate print is unforgettable. The intensity of the projected film experience is impossible to reproduce by any other means. The BFI National Archive contains what is believed to be among the world’s largest holdings of nitrate film (in excess of 180,000 cans).

From 1895 to 1952, films were shot on cellulose nitrate stock, which can be highly flammable and subject to drastic deterioration. These incendiary properties have inflamed the imaginations of filmmakers as varied as Giuseppe Tornatore and Quentin Tarantino. Archives the world over have tried, sometimes in vain, to preserve this fragile medium which can crumble away into dust. The survival of nitrate prints and negatives continues to be essential in this digital age – the recent restoration of Powell and Pressburger’s The Red Shoes (1948) depended on original nitrate negatives held by the BFI National Archive.