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Filmriss

Raphaela Häuser / hwMarch 12, 2013

When you just can't remember a thing...

https://p.dw.com/p/17vTw
Empty bottles and a man with his head in his hands
Image: Fotolia/lassedesignen

Before the arrival of digital cinema, there was a time when a tear in a role of film equated to a black-out screen until the projectionist got things back on track. It's just like the when a person has a gap in their memory after drinking rather too much alcohol, which is why in German it's called a Filmriss or "film tear."

Modern technology may have made the Filmriss a thing of the past in cinema, but there's still no cure for memory loss after a particularly heavy night on the town. Modern technology does however allow "friends" to circulate photos of those perhaps best forgotten hours for all to peruse on the Internet and perhaps jog the Filmriss-victim's memory.