Cellulose nitrate film can be safely conserved if stored in the best possible conditions, following the strictest safety, hygrometric, and temperature norms. The arguments for and against research and methodology in dealing with deteriorated film and full-scale restoration work are taken into consideration. Film conservation cannot simply be narrowed down to passive surveillance; it is essential that they be restored as closely as possible to their original state. It is not an easy task given the absence of a conservation policy, despite all the efforts to this end by cinema libraries from the 1930s onwards. The problem arises at the various phases of the conservation processmreprinting, restoration, and reconstructionmbut also, and most especially, in the case of internationally distributed coproductions filmed without a live sound track. In this case the question arises of which version (the French, the Italian, or the English, for example) should be restored. Then there is the question of the various formatsmthe extended version for television, the abridged one for the cinema. Beside which there is the whole matter of whether one restores the film the public was able to see, or the one that the author intended it to see. Not to mention the question of the methodology that should be adopted in the knowledge that restoration can actually create a completely new version. The development of animated and sound material puts film archives in an awkward situation. A solution might be found in converting emulsion-based pictures into high definition digital video signals which offer the possibility of correcting both sound track and picture; both could be recorded in the form of a simple binary code recording using a selection of various materials to ensure their conservation.