- Henri Langlois
Henri Langlois (
November 13 ,1914 -January 13 ,1977 ) was a pioneer offilm preservation and restoration. [ [http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=2:187992~T1 AllMovieGuide: Henri Langlois] ] He was one of the co-founders of theCinémathèque Française Biography
Langlois was born in
İzmir ,Turkey . He started his archives with private funds and only a handful of films, but over the next few decades the collection grew to many thousands of titles, and the French government started financing it.Career at the Cinémathèque Française
Henri Langlois,
Georges Franju , andJean Mitry founded the "Cinémathèque Française ", their Paris-based film theater and museum, in 1936 [ [http://www.francemagazine.org/articles/issue75/article131.asp?issue_id=75&article_id=131 FFrance Magazine: La Cinémathèque Française] ] . It grew from ten films in 1936 to more than 60,000 films by the early 70s. More than just an archivist, Langlois saved, restored and showed many films that were at risk of disintegration. Besides films, Langlois also helped to preserve other items related to cinema such as cameras, projection machines, costumes and vintage theater programmes. These items would evolve into Langlois' museum collection, which was a two-mile span of film artifacts and memorabilia in the Palais de Chaillot. The collection was relocated due to damage from a fire in 1997.During the
Second World War , Langlois and his colleagues helped to save many films that were at risk of being destroyed due to the Nazi occupation ofFrance , including a reel of Chaplin's The Great Dictator.Langlois made an important impact on the French 1960s New Wave directors, including
François Truffaut ,Jean-Luc Godard ,Jacques Rivette ,Claude Chabrol andAlain Resnais among others, and the generation of filmmakers that followed. Some of these filmmakers were called "les enfants de la cinémathèque" ("children of the cinémathèque"), as they could often be found in the front row of packed screenings.Firing and Reinstatement
In 1968, French culture minister
Andre Malraux tried to fire Langlois by stopping funding of the project, allegedly due to Langlois' arrogance and iron-fisted rule. Local and international uproar ensued, and even the prestigiousCannes Film Festival was halted in protest that year. Protests in Paris included the New Wave film-makers and activist Daniel Cohn-Bendit. Support came in telegrams from renowned directors, from Hitchcock to Kurosawa to Fellini. Malraux eventually backtracked and reinstated Langlois after intense debate, while reducing museum funding.Later life
In 1974, Langlois received an honorary Academy Award for his lifetime work with the Cinémathèque. He passed away three years later and is interred in the
Cimetière du Montparnasse in Paris.Place Henri Langlois in the 13th arrondissement in Paris is named in his honour.
Documentaries About His Work
In 1970, an
English language documentary entitled "Henri Langlois" was made about his life's work, featuring inteviews withIngrid Bergman ,Lillian Gish ,François Truffaut ,Catherine Deneuve ,Jeanne Moreau and others.In 2004–2005, Jacques Richard directed another documentary of Langlois's career, "The Phantom of the Cinémathèque". It features interviews with friends, colleagues, academics, and such movie luminaries as Simone Signoret, Godard, Chabrol, and Truffaut.
In popular culture
Bernardo Bertolucci weaved the closing of the Cinémathèque into the beginning of his 2003 film "The Dreamers" — a film about young lovers amidst the 1968 French uprisings.ee also
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Musée du Cinema - Henri Langlois (no longer in existence)References
External links
* [http://youtube.com/watch?v=B3tIRCYQi3I A video tribute to Henri Langlois]
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