François Ravidat

François Ravidat is a French film-maker, and the founder of Children Of The French Cinema.

Francois Ravidat was born in Paris, France. As a young man he studied in Japan and lived in the country to study Japanese Civilization, and International Commerce and Diplomacy at the International University of Okinawa. Later he lived in Seoul, Korea, where he specialized in international parfumes and fragrances.

After a time he moved back to Paris and became the International director of a major fragrance company. He moved into the haute couture industry, and specialized in international perfumery.

Ravidat has started the Children Of The French Cinema, a non-profit organization which has a mission to promote French cinema in the United States. His passion for the cinema started early in life, and he was able to meet Henri Langlois at the Cinemateque Francaise. At that time he met Abel Gance and was dedicated to the idea of French cinema and the propagation of the artistic expression of some of its great filmmakers. The French contribution to world cinema begins in 1889, when Emile Reynaud patented his Theatre Pique. This presentation system used perforated film strip, on which he painted such animated shorts as Pauvre Pierrot (1892) and La Premiere Cigare (1896). His medium was replaced by the live-action motion pictures taken with the Cinematographe of brothers Louis and Auguste Lumiere. The motion picture, therefore was started in France. There is a history of French filmmaking that preceded the now very recognized New Wave. Francois Ravidat is interested in the period prior to the New Wave. The films of Roger Vadim, Alain Resnais, Jean Cocteau and many others directed films prior to the fifties and should not be discounted because of the New Wave movement. Francois Ravidat has a large collection of such films and he is an astute film connoisseur and French film historian. He specializes in the period between The French Revolution and the Napoleonic Empire, and owns many films depicting this era.

Francois Ravidat has a passion for Napoleon and he has donated from his private library a vast collection of the original Moniteur Universel of the period 1800-1815 and more than 100 rare videos on Napoleon and the French Revolution to the Institute on Napoleon and the French Revolution of the Florida State University in Tallahassee.

He received the award of Chevalier de Order des Arts et des Letters‚ (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters) from the Ministry of Culture and Communication of France. He has also been named honor member‚ of the Henri Langlois Cinematheque, Tours, France.