Cinematheque Francaise
| Established | 1936 |
|---|---|
| Purpose | Film archive |
| Headquarters | 51 Rue de Bercy 75012 Paris, France |
| Location |
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| Coordinates | 48°50′13″N 2°22′57″E / 48.8369°N 2.3825°E |
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Key people
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Henri Langlois & Georges Franju (Co-founders) |
| Website | www.cinematheque.fr |
The Cinémathèque Française (French pronunciation: [sinematɛk fʁɑ̃sɛz]) is a French film organization that holds one of the largest archives of film documents and film-related objects in the world. Based in Paris, the archive offers daily screenings of worldwide films.
The collection emerged from the efforts of Henri Langlois in the 1930s to collect and screen films. Langlois had acquired one of the largest collections in the world by the beginning of World War II, only to have it nearly wiped out by the German authorities in occupied France, who ordered the destruction of all films made prior to 1937. He and his friends smuggled huge numbers of documents and films out of occupied France to protect them until the end of the war.
After the war, the French government provided a small screening room, staff and subsidy for the collection, which was first relocated to the Avenue de Messine. Significant French filmmakers of the 1940s and 1950s, including Robert Bresson, René Clément, Henri-Georges Clouzot and Jacques Becker frequented screenings at the Cinémathèque. Directors of the New Wave (la Nouvelle Vague) school — Alain Resnais, Jacques Rivette, François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol, Roger Vadim, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze, and Pierre Kast — also received much of their film education by attending the collection's screenings.
In June 1963, the Cinémathèque had moved to the Palais de Chaillot with funds provided by André Malraux, Minister of Culture, and became subject to the government. In February 1968, under pressure from the Ministry of Finance, Malraux required changes in the management of the Cinémathèque and dismissed Henri Langlois.
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