Content from La Cinémathèque Française

Eric Rohmer leads a conversation with Jean Renoir and Henri Langlois on the art of filmmaker Louis Lumière.

Thirteen filmmakers share personal reflections on Henri Langlois—the visionary founder of the Cinémathèque Française—recounting his influence on their lives, his role in preserving film history, and his enduring impact on world cinema.

Edited from 4½ hours of unused material left over from the shooting of Jean Renoir's 1936 PARTIE DE CAMPAGNE (A Day in the Country) and donated by the producer Pierre Braunberger to the Cinémathèque Française. Re-edited for a new version, much of the film is shot with synchronised sound with Renoir's voice instructing and guiding the actors.

Truffaut au présent is a film divided in three shorts; throughout "Acteurs", "Actrices" and "Couples" we explore François Truffaut's legacy and influence on contemporary French cinema.

Jacqueline Gozlan - who left Algeria with her parents in 1961 - nostalgically retraces the history of the Algiers Cinematheque, inseparable from that of the country's Independence, through film extracts and numerous testimonies; notably that of one of its creators, Jean-Michel Arnold, but also of filmmakers such as Merzak Allouache and critics such as Jean Douchet. A place of life for Algerians, the Cinémathèque was the hub of African cinemas. Created in 1965 by Ahmed Hocine, Mahieddine Moussaoui and Jean-Michel Arnold, the Cinémathèque benefited from the excitement of Independence. The Cinematheque becomes a meeting place for Algiers society, future filmmakers find their best school there. In 1969, the Algiers Pan-African Festival brought together all African filmmakers, and from 1970, Boudjemâa Kareche developed a collection of Arab and African films.

Documentary on the beginnings of Algerian independence filmed during the summer of 1962 in Algiers. The film was banned in France and Algeria but won the Grand Prize at the Leipzig International Film Festival in 1965. Out of friendship, the production company Images de France sent an operator, Bruno Muel, who later declared: "For those who were called to Algeria (for me, 1956-58), participating in a film on independence was a victory over horror, lies and absurdity. It was also the beginning of my commitment to the cinema."

A red-haired boy is his mother's punching bag; only his father's presence is a great comfort to him, but this weak man is under the shrew's thumb. His pain is so great he feels suicidal.

Documentary about filmmaker Jean Grémillon.

This French documentary pays homage to a young man whose passion left a rich and valuable legacy to the world of cinema. Henri Langlois was one of the co-founders of the Cinematheque Francaise, a museum which contains many rare artifacts from early cinema as well as one of the most extensive film archives in the world. This documentary will be most meaningful for those already familiar with Langlois' story. Through old film clips and interviews, Langlois is seen as an eccentric but charismatic young visionary obsessed with preserving and locating old films. Filmmaker Edgardo Cozarinsky uses scenes from Citizen Kane to compare the portly iconoclast to Charles Foster Kane, in that both Langlois and Welle's fictional newspaper magnate where avid collectors, and both were men of mystery.

In 1912-1913, movie pioneer Gaston Méliès, brother of Georges Méliès, did a ten month long trip around Asia-Pacific, shooting both documentaries and fictions on location in Polynesia, New Zealand, Australia, Java, Singapore, Cambodia and Japan. He wanted the “real” thing” he filmed, with the locals, being one of the first to give Polynesians, Maoris, Aborigines and Khmers a chance to appear on screen. His hybrid cinema dealt with questions of alterity, identity and representation.

One hundred and twenty years of film history in a warehouse in Paris. In the reserves of the French Cinematheque, where thousands of cameras and projectors are sleeping on the shelves. Thousands of stationary machinery, we dream of getting back to work as a great machine back in time. To tell their story, the material history of cinema.