Henri Langlois (1914 - 1977)
Related: Cinémathèque Française - French cinema - 1914
"Langlois has written a non-stop film called La Cinémathèque française." --Jean-Luc Godard
Langlois had an important influence on the French 1960s New Wave directors, which includes Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol and Alain 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"). [Aug 2006]
Born in the same year: Sun Ra - William Burroughs - Mario Bava
Henri Langlois: Phantom of the Cinematheque (2004) - Jacques Richard [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Profile
Henri Langlois (November 13, 1914 - January 13, 1977) was, with George Franju and Jean Mitry, the co-founder of the Cinémathèque Française (a Paris-based film theater and museum) in 1936 and is regarded as a pioneer in film preservation and restoration.
Langlois was born in Izmir, 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 titles and the French government started financing it.
More than just an archivist, Langlois saved, restaured and showed many films that were in risk of disappearing physically. Films are stored in celluloid, a material which requires a highly controlled environment and some degree of attention to survive over time.
During the Second World War, Langlois and his colleagues helped to save many films that were in risk of being destroyed due to the Nazi occupation of France.
Langlois's desire to save films from oblivion may be rooted in the partial destruction, and consequent looting, of his place of birth in World War I. At the time of Langlois's birth, Izmir was a Greek city then named Smyrna. The port city was partially destroyed in the hostilities after World War I after the Greeks attacked Turkey from a base there which they had occupied. It was then rebuilt after 1922. The large Greek population was expelled or killed.
Besides films, Langlois also helped to preserve other items linked to cinema such as cameras, projection machines, costumes and vintage theater programmes.
Langlois made an important impact on the French 1960s New Wave directors, which includes Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol and Alain 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").
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 prestigious Cannes Film Festival was halted in protest that year. Malraux bracktracked.
Up to his death in Paris in 1977, Langlois was trying to expand the projects to other countries, such as the U.S. Many other countries all over the world have similar projects inspired in the Cinematheque.
Langlois received an honorary Oscar for his lifetime work with the Cinémathèque. Also, a street in Paris is named after him: Place Henri Langlois in the 13th arrondissement. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Langlois [Aug 2004]
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