Synopsis
Documentary portrait of Henri Langlois, co-founder of the Cinémathèque Française.
Langlois
1970 Directed by Eila Hershon, Roberto Guerra
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J'ignorais que ce film existait mais maintenant que je le sais, je vous dis qu'il est incontournable. Bonus : c'est la plus belle visite filmée de Paris que j'aie faite.
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A pleasant 50-minute way to learn about Henri Langlois and his efforts to archive 60,000 films. I’d never heard of the guy but he’s a big deal with film buffs. He has lots of famous friends willing to gush about him in this including Catherine Deneuve, Ingrid Bergman and Jean Renoir. All of them back in the smoking era, when gorgeous celebrities hid behind veils of smoke.
I was more interested in these celebs to be honest, especially Lillian Gish, the star of many a DW Griffith film. The movie gives the first words to her:
"History must be divided into 4 epochs - ancient, mediaeval, modern and the motion pictures. The stone age, the bronze age, the age of…
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Simone Signoret: "After the war, when he was not yet helped, and he was still the man who organized the whole Cinémathèque by himself with no real help by the government or anything, he would sometimes organize a projection and then stop after the first reel, judging that the people who were in the audience were not good enough for the film he was showing. So he would stop and say, 'Light, please,' and say 'No, you're too stupid. I know what I'm going to show you.' And he would show a stupid film because he thought that the audience was not worth the picture he was showing."
Langlois: "50,000 films. The secret of the Cinémathèque Française is not the 50,000, and is not because I make seven shows a day. It is not that. This is so ridiculous as to say that the Cathedral de Chartres is so beautiful because it has 50,000 stones."
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A great lil introduction to Henri Langlois and his Cinematheque Franciase, which I’m glad to have learned about here. The footage of Langlois espousing his thoughts on camera while visiting places in Paris that are significant to him gave this a personal touch that gives a sense of his irreverent, playful personality.
Watched on Criterion Channel
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This is actually the second documentary about Henri Langlois (the founder of the French Cinematheque in Paris) that I have seen, the first was at the Seoul Cinematheque a few years ago and I recall it being nearly four hours long, thus it was much more in-depth than this one, but 'Langlois' is still worth watching for the vintage interviews with great actresses like Ingrid Bergman, Jeanne Moreau, Simone Signoret, and Catherine Deneuve.
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Langlois holds court in the snowy streets of Paris speaking broken English and ascending the Eiffel Tower where he says he saw Rene Clair film Paris qui dort... What's not to like?
Briefly we also Langlois visit the set of The Wild Child with Catherine Deneuve. When was the last time actors of that caliber had this level of mythic affection for archivists?
Eccentric interviews with Viva (husband Michel Auder appears from under a sheet at one point) and Kenneth Anger round out the more familiar cast of characters (Deneuve, Signoret, Moreau...). Kind of feels like the filmmakers just walked around Paris for a day knocking on doors... "Hey, let's go see if Jean Renoir's home!"... Great informal stuff.
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Entertaining movie that partially attempts to capture the man in all his weird idiosyncrasies. Would have preferred it if the movie focused on what he achieved and not just how weird he is. That being said, god bless the man and everything he has ever done for cinema. A saint!
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Strange little documentary about a man so obsessed with film and film-making that his devotion led to the establishment of the greatest film archive of the time. It's a little slow for the first 20 minutes, but then you start to learn that his single-minded commitment to collecting and preserving films led him to stand up to Nazis during the occupation of Paris, and things just get wilder from there. He's definitely on the spectrum; most of the leading lights of Paris cinema doing talking head commentary declare a tremendous respect for him and his role in film history, but few can stop themselves from a comment about how he's "a little strange." Extra points for a brief bit from Kenneth Anger, who is not at all what I expected from having read some of his writing and interviews.