Henri Langlois: The Phantom of the Cinematheque
Posted by Jared
Le Fantôme d'Henri Langlois (2004)
Jacques Richard
viewed 02.01.06
Henri Langlois got it.
The beloved founder of the Cinémathèque Française exhausted himself preserving and presenting the greatest film art in the world. While studios were destroying movies no longer in circulation Langlois bought or stole every can of film he encountered. He once sold his return plane ticket from the US to buy a film, knowing the embassy would have to repatriate him eventually.
He died loved and penniless. When the cultural minister had him replaced in a political maneuveruver, film lovers rioted until he was reinstated (God bless the French). When he died, the power, gas, and water in his apartment had been turned off from overdue bills.
Without him countless film would have been lost forever, many were anyway. Because of him countless filmmakers in France and across the world were able to create the cinema we know today.
¡Viva la Cinema et viva Henri Langlois!