Henri Langlois

Henri Langlois, born in Smyrna, Greece (later Izmir, Turkey) in 1914, died in Paris, France in 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 restauration. Langlois started his archives with only a handful of films that he wanted to save from oblivion and private funding but over the next few decades the collection grew to many thousands titles and the French government also 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, which requires an highly controlled environment to survive over time. During the second world war, Langlois and his colleagues helped to save many films that were in risk due to the Nazi occupation of France. He also helped to preserve other items such as cameras, projection machines, costumes and vintage theater programmes. Langlois made an important impact on the French 60's 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. When he died, 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 Cinematheque. Also, a street in Paris is named after him: Place Henri Langlois in the XIII Arrondissement.

Web site: http://www.cinemathequefrancaise.com/