SALUTE TO THE CINÉMATHÈQUE FRANÇAISE, MUSÉE DU CINÉMA
Thirty-Five Rarely Seen Films From the Renowned Archive, This Year
Celebrating Its Sixtieth Anniversary, Including Lost Works by Frank Capra, King
Vidor, and Robert Bresson
October 3–29, 1996
On the sixtieth anniversary of one of world cinema's most venerated
institutions, The Museum of Modern Art presents Salute to the
Cinémathèque Française, Musée du Cinéma, an extraordinary retrospective of thirty-five
rarely seen French, American, and German films from the
Cinémathèque collection.
The series, which runs from October 3 through October 29, features restored
prints of fiction and nonfiction films by such acclaimed directors as Frank
Capra, Robert Bresson, King Vidor, William Dieterle, Germaine Dulac, and Max
Ophuls, among others—many of them films that were previously thought lost.
Jean Saint-Geours, President, and Dominique Païni, Director, of the
Cinémathèque will introduce the opening night screening, the
American premiere of the restored version of Frank Capra's The Matinee Idol
(1928), a charming comedy/melodrama not seen in New York since its original
release nearly seventy years ago.
Other rediscovered treasures in the series—in some cases legendary works that
cinephiles have waited their whole lives to see—include Robert Bresson's first
film, the comedy Les Affaires Publiques (1934); Georges Franju's first
work, Le Métro (1930), a short film co-directed by Henri
Langlois; a striking silent work, Le Diable dans la Ville (1924), by the
incomparable Germaine Dulac; King Vidor's The Family Honor (1920), a
melodrama set in the Deep South; Max Ophuls's Yoshiwara (1937); and
Frank Borzage's The River (1928).
The series also includes three unusual recent films: Les Mauvaises
Fréquentations (1967), directed by Jean Eustache and starring
Jean-Pierre Léaud; La Cicatrice Intérieure (1971) by
Philippe Garrel, featuring Nico; and Préambule au
Cinématographe, a Cinémathèque production on the
motion picture pioneer Etienne-Jules Marey.
Among the other celebrated filmmakers in the series are the French directors
Sacha Guitry, Anatole Litvak, Jean Rouch, Jean Epstein, and Maurice Tourneur;
Americans Alan Hale, William S. Hart, and Mitchell Leisen; and the German
directors G. W. Pabst, Willy Otto Zielke, Richard Oswald, and William Dieterle.
One of the earliest associations dedicated to the protection and preservation
of film, the Cinémathèque Française was founded in Paris
in September 1936. Under Henri Langlois, the institution's director from its
inception until his death in 1977, the Cinémathèque grew into one
of the world's great film archives, developing an ambitious screening program
that, particularly in the postwar era, influenced countless filmmakers and
critics.
The Cinémathèque owes a significant part of its mythic status to
Langlois, a larger-than-life figure who combined a prescient understanding of
the need for film preservation and an enduring passion for world cinema. The
institution has lost none of its intelligence and enthusiasm since Langlois's
death and its continuing work in the areas of preservation and restoration, for
example, remain exemplary and inspiring.
Salute to the
Cinémathèque Française, Musée du Cinéma, acknowledges these
contributions to cinema culture and points up the longstanding collaborative
relationship between the Cinémathèque and The Museum of Modern
Art. Along with the British Film Institute and the Reichsfilmarchiv, they were
the founding members of FIAF (Fédération Internationale des
Archives du Film). Founded in 1938, FIAF is now a global consortium dedicated
to the preservation and protection of film and film history.
Including restored prints of rare American and German as well as French films,
this landmark series also recognizes the Cinémathèque's firm
commitment to the restoration and preservation of orphaned and lost films,
regardless of their country of origin—a position that has sparked some
controversy in France.
Today the Cinémathèque Française's film archive holds
23,000 titles and is engaged in an active preservation program. The
Cinémathèque presents more than 1,200 screenings each year, as
well as Cinémemoire, an annual festival of rediscovered and restored
films. It also publishes books, catalogues, and a biannual magazine devoted to
film aesthetics, and is responsible for the operation and administration of the
Musée du Cinéma, a spectacular collection of film
paraphernalia.
Salute to the
Cinémathèque Française, Musée du Cinéma, is sponsored by
Société Générale, with support from the Cultural
Services of the French Embassy in New York. The Department of Film and Video is
also grateful to Bernard Martinand and Claudine Kaufmann of the
Cinémathèque Française's film archive for their invaluable
advice and assistance. The exhibition was organized by Dominique Païni,
Director of the Cinémathèque Française, and Laurence
Kardish, Curator and Coordinator of Film Exhibitions, Department of Film and
Video, The Museum of Modern Art.
