Henri Langlois: One of the Reasons We're Going to Paris

POST BY DALE June 14, 2010

As part of our research for our Paris exploration of the seminal May 1968 events in France, we will visit the French Cinematheque, one of the great repositories of cinema treasures in the world. The dismissal of its founder, Henri Langlois, triggered a series of strikes and shutdowns led by Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard and Claude Chabrol in the French film industry in 1968. I am posting a short essay I wrote on a recent documentary on Langlois, THE PHANTOM OF THE CINEMATHEQUE, which I originally posted on my website, DaleMPollock.com, as part of my Movie A Day Blog. Please visit my blog in addition to this blog for other reviews of French films relevant to our research of this exciting and unprecedented time in modern Western history:

HENRI LANGLOIS: PHANTOM OF THE CINEMATHEQUE (2005). Produced, directed, written by Jacques Richard. With Henri Langlois, Claude Berri, Claude Chabrol, Lotte Eisner, Philippe Garrel, Jean-Luc Godard, Alfred Hitchcock, Mary Meerson, Eric Rohmer, Francois Truffaut, Jack Valenti.

A fascinating and compelling story of the preservationist who helped save the patrimony of cinema itself, HENRI LANGLOIS is more than a tribute film -- it's a paean to the art of moving images. Without the Cinematheque, there was no Truffaut, Godard, Chabrol, Rohmer, Jacques Rivette or Maurice Pialat, because they never would have become film critics and cineastes without Langlois, his screening rooms and most importantly his taste to guide them. This overweight, greasy-looking mess of a man did more than help revolutionize French cinema in the late 1950s and early 1960s -- he helped perserve the artificats from the birth of film as a medium and an art form, not only the surviving works of Lumiere and Melies, but costumes, props, set designs and cinemabilia used in making films all over the world, from Hollywood to Denmark. Langlois ressembled a whirling dervish whose feverish activity was all interior -- his bulk looked difficult to move, and it seemed to take a shrewish wife and emotional taskmaster in Mary Meerson to propel him into action. But if there was one film to be saved, it was if he was instantly ignited. "One must save everything, buy everything," Langlois lectuers one of his many interviewers in the film. "Those who think they have the good taste to select the best films are idiots." Langlois was an effective ambassador of cinema, but a terrible manager, so when Culture Minister and French cultural hero Andre Malraux tried to sack him in early 1968, first the French film industry and then the Cannes Film Festival were shut down by workers led by Truffaut and Godard. Many believe this helped pave the way for the May 1968 student and worker strikes that gripped first Paris, then France and ultimately much of Europe. The government relented, but then cut Langlois off and he lost 80% of the Cinematheque's staff. Langlois seemed to have a particular knack for pissing off government bureaucrats, and he was an active participant in behind the scenes struggles to maintain control of the Cinematheque for decades. One can say Langlois inadvertantly helped shape the path of modern culture and politics, although his passion was his bizarre and worshipful Musee du Cinema, which existed briefly in Paris's Palace Chaillot until an adjacent fire doomed it to an existence in storage. It was like being inside of Langlois's head, filled with the memories and images of classic cinema, personified in the actual detritus of the industry. That this legacy was squandered is tragic, but Langlois could not ask to be feted in better style than in this loving, informative and interesting documentary. By celebrating Langlois through the medium he loved so well, Richard completes a circle, just as the reels of the projector keep spinning long after the film has run its course.

The Proposal - Joe

In 1994-95, I spent a year in France as a lecturer in Bordeaux. The campus, called Bordeaux III, was located outside of the city, and it consisted of ugly, purely functional, structures of cinder block and brick. I asked someone about the architecture, and he said with a shrug “soixante-huit” – ’68 – as if this said it all.

Others later explained that after the student riots of 1968, ones that paralyzed many of the cities, including Paris, campuses were moved to the outskirts and suburbs. They were quickly built, and one governing principle seemed to be “If they get destroyed or shut down, it’s no big deal.”

Whether this was true or not, the students believed it, and, at the time, I wondered if it explained, in part, attitudes which combined both a sense of defiance and marginalization.

Consequently, when Dale Pollock of UNCSA's School of Filmmaking suggested we collaborate on a Breathe Project for the Kenan Institute, one concentrating on the student protests in Paris 1968, I was excited by the possibility of exploring more deeply the significance and ramifications of this historical and cultural moment.

Here are a few excerpts from our proposal “You Say You Had a Revolution: Exploring Paris, 1968”:

In March 1968, twenty-five disgruntled Parisian students began interrupting lectures to protest what they considered to be an autocratic university system. By the end of the month, they numbered a thousand. In May, the Paris student protests spread into the labor force and workers began demonstrating and protesting with a series of strikes and factory occupations. By May 24, ten million workers were on strike in France. Students had taken over the universities, the streets of Paris were barricaded, and the country was paralyzed.

Although these incidents are specific to France, the May 68 events were part of a broader set of political and cultural factors that were sweeping across Europe, Asia and North America in the sixties: a zeitgeist of social unrest and dissent, oppositional politics and revolution.

We propose to study the relationship of cinema, graphic arts (posters, comics, street graffiti), and fine art (paintings, sculpture, photography) to this key political and cultural moment. In addition to exploring the extensive archives of the Cinematheque Francaise and examining poster and photographic collections at many Paris museums, including Centre Pompidou, we plan to search out how and where the events of 1968 continue to reverberate through the city…

Perhaps more than any other form, cinema captured the energy and truth of the times. To an extent rarely matched before or since, filmmakers did not simply record the upheavals and crises of France 1968, they were active participants and catalysts. A symbolic demonstration of this spirit was manifested at the Cannes Film Festival on May 19, when a group of filmmakers, including Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut, professing solidarity with insurgent students and workers, rushed the stage at the Palais des Festivals and held down the curtain, preventing the scheduled screening from taking place. The Cinematheque Francaise has rare and original prints not only of the work of Godard and Truffaut, but also Alain Tanner, Claude Chabrol, Roger Vadim, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze and Pierre Kast…

In our teaching, both of us are primarily Americanists. This project offers a wonderful opportunity to reconceptualize our overall offerings within a larger global framework. It also comes at a particularly crucial time as our school is rethinking its various curriculums. After all, some of the fundamental questions of May 1968 were, “What is an education?” and “How should a person be educated?”…

After our time in Paris, we plan to co-teach a course based on our research and experiences, a unique collaboration between Undergraduate Academics and School of Filmmaking’s Cinema Studies department. We also would like to offer screenings and discussions to the wider community.