We had a productive and magical day at the French Cinematheque. For the past several days, we have ventured all over Paris in search of visual records from the May 1968 “events” (les evenements, as they are known here): we have seen photographs, posters, and today, wonderful film footage by the experimental filmmaker and documentarian Chris Marker, and a largely unknown filmmaker, William Klein. This was the first moving image footage we viewed, and much of it was riveting – the size of the student and worker demonstrations, the pro-Gaullist counter-demonstrations, the police lobbing tear gas at the student as the students lob cobblestones at the police. It was literally a state of war for these crucial weeks that eventually led to the retirement of DeGaulle, but Georges Pompidou simply continued the Gaullist policies that had led to many of the protests. Marker makes it clear that these protests were part of a continuum that began with the anti-Vietnam War protests that began in Paris as early as 1966, and also part of an overall labor struggle that saw several strikes and protests at French auto factories in the 1960s.
The brutality of the French police in pursuing and beating students with their long and deadly batons is sobering, and far exceeds the police actions against students at Berkeley and Columbia University during the same period in the U.S.
This afternoon I viewed an original print of WAY DOWN EAST (D.W. Griffith, 1920) that was a combination of two original prints, one with French and German intertitles on some reels, and English intertitles on other parts. It is indicative of the amazing restoration work done by the Cinematheque, which resulted in the availability of not only classic films, but footage such as Klein’s filming of the student protests, which does not exist anywhere else in Paris, at least as far as we have seen. The Cinematheque is unlike any film archives in the U.S.. in the overwhelming scope of its preservation activities, from small documentaries to film classics, and is an inspiration and a wonderful model for the UNCSA Moving Image Archives.
On Sunday July 4 we forewent any celebration of our national holiday, and instead spent several hours in the Maison Europeanne de La Photographie, which had a treasure trove of photography books documenting the May 1968 events. (All you have to do is mention “Mai soixante-huite” to any person and they know immediately what you are referring to.) Joe will discuss these books in more detail on his blog, but they are like war photographs, capturing the excitement and brutality of the moment, and it is hard to believe that these took place on the calm, placid and highly commercialized avenues of St. German des Pres and the Latin Quarter 42 years ago: barricades burning in the streets, tear gas swirling and forming clouds in the black night, students hurling café chair legs and cobblestones while running wildly to escape the onrush of CRC security police. All the resentment the police and the conservative citizens of Paris is obvious in the severe beatings to any passerby unfortunate enough to end up in the path of these police, and these images will stay with us for a long time.
This was possibly the first urban insurrection to be fully documented in still photographs, moving film, TV images and the incredible anti-government posters turned out by the dozens by the students of the Ecole Des Beaux Artes. We will be going to the Bibliotheque Nationale to look for original editions of these posters, along with several more museums.
This research experience has exceeded our expectations on every level, and we greatly look forward to assessing our research upon our return and preparing for the presentation we will give at the Kenan Institute, our generous funder, and the class we will jointly teach in Fall 2011.
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