Langlois H-Henri Langlois-Phantom of the Cinematheque
A first rate documentary (NY Post) and a memoir of a lost kingdom (Village Voice), Henri Langlois: Phantom of the Cinematheque celebrates the man who cultivated cinema's future by protecting its past. Langlois, in the words of grateful acolyte Jean-Luc Godard, produced a way of seeing films that inspired two generations of filmmakers and changed the medium itself.For forty years, Henri Langlois presided over the Cinematheque Francaise with absolute commitment and unwavering passion. Beginning in 1936, Langlois' beg, borrow and steal hustling preserved the priceless treasures of an art form then still too new to be recognized as such. Through ad hoc screenings in Paris apartments, hallways and stairwells, the young Langlois shared his love for film art with the enthusiasm of an aesthetic epicure and the discerning appetite of a film gourmand. Under Nazi occupation, Langlois went underground, rescuing and secretly screening banned films under the noses of the SS. Through the halcyon 60's Langlois battled bureaucrats, championed auteurs and ushered in a new golden age of cinema where life broke through the screen and filmmaking and film-going merged into a single discipline.Knitting together remarkable footage of Godard and Francois Truffaut defending the Cinematheque against a 1968 Paris riot squad, Langlois and Alfred Hitchcock sending-up the staid Legion D'honneur ceremony, and Langlois himself charismatically holding forth, Henri Langlois: Phantom of the Cinematheque is itself a treasure trove. A fascinating film (New York Times), it captures Langlois' life, loves, triumphs, and tragedies with candor and enduring affection.
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