The archive that saved film from the scrap heap, and the screening rooms where its history was taught as one continuous argument.
The Cinémathèque française began as a film society Henri Langlois started with his friend Georges Franju in the mid-1930s; FIAF, the international federation of film archives, dates the founding to 1936. Langlois had been collecting obsessively for years, at a time when a print that had finished its commercial run was scrap. What he collected, he kept — through the war, when FIAF credits his contacts with helping the collections survive the Occupation — and what others had already lost, he went after: at the old Méliès factory he recovered props that were sitting in decay, part of a rescue of Georges Méliès, whom the industry had left selling toys in a train station.
The archive's second invention was the screening room. Langlois programmed silent cinema, Hollywood genre pictures, and new work side by side and out of chronological order, and a generation of regulars absorbed film history as one simultaneous argument. By the mid-1950s the young men who would become the Cahiers du cinéma circle — François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, and the rest — were coming as often as the programme allowed, Truffaut and company up to six films a day. When they picked up cameras at the end of the decade, the French New Wave was, among other things, the Cinémathèque's curriculum put to work.
I thought it right to catalogue, with love, in my section for historical research at the Cinémathèque française, these treasures, so perishable and so priceless.
J'ai cru bon de classer, avec amour, dans ma section des recherches historiques, à la Cinémathèque française, ces si périssables et si inestimables trésors.
The archive employed as well as taught. Musidora — Feuillade's Irma Vep, thirty years on — ran its historical research section from 1944 to 1957, classifying the letters and clippings of early cinema. In February 1968 the government tried to remove Langlois, and the filmmakers he had educated answered: Truffaut led the protests, Godard beside him, and Langlois was reinstated. The institution still operates in Paris, and the collection Langlois refused to let become scrap remains its core.
The archive has been at 51 rue de Bercy since 2005, in a building that was not made for it. Frank Gehry designed it for the American Center, which opened there in 1994 and closed two years later, having spent more on the building than it could carry. It stood empty at the edge of the Parc de Bercy until the French state bought it in 1999, and the Cinémathèque opened inside it on 28 September 2005, sharing the premises with the Bibliothèque du film.
51 rue de Bercy, 12th arr.
Frank Gehry's building, put up for the American Center and bought by the state after it failed.
Henri Langlois and Georges Franju start a film society in Paris; Langlois is already collecting prints.
The Cinémathèque française is founded — FIAF's date for the archive proper.
The collections survive the Occupation; FIAF credits Langlois's wartime contacts with helping to save them.
Musidora joins the archive, running its historical research section until 1957.
The future New Wave directors attend daily — Truffaut and company up to six films a day.
The government tries to remove Langlois in February; Truffaut leads the protests, Godard joins, and Langlois is reinstated.
Frank Gehry's building opens at 51 rue de Bercy as the American Center. It closes in 1996, and the French state buys it in 1999.
The Cinémathèque opens in the Bercy building on 28 September, sharing it with the Bibliothèque du film.
Founder & director
The collector. He kept prints no one else wanted and programmed them into a school.
Visit their pageCo-founder
Langlois's friend from the film-society years; later a director in his own right.
Visit their pageHistorical research section (1944–1957)
The serial queen of Les Vampires, classifying early cinema's papers — 'avec amour', in her own words.
Visit their pageRecovered in part from the decaying Méliès factory — the rescue of a filmmaker the industry had reduced to selling toys in a train station.
Feuillade's serial belongs to the era whose papers Musidora spent her Cinémathèque years classifying.
Reconstructed
The Cinémathèque française's full reconstruction and restoration of Napoléon — directed by Georges Mourier with the CNC's support — the modern successor to the Epstein–Langlois Museum Copy, presented as a complete seven-hour version in 2026.
Frequented by
His real education: the BFI obituary has the future Cahiers du cinéma circle 'fed on a diet of American films shown at the Cinémathèque'. In 1968 he joined the protests against Langlois's removal.
Founded by · 1936
The film society Langlois started with Georges Franju among the co-founders; FIAF dates the founding to 1936. He collected prints when studios still melted them for silver, and recovered what remained of Georges Méliès's props and films.
Employed · 1944–1957
A collaborator from 1944 to 1957 in the archive's historical research section — classifying, in her own words, 'avec amour' the perishable and inestimable treasures of early cinema.
Frequented by
Truffaut and company went to Langlois's screenings as many as six films a day — the education the movement built on. In February 1968 he led the protests that reinstated Langlois after the government tried to remove him.
Founded by · 1936
The friend Langlois started the film society with in the mid-1930s; FIAF dates the founding of the archive it became to 1936.
Screened
The Cinémathèque française has repeatedly presented Shadows, including restored screenings in its 2019 John Cassavetes retrospective and a 2022 Ciné-Club program.
The Friday Letter
Presses, magazines, bookshops, and the writers who haunted them — one story from the Paris ecosystem in every letter.