doIt was in 1895, in Paris, on the Grands Boulevards, when the Lumière brothers made a technical invention the driving force of a projection and a collective emotion, before the first thirty-three spectators in the history of cinema.
This story has continued to grow and, one hundred and thirty years later, France is more than ever the homeland of the seventh art: that of a cinematography with an unparalleled trajectory, that of the most film-loving population in the world, that of 6,200 cinemas and 800 festivals – including Cannes, the center of world creation –, that of a financing model – by the CNC and the investment obligations of television networks – admired everywhere, that of a public policy that allows a diversity of films unique in the world. world, from the most popular to the most demanding.
There is only one drawback in this scenario: France has repeatedly missed the opportunity to create the great cinema museum that the public expects, as demonstrated by the success of the Cinémathèque française exhibitions in a location, however, not very suitable.
We have the most beautiful collections in the world because, since its creation in 1936, the Cinémathèque française has collected and preserved not only films from all over the world, but also all the objects and documents related to their production: posters and photographs, costumes and sets , projection devices and cameras, sets and storyboards, even the magic lanterns of the pre-cinema.
The public must finally be able to discover, in a coherent whole that reflects the international value of our collection, examples among a thousand, of the decorations of the children of paradiseof Marcel Carné, the mummified head of Psychosisby Alfred Hitchcock, the drawings of Federico Fellini, the robot Metropolisby Fritz Lang, Lumière’s first director of photography, Kenji Mizoguchi’s sketches or the camera with which it was shot Gone with the windby Victor Fleming.
Fixing a historical error
This project existed for a while, but since the accidental closure, following a fire in 1997, of the Musée de la Cinémathèque française, these fabulous collections are in storage. Thus, France, the cradle of the seventh art, can no longer offer audiences in all countries the great story of the world history of cinema and reveal the richness of its future.
While the Americans have just opened the Oscar Museum [à Los Angeles]which is reaping considerable success, it is time to offer our country and the world the great cinema museum that we had dreamed of [l’ancien ministre de la culture] Jack Lang forty years ago.
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