In 1936, Henri Langlois, filmmaker Georges Franju, and film theorist Jean Mitry, founded the Cinémathèque Française (a Paris-based film theater and museum), which progressed from ten films to more than 60,000 films by the early 70s. More than just an archivist, Langlois saved, restored and showed many films that were at risk of disintegration. Films are stored in celluloid, a material which requires a highly controlled environment and some degree of attention to survive over time. Besides films, Langlois also helped to preserve other items linked to cinema such as cameras, projection machines, costumes and vintage theater programmes.
Langlois made an important impact on the French 1960s New Wave directors, including François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Jacques Rivette, Claude Chabrol and Alain Resnais among others, and the generation of filmmakers that followed. Some of these filmmakers were called "les enfants de la cinémathèque" (children of the cinémathèque).
In 1968, French culture minister Andre Malraux tried to fire Langlois by stopping funding of the project, allegedly due to Langlois' arrogance and iron-fisted rule. Local and international uproar ensued, and even the prestigious Cannes Film Festival was halted in protest that year. Malraux eventually backtracked.
This it is an announcement made in 1968 by Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut to support Langlois.
