La Cinematheque at Bercy in Paris 12 contains a shockingly gorgeous collection of early film making equipment - the collection contains donations from Charlie Chaplin and Alfred Hitchcock, among others, so it obviously means a lot to people in the film industry. Old polished wooden cameras & early optical instruments, costumes and short films from silent black and white to present day adorn the exhibition space. This is the reportedly the largest film archive in the world and to add to the divine experience, its building is a Frank Gehry creation.
I was unable to gain clearance to the library as it was closed on the day I visited (great planning ahead on my part there) - if I wanted to visit this library I needed to make an appointment with them for a guided tour, and I have the impression they'd prefer in a group. I had been searching around Paris for a film library, however, didn't find this one until after I arrived, so an in-depth library visit is definately on my cards for the next trip.
If the exhibition is anything to go by, who knows what treasures lurk at the top of the security pass elevator among the 22,500 books, 21,000 posters, 12,000 drawings digitized models of sets or costumes, 40,000 digitized photographs, 20,700 digitized journals, 8500 movies - 20's or Nouvelle Vague anyone?
If youre not a French reader, put their address into Google Translator - its a digital treasure trove! :
http://www.cinematheque.fr/
No comments:
Post a Comment