The Frame

If you like classic films, especially film noir, crime film, and B movies, or if you like the French New Wave filmmakers or any of the films they influenced – in other words, most films made since 1965 and many of the best films before that – then you owe a great debt to Henri Langlois. A Parisian cinephile, Langlois began collecting (often at personal expense) cast off film reels that studios felt weren’t worth anything, saving hundreds of films that no-one else seemed to care about. In the early 1950s he created the Cinémathèque Français, composed of both a screening theatre and a museum, which became the gathering place for budding Cahiers du cinéma writers and future directors like François Truffaut, Claude Chabrol, Jacques Rivette, and Jean-Luc Godard. This documentary highlights Langlois’ place in film history, from the creation of the Cinémathèque to the riots in the late 1960s when the French government took it away from him. As a piece of documentary filmmaking, there isn’t too much special about the film, but it is a solid introduction to a figure who may not be as well-known as high-profile directors or actors, but whose work as a curator and exhibitor is every bit as important to film history.
Above Average