Musée de la Cinémathèque

The Cinémathèque Française began in the mid-nineteen thirties inside the cramped confines of a private apartment. Its founder, Henri Langlois, was so committed to his mission of preserving cinematic history that he stored canisters of film everywhere, including inside his own bathtub. He operated on the fervent belief that films were living things that would die if they were not projected regularly for an audience. This obsessive drive to save movies from being melted down for their raw materials transformed his small, personal film club into one of the most significant archives in the world.