Cinémathèque Française

The Cinémathèque Française began in the 1930s as a scrappy, obsessive project run by Henri Langlois. Long before it became a prestigious institution, Langlois treated films as living things that needed to be saved from the trash. He famously stored his growing collection of reels in his own bathtub and various borrowed locations to keep them away from recyclers who wanted to melt the film for the silver content. During the Nazi occupation, he risked his life to hide these reels, burying some underground and smuggling others to keep the history of cinema alive.