Henri Langlois: The Phantom of the Cinematheque

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Audience Member This was so cool! Langlois was quite hilarious and very special. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/11/23 Full Review Audience Member A must-see documentary for anyone who truly loves film. Henri is likely my favorite 'hoarder' of all time. His obsession saved a lot of film prints for future generations and his Cinematheque showings really got the word out about a lot of older films. It's a shame that his movie memorabilia museum isn't there anymore attached to a theater. I would've loved to go there. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/28/23 Full Review walter m [font=Century Gothic]"Henri Langlois: The Phantom of the Cinematheque" is a rambling, informative documentary about Henri Langlois(1914-1977), legendary founder and director of the Cinematheque Francais who saved countless films from destruction, sometimes under semi-heroic situations. The Cinematheque showed countless older films that could not be seen elsewhere, providing a first class education in cinema to future filmmakers especially French new wave directors like Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard. (Even in this day of the DVD player, I still prefer seeing a movie in a theatre whenever I have the chance.) The documentary mostly consists of archival footage and interviews with collaborators. Overall, it illustrates perfectly why we need people like Langlois to preserve film and educate young cineastes. If the movie has a fault, it is perhaps too one-sided and does come perilously close to conspiracy theories at times.[/font] Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member [img]http://www.moviecitynews.com/reviews/images/2004/henri.jpg[/img] This man is my hero. I just saw a documentary about him on TCM and I could not stop watching. He spent his life trying to keep old films from being lost forever. Every lover of film should bow down to this man. I recommand this film to you all. It has so many famous directors coming to his aid when he was in trouble. Seeing Trauffut and Godard together stand up for him in a massive crowd was a sight to see. He even built a museum for film but sadly it is closed. In the museum he had a set piece from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari that you could walk through and he had the robot suit from Metropolis to name a few. I could go on about how great this film is.... Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/25/23 Full Review Audience Member The love of cinema runs deep -- if only we all got to experience the time when the Cinematheque Francaise was itself a revolution worth fighting for. (Thanks to this film, we get glimpses into what sort of a place it was, at least). Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/03/23 Full Review Audience Member A good documentary about the greatness of Cinematheque co-founder Henri Langlois. I always knew the influence of the Cinematheque on the French New Wave filmakers, but this film shows how Langlois ran it and what films he re-introduced to the public. This was obviously made for French television and I would like to see a slower paced and more in depth documentary on Langlois and the Cinematheque.The doc. goes into how he saved films from the Nazis, American and European studios from being destroyed. He was the first film preservationist and collected movie memorabilia from the first 50 years of film. It goes into how he got films and would show a film only once every 10 years or so.The film also goes into Langlois struggle with the government and lack of funds. The Cinematheque must have been amazing in it's heyday. Langlois received a Honorary Oscar in 1974 for his preservation efforts and reintroduction of forgotten films. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/06/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Henri Langlois: The Phantom of the Cinematheque

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