05/09/2002 - Ministerial Commission lead by Serge Toubiana examines the "Mecca" of French Cinema

The French Minister for Culture, Jean-Jacques Aillagon has appointed Serge Toubiana to head a special commission to investigate the National Film Library, or «Cinémathèque». Toubiana is a former editor-in-chief of Cahiers du Cinéma and is currently employed as head of the DVD department at production company MK2.
The task the minister has set him will not be easy. Cinémathèque has enjoyed alternate fortunes for the last fifteen years and often seemed on the verge of closure : Euros125million were spent for the construction of a new Cinema Building and a « house for film » - neither project ever saw the light of day, and the former director, Peter Scarlet, and a number of his colleagues left, leaving a Euros400,000 shortfall in the library’s coffers.
Toubiana’s first task will be to examine the library’s immediate future, find a home for the Palais de Chaillot and review the organisation’s programmes. The commission must also decide what to do with the Frank Gehry building in Bercy that the Ministry for Culture bought to house the Film Library and subsequently abandoned. Toubiana and his fellow commissioners will also be asked to present the minister with proposals for a new president and film library board members.

(Translated from French)