26/09/2005

Inauguration this morning, with great ceremony, in Paris of the Cinémathèque Française situated at 51 rue de Bercy in the 12th arrondissement. Among the guests for the first projection (Le Fleuve by Jean Renoir) were the President of the Republic Jacques Chirac, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and Minister for Culture Renaud Donnedieu de Vabre who will be surrounded by the cream of the French film industry, notably the president of the Cinémathèque Claude Berri, the vice-presidents Martine Offroy and Patrice Chéreau, as well director general Serge Toubiana.

For years the subject of numerous tergiversations, the Cinémathèque, created in 1936 by Henri Langlois and residing since 1963 at the Palais de Chaillot (to which was added the theatre des Grands Boulevards) has finally migrated to the former American Center constructed by famous architect Frank Gehry, renovated thanks to a public investment of 34 million euros. Private organism strongly support financially by the State through the minister of Culture and CNC), the new look Cinémathèque has four ultra-modern projection theatres of 415, 200, 94 and 83 seats (including some areas reserved for schools) and will be open to the public from Wednesday. Also, the BiFi (Film Library) has also found a place in the same building with an impressive treasure-trove of 5000 DVDs and videos, 21 000 works and reviews, 500 000 photos, 18 000 posters and 10 000 drawings. There is also a bookshop, a bar restaurant plus 1750 m2 of exhibition space.
Famous rallying spot in French cinema history, the Cinémathèque totalled 115 000 admissions in 2004 for1380 screenings and should benefit from the metamorphosis to attract a new generation of cinephiles.

(Translated from French)