Visiting Le Cinematheque Francaise in Paris, France

While vacationing with my wife in Paris, France I took one day to visit the Cinematheque Francaise. I was really excited, because it took so long to get there! 18 years to be exact. I was a film student at UC Santa Barbara and began to study various genres: Film Noir, Italian Neo-Realism, Japanese and Latin American Films but my favorite above all was the French New Wave (1958 - 1973). This was a style of cinema that threw away conventional story telling and opted for a new method. Their "radical experiments with editing, visual style, and narrative (were) part of a general break with the conservative paradigm". This is what set these films and especially the filmmakers apart. Films like Breathless, Last Year At Marienbad and The 400 Blows are all part of a huge catalog of films from this era. Filmmakers like Godard, Renais, Charbol, Truffaut created a unique style of story telling that hadn't been seen before. In an industry that frequently admits there is nothing that hasn't been done before, these creative men broke free from that restrictive belief

In 1998, I was on a whirlwind trip through the Middle East and parts of Europe shooting video for a documentary I was working on. One of our stops was in Paris and the Producer took us to dinner on one of the boats that cruise down the Seine River. The boat stopped at the foot of the Eiffel Tower and our group got out and walked around for a little while. We walked up a flight of steps and away from the tower to the Palais Du Challot.

It was a very large and beautiful building and as I rounded the corner I could not believe my eyes. By chance I had walked up to a film museum. Now, I don't know if this was where the Cinematheque Francaise was located before but I do know that there was an exhibition of film at this time. Unfortuantely we were to late, it was closed. The next day we would begin to head back to the United States and I wasn't sure if I would ever come back.

Fast Forward eleven years later, Sheree and I decided to go to Paris. The Cinematheque Francaise had moved but, before leaving I had done all my research on how to get to the new location. After taking two different tour buses I finally arrived in the vicinity of the Museum. I had such high hopes of learning so much more about the New Wave.

The permanent exhibition hosted a respectable collection from early film history. It contained an original kinetoscope and other objects from the Lumiere Brothers, Thomas Edison and Kodak.

But I was shocked that there was hardly anything more than one display on the French New Wave (FNW). I guess I was surprised because of the impact the FNW had on cinema that is still felt in the films of today.

As I was leaving I asked if there was another museum that contained more information on my favorite genre and the docent unfortunately said no. She did tell me that upstairs in the Bibliotheque there was a large collection of books, films and screenplays from that era. So in the elevator I went.

When I got there I met a guy that spoke english and I was able to ask him about information regarding the FNW. He gudied me to a computer that contained the database of the facility and typed in Godard. Over 800 items populated the screen, some were films, others were interviews and still more were notes on films never produced. I had found the "El Dorado" of the FNW!! Unfortunately it was near time for me to leave. Once again my efforts were thwarted by time. So I will once again have to plan a trip to France and pursue my passion for knowledge and appreciation for films that were made long ago. Such is the life of a film geek like me. Hopefully it won't take me 11 years to get there. What about you? What are you pursuing in your life that is unique and artistic? Share with me.