美国国家公共电台 NPR 'Savior Of Film,' Henri Langlois, Began Extensive Cinema Archive In His Bathtub

 

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Today, our series The Keepers continues with the story of a man and his obsession¹ - preserving films - all films, any films. The Kitchen Sisters introduce us to Henri Langlois and the Cinematheque Francaise.

(SOUNDBITE OF 46TH ACADEMY AWARDS TELECAST)

BURT REYNOLDS: Ladies and gentlemen, the president of the Motion Picture Association of America, Mr. Jack² Valenti.

JACK VALENTI: Tonight, the Academy presents an award to someone who is not a maker³ of film but is truly a savior of film. This man stood guard when no one else was there - the director of the Cinematheque Francaise in Paris, the curator, collector, the conscience of the cinema - Henri Langlois.

(APPLAUSE)

AGNES VARDA: He's an inventor. He invented the French Cinematheque. My name is Agnes Varda. I'm a French film director. I met Henri Langlois. The man was very impressive, fat and speaking very well - very smart about we should start to keep films, including the films we don't like.

JACQUES RICHARD: The philosophy of Langlois was to save everything - the masterpiece, the unknown films, even the fascist⁴ films. I'm Jacques Richard, filmmaker. I started as an assistant of Henri Langlois. He loved cinema when he was a teenager. It was the moment where the silent film stopped and the talkies arrived.

COSTA-GAVRAS: The early '30s, they were destroying every silent movie. He started collecting all those movies, not just to save them for the future but to show them. My name is Costa-Gavras. I'm film director and president of the French Cinematheque.

VARDA: He started to pile boxes of films in the bathtub up to the ceiling.

RICHARD: In the bathtub of his parents' flat, this is where the Cinematheque started.

LOTTE EISNER: When I met Henri Langlois in '34, he was not only collecting films but everything what had to do about films.

NIKKI SILVA, BYLINE⁵: Cinematheque Francaise curator Lotte Eisner.

EISNER: Langlois' principle - just like people have to go for a walk, films have to run. If you just keep them in vaults⁶, they die.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

SIMONE SIGNORET: When I met him in '41, in the middle of the Nazi⁷ occupation, Langlois was organizing projection⁸ of forbidden films.

SILVA: Actress Simone Signoret.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

SIGNORET: Very first time I ever saw "Potemkin" was in his mother's tiny dining room. She was serving little pink cakes. We could have gone to jail just for seeing something which was forbidden.

COSTA-GAVRAS: I don't know how he did it. He would show "The Dictator" (ph) by Charlie Chaplin during the occupation. It was a kind of resistance.

CELINE RUIVO: The Nazis⁹ censored¹⁰ films, destroyed them. Celine Ruivo, film curator of the Cinematheque Francaise. Langlois had to hide thousands of films, switching cans. We are still discovering many different titles every month.

PIERRE RISSIENT: By '55, '56, we were coming as many times as possible to see films at the Cinematheque. We were very young, just film buffs - addict¹¹ film buffs. My name is Pierre Rissient, Man of Cinema. Henri was a poet and a magician. He had a genius to speak about the feelings...

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE BIG SLEEP")

LAUREN BACALL: (As Vivian Rutledge) You know, I don't see what there is to be cagey about, Mr. Marlowe. And I don't like your manners.

HUMPHREY BOGART: (As Philip Marlowe) Well, I'm not crazy about yours.

BARBET SCHROEDER: All the real fans were always in the first five rows. I'm Barbet Schroeder, filmmaker. I had the luck to see the complete work of Howard Hawks¹², Mizoguchi, Bergman - three movies a night. There was a lot of fever in that love of cinema.

WIM WENDERS: In one day, you might see an African film, a Japanese film, Chinese film with Turkish subtitles¹³.

(SOUNDBITE OF MARTIAL¹⁴ SOLAL'S "L'AMOUR, LA MORT")

COSTA-GAVRAS: In the '50s, all the future directors of the Nouvelle Vague were there.

RICHARD: The New Wave - Jean-Luc Godard, Chabrol, Francois Truffaut.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BREATHLESS")

ANNE COLETTE: (As character) La jolie fille, le vilain garcon, le revolver, le gentil monsieur.

JEAN-MICHEL FRODON: Langlois built a cinema language through programming, creating the New Wave.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

HENRI LANGLOIS: I never say to Truffaut, this is good; this is bad. He discover himself.

SILVA: Henri Langlois.

LANGLOIS: I have not teach. I have only give food. And they eat the food - only food, only films - food, food, food, food. This is my work, to show films.

RICHARD: Henri Langlois was a thin and pretty guy when he was young. But with the time, he became very fat, like Orson Welles or Hitchcock. The wife, Mary Meerson - she became fat, too.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

LANGLOIS: (Speaking French).

RUIVO: They started getting bigger and bigger as the archives of the Cinematheque was also getting bigger.

FRODON: There were problems in the Cinematheque. Nobody knew what there was exactly, in what condition. It was, to a large extent, a mess.

SCHROEDER: He always had clashes with the government. They tried to make rules in exchange of the money they were giving.

FRODON: Henri Langlois would say, I am saving films every day. Just let me do my work. But keep giving me money. This is a reason why Langlois was fired.

EISNER: There was this big, international scandal. The young people, like Godard - they say, Langlois is our father. He was kicked out. They immediately protested - everybody - Fritz Lange, Picasso...

RICHARD: The big demonstration¹⁵ for Langlois was the first time where we saw, on the street of Paris, police beating artists and intellectuals. This was the start of the French revolution of '68.

(SOUNDBITE OF DEMONSTRATION)

SCHROEDER: I was a part of the Jean-Luc Godard mini-gang that was demonstrating for Langlois.

(SOUNDBITE OF DEMONSTRATION)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking French).

COSTA-GAVRAS: It was so big movement in Paris, they decided¹⁶ to stop Cannes Festival.

RICHARD: The Cinematheque started to receive telegrams to return Langlois to the Cinematheque from filmmakers all over the world - Kurosawa, Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles...

EISNER: And so after 75 days, we got the Cinematheque back.

WENDERS: I'm Wim Wenders, filmmaker. My very first picture was shown by the Cinematheque Francaise. Yes, he kept my print. I tried hard to get it out of his hands again. But he said, no, no, no. I would rather keep it. And I realized that's how he had assembled this amazing collection of thousands and thousands of films. He just kept them.

And then it was, of course, a good thing. At least there was always going to be a print of that film. Langlois has educated a whole generation of film archivists and filmmakers and saving the memory of mankind that is incorporated in the history of cinema.

MARTIN: "Archive Fever" was produced by The Kitchen Sisters, Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva, with Nathan Dalton and Brandi Howell; mixed by Jim McKee. You can hear more stories from The Keeper series on their podcast "The Kitchen Sisters Present."

1 obsession   

n.困扰，无法摆脱的思想(或情感)

参考例句：

• I was suffering from obsession that my career would be ended.那时的我陷入了我的事业有可能就此终止的困扰当中。
• She would try to forget her obsession with Christopher.她会努力忘记对克里斯托弗的迷恋。

2 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

3 maker   

n.制造者，制造商

参考例句：

• He is a trouble maker，You must be distant with him.他是个捣蛋鬼，你不要跟他在一起。
• A cabinet maker must be a master craftsman.家具木工必须是技艺高超的手艺人。

4 fascist   

adj.法西斯主义的；法西斯党的；n.法西斯主义者，法西斯分子

参考例句：

• The strikers were roughed up by the fascist cops.罢工工人遭到法西斯警察的殴打。
• They succeeded in overthrowing the fascist dictatorship.他们成功推翻了法西斯独裁统治。

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 vaults   

n.拱顶( vault的名词复数 )；地下室；撑物跳高；墓穴

参考例句：

• It was deposited in the vaults of a bank. 它存在一家银行的保险库里。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They think of viruses that infect an organization from the outside.They envision hackers breaking into their information vaults. 他们考虑来自外部的感染公司的病毒，他们设想黑客侵入到信息宝库中。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 Nazi   

n.纳粹分子，adj.纳粹党的，纳粹的

参考例句：

• They declare the Nazi regime overthrown and sue for peace.他们宣布纳粹政权已被推翻，并出面求和。
• Nazi closes those war criminals inside their concentration camp.纳粹把那些战犯关在他们的集中营里。

8 projection   

n.发射，计划，突出部分

参考例句：

• Projection takes place with a minimum of awareness or conscious control.投射在最少的知觉或意识控制下发生。
• The projection of increases in number of house-holds is correct.对户数增加的推算是正确的。

9 Nazis   

n.（德国的）纳粹党员( Nazi的名词复数 )；纳粹主义

参考例句：

• The Nazis worked them over with gun butts. 纳粹分子用枪托毒打他们。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Nazis were responsible for the mass murder of Jews during World War Ⅱ. 纳粹必须为第二次世界大战中对犹太人的大屠杀负责。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 censored   

受审查的，被删剪的

参考例句：

• The news reports had been heavily censored . 这些新闻报道已被大幅删剪。
• The military-backed government has heavily censored the news. 有军方撑腰的政府对新闻进行了严格审查。

11 addict   

v.使沉溺；使上瘾；n.沉溺于不良嗜好的人

参考例句：

• He became gambling addict,and lost all his possessions.他习染上了赌博，最终输掉了全部家产。
• He assisted a drug addict to escape from drug but failed firstly.一开始他帮助一个吸毒者戒毒但失败了。

12 hawks   

鹰( hawk的名词复数 )； 鹰派人物，主战派人物

参考例句：

• Two hawks were hover ing overhead. 两只鹰在头顶盘旋。
• Both hawks and doves have expanded their conditions for ending the war. 鹰派和鸽派都充分阐明了各自的停战条件。

13 subtitles   

n.说明字幕，印在外国影片上的对白翻译字幕，译文对白字幕；小标题，副标题( subtitle的名词复数 )；（电影的）字幕

参考例句：

• subtitles for the deaf and the hard of hearing 为耳聋和听力不佳者打出的字幕
• a Polish film with English subtitles 附有英语字幕的波兰影片

14 martial   

adj.战争的，军事的，尚武的，威武的

参考例句：

• The sound of martial music is always inspiring.军乐声总是鼓舞人心的。
• The officer was convicted of desertion at a court martial.这名军官在军事法庭上被判犯了擅离职守罪。

15 demonstration   

n.表明，示范，论证，示威

参考例句：

• His new book is a demonstration of his patriotism.他写的新书是他的爱国精神的证明。
• He gave a demonstration of the new technique then and there.他当场表演了这种新的操作方法。

16 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。