A clean, well-lighted place for films

by Brent Gregston

Article published on the 2008-12-14 Latest update 2008-12-15 14:22 TU

The Petit Salon
(Photo: Laurent Edeline/Bronx)

The Forum des Images, a Paris film archive and avant-garde cinematheque, has reopened after three years of multi-million-euro renovations. To celebrate the event, the mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoe, officially renamed its underground street, Rue du Cinema.

 The Forum, which launched the world's first film festival for movies made on, or for, mobile phones, lies deep in the bowels of the historic centre of Paris known as Les Halles. It is an archive of thousands of films – "exclusively films where the action takes place in Paris, which talk about Paris, which evoke Paris," explains the director, Laurence Herszberg.

The Grand Foyer
(Photo: Laurent Edeline/Bronx)

"This is the first time that a city has said to itself that its memory does not only exist in books but also in images." The collection of 5,500 films covers every possible genre. All of them have transferred to digital format at a cost of five million euros (6.4 million dollars). Cinema street is not only home to the Forum, but also to a giant UGC cinema multiplex, which claims to be Europe's busiest cinema.

There is also a Francois Truffaut film library, named after the French New Wave director, where you can choose from 100,000 DVDs.

(Photo: Laurent Edeline/Bronx)

Architect Anouk Legendre has redesigned the Forum with bold colours and lots of Plexiglas and has added horizontal space that includes a new mezzanine bar. The French newspaper Le Monde calls it a mix of the Seventies and 2001: Space Odyssey.

For visitors, there are multiple ways to view films, beginning with five screens for audiences of 30 to 450 people – they will be used for film festivals.

The centre's star attraction is a lounge. With its black walls and roof offset by red and pink sofas, it seems more like a nightclub. But it is a place for wearing headphones, not holding cocktails. Each of the sofas sits two people as they watch a movie on a small screen. "Usually in video libraries everything is centred on individual consultation, each person is in a little box with a little screen to watch the film. But here we think that that this should be an act of cinema," explained Herszberg.

The hall of the Forum
(Photo: Laurent Edeline/Bronx)

The goal of inspiring young filmmakers is at the heart of the new Forum. Cinema masterclasses will be held each month. James Gray, the US director of Little Odessa, We Own The Night, and most recently Two Lovers, was the first to deliver a masterclass.

His lectures are part of the first themed film festival at the revamped Forum. A programme of 150 films is paying homage to the world's most filmed city, New York.