Cinémathèque Française, Film museum in 12th arrondissement, France
The Cinémathèque Française stands in a postmodern building and houses a collection of more than 40,000 films, historical cameras, film documents, props, and cinema memorabilia spread across several exhibition rooms. The architecture of the building features irregular forms and large glass surfaces that allow natural light into the interior spaces.
The institution was founded in 1936 by Henri Langlois and Yvonne Dornès as a cinema club and gradually grew into an important center for film preservation in France. Over the decades it moved locations several times before settling into the current building on Rue de Bercy in 2005.
The name refers to the French word for film archive, and many visitors come here to watch rare screenings of films no longer shown in commercial cinemas. The exhibition rooms lead through decades of motion picture history, displaying costumes and props from famous productions that draw cinephiles from around the world.
The museum sits on Rue de Bercy in the 12th arrondissement and opens Monday and Wednesday through Sunday from 12:00 to 21:00. The exhibitions spread over several floors, and some areas are accessible by stairs or elevators.
The collection holds fragments of some of the earliest moving pictures and 17th-century magic lanterns that show how visual storytelling technology evolved over the centuries. These objects recall that cinema emerged from a long tradition of light projections and optical experiments.
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