Montage muet français Palais des Congrès

On 2 March 1974 Henri Langlois cofounder of the Cinémathèque française screened a partly impromptu edit of films and fragments from the nations silent film production IFFR 2019 Programme It was originally made by Langlois for a presentation whose origins or motives are unclear as is the thematic or narrative throughline in the epic though it is said that when he presented the film Langlois was doing something akin to cutting it together live in the projection booth It definitely goes chronologically through French cinema definitely avoids a general historiography and obvious citations and definitely gravitates towards films shot in Paris yet none of these touchpoints elucidate exactly what Langloiss epic essay film was intended for It was found in the Cinémathèque on the shelves only recently and digitized embalming what feels like a very specific and quite personal guided tour through cinema with the guide Langlois missing Daniel Kasman MUBI