21 March 2010

Laterna Magica @ Cinémathèque française


Lanterne magique : tempête
envoyé par lacinematheque. - Court métrage, documentaire et bande annonce.

! Exhibition closing on the 28th March!

Aurore and I went to to see this exhibition and this was for me (Gunnar) the first visit ever to Cinématheque Française.
We went there after having queued outside the Pinacothèque de Paris in order to visit an exhibition with paintings by Edvard Munch. Unfortunately we hadn't bought tickets beforehand and the queue was at least fifty meters long and as it was quite windy that day we went on to Cinématheque Française.
The exhibition with Lanterne Magique/The Magic Lantern/Laterna Magica, was incredibly interesting, not least for cinephiles and -asts.
We were not only given examples of the Magic Lantern and how it could be designed but also how it worked, including an animated show with a member of the staff at the museum.
The design could be very different from Lanterne to Lanterne, from very simple to more elaborated and imaginative, depending on the wealth of the owner.
We were also given examples of the different handmade and handcoloured pictures used for this apparatus.
These were real masterpieces in many cases, very well made and from the Seventeenth Century, or older.
Early on in the history of the Magic Lantern there were 'colporteurs' walking around selling these 'mysterious' devises and showing how they worked.
Even pornographic pictures were early on displayed in the history of this apparatus. This after it had become more widely known and one tried to diversify the supply of pictures.
We were given the opportunity to see these photos too and in many cases they were - almost - as advanced as the pornographic pictures and films today.
You can read more about the function of the Magic Lantern through the links.
The exhibition was comprehensive and we learnt a lot about the development of both this predecessor of the cinema and cinematographic machines but also about all the different artists and inovators working to improve this formidable invention.
After this we took a short look at the permanent exhibition - as we had spent a lot of time with the above - but I must say that it wasn't at all as impressing as I had imagined.

Aurore says that this has to do with the fact that the items displayed today stems from Henri Langlois, the founder of the Cinématheque in Paris, meaning that what we see is 'his' collection, not 'the' collection of cinema.
This is somewhat like the Dance Museum in Stockholm, built upon the collection of Rolf de Maré, the Swedish art collector and leader of Ballet Suèdois in Paris during the 1920's, leading us to imagine that dance as an art form or as a mean to express feelings and rythm, was created by Maré or the Swedes.
When Aurore many years ago visited the permanent exhbition at Cinématheque Française, before the new Cinématheque opened, she found it more interesting.
We'll give it another chance next time we visit Paris.

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