La Cinémathèque, un musée vivant du cinéma The Cinémathèque, “living” museum of cinema
‡ in well with the prospecting skills so highly developed by the Cinémathèque. “We are pur suing a purchasing policy with private collec tors in the USA, France, Germany, as elsewhere in Europe,” he explains. As a result of this policy, these archives are beyond even the wildest dreams of most film buffs and contain some particularly rare works, comparable to the incunabula of literature. A recent edition on DVD of the film Arkadin by Orson Welles (1955), from the prestigious Criterion collection, illustrates this perfectly. Claude Bertemes elaborates, “We had a unique working copy of this film, butchered by the producers of the time. It is well known that Orson Welles was fanatical about editing. He got himself thrown out of the cutting room – probably because of deadlines or budget concerns – and the techni cians of the time created something mediocre, which contributed to the film being a flop. Ours is an unedited copy of Welles’ original work. Recently, we made a restored version based on Welles’ writings, the regrets he expressed and the clues we found on our own copy. Thanks to this reworking of the project, we have created a version which we would like to think is closer to his original conception.” On the showcase side, the Cinémathèque is situated in the heart of the capital and presents at least 16 screenings a week in a cosy atmosphere, in a setting steeped in history. “When it was first set up in this former monas tery of the ‘Pères Rédomptoristes’, mass was still celebrated there on Sundays. I like to imagine the Sunday screenings with the scent of incense still wafting in the air.” says Claude
Bertemes mischievously. “An institution must remain true to the original blueprint of pre senting the cinematographic heritage,” he continues, clearly happy with a film theatre which provides indisputable screening comfort, from ground floor to balcony. However, the Cinémathèque is not satisfied with just welcoming audiences but also goes out to meet them. Thus regular visitors to the Schueberfouer (Luxembourg’s largest funfair, which welcomes thousands of visi-
“ The Cinémathèque is working on the completion of a course on the history and aesthetics of cinema as well...”
tors on the Glacis Parking Area from late August to early September) discovered the Crazy Cinématographe last year. Housed in the reconstruction of a fairground cinema, this very unusual concept offered very old films, silent movies and short films with sound provided by actors and musicians. A true return to the roots of cinema, reminiscent of Edison’s cinematograph which Theodore of Worms presented in a similar setting in…1898. Taken up again by the Cinéma thèque team, over a century later and adapted to contemporary tastes, this attraction cer-
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