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First Tango in Paris Article announcing the imminent formation of FIAF in the British trade journal Today’s Cinema, 16 June 1938 JFP First Tango in Paris: ¯°.20 The Birth of FIAF, 1936-1938 88 Christophe Dupin Christophe Dupin: Senior Administrator of the International Federation of Film Archives and ¢lm historian (Brussels). “Only when lm archives of di±erent countries establish regular exchanges will one nally be able to know the true history of cinema.” Henri Langlois, 19361 Henri Langlois, 1936 1 Author’s note: The origins of this article can chives, and helped me complete the pre-war be found in my research on the history of picture. The fact that relatively little has been the British Film Institute, and in particular written about the origins and formation of my analysis of the tempestuous relationship FIAF, added to the upcoming celebration of between Ernest Lindgren and Henri Langlois, the 75th anniversary of the Federation in June two of the pioneers of the lm archive move- 2013, convinced me to interpret these fasci- ment. 2 During that research I became famil - nating pre-war archival records in an article iar with FIAF-related paper archives held by for the Journal of Film Preservation. the British Film Institute (which I also cata- logued) and the Cinémathèque francaise FIAF’s o¦cial date of birth is generally rec- (where I could rely on the generous support ognized as 17 June 1938, as con¢rmed by the of Laurent Mannoni). My subsequent appoint- date of the “Agreement for the International ment as FIAF Administrator gave me direct Federation of Film Archives” signed in Paris by access to the Federation’s own archival re- its four founder-members – the Cinémathèque cords in Brussels, documenting three-quar- française, Germany’s Reichsfilmarchiv, the ters of a century of the lm archive move- British Film Institute, and the Museum of Modern ment. Research in New York at The Museum Art Film Library. However, the seeds of this pro- of Modern Art revealed more evidence of early ject of international co-operation had been contacts between the rst emerging lm ar- planted several months, if not years, before, and the Federation did not become a fully op- HISTORY erational organization for many more months. 1. “Ce n’est que lorsqu’on aura établi, entre cinémathèques des di©érents pays, des échanges réguliers, que l’on pourra en¢n connaître l’histoire vraie du cinéma.” Henri Langlois, The formation of each of the four founder- “L’évolution des œuvres cinématographiques vues de France”, La Cinématographie française, no. 934, 26 September 1936, p.99. members of FIAF (between January 1934 and 2. See Christophe Dupin, “‘Je t’aime … moi non plus’: The Stormy September 1936) is already well-documented Relationship Between Ernest Lindgren and Henri Langlois, Pioneers of the Film Archive Movement”, in Geo©rey Nowell- Smith and Christophe Dupin (eds.), The British Film Institute, the Government and Film Culture (1933-2000), Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2012. 43 elsewhere. 3 Instead, I would like to concen- cultural and political value of ¢lm, seemed trate on the nature and evolution of the early to have played a crucial role in its constitu- relationships between these institutions, in or- tion. In 1935 the Reichs¢lmarchiv already had der to understand how the idea of an interna- a new director – Frank Hensel, who had been tional ¢lm archive network emerged, what ob- involved in the making of propaganda ¢lms stacles came in the way of its establishment, for the National Socialist Party (which he and how the project managed to materialize had joined in 1928). 5 Having travelled a lot in despite the increasingly hostile international his youth, he spoke very good English, which context of the late 1930s. would be helpful in establishing international contacts with foreign archives. The setting-up of exchanges (of informa- tion, ¢lms, and related materials) between In April that year, the Third Reich convened the ¢rst emerging ¢lm archives very soon af- an International Film Congress in Berlin, at- ter their formation (and, for some, even before tended by 1000 delegates of 24 national that), was the result of the immediate realiza- ¢lm industries. The remit of its 9th Special tion by their founders that establishing inter- Committee was to discuss the question of ¢lm national contacts was an absolute condition archives. The outcome of its deliberations was of their development. It would not only rein- to recommend “the setting-up of a ¢lm repos- force the legitimacy of their work and status at itory in each country for the collection of ¢lms home, at a time when the preservation of the of cultural, educational, and scienti¢c value or ¢lm heritage was a completely new and there- showing the development of ¢lm art. The pro- fore unrecognized activity (yet a very expensive ducers in each country should be required to one), but also help them quickly expand, at an deliver a free copy of each of their ¢lms to the a©ordable price, their still modest collections Repository. Each Repository would compile a of ¢lm classics. These like-minded people also catalogue of educational ¢lms and the various only envisaged the history of the art of cinema repositories would have contact with one an- in its universal dimension, and therefore it nev- other. As far as possible, a copy of all ¢lms pro- er crossed their minds to limit their ¢lm acqui- duced in the respective countries, educational sitions to their national cinemas. In the initial and otherwise, should be kept.” 6 Later Hensel outline of the future work of the MoMA Film was to give himself credit “for having success- Library, dated 17 April 1935, John Abbott (its fully prompted other countries to create their ¢rst director) and his wife Iris Barry (its ¢rst cu- own ¢lm archives based on the German ar- rator) recognized that its “activities will rightly chive” at this congress, 7 but the evidence does and needfully be international in scope”. 4 not bear this out. Many countries had boycott- ed the event for political reasons. The MoMA Of the future four members of FIAF, Nazi Film Library and the BFI’s National Film Library Germany’s Reichs¢lmarchiv was the ¢rst to be were already about to be launched, and it is established, on 29 January 1934, even though unlikely that Langlois’ Cinémathèque project it would only be o¦cially inaugurated (by owed much to the recommendations of the Hitler himself) in February 1935, by which time Berlin congress 8. In November 1938 he would it already contained over 1200 ¢lms of “artis- even declare to John Abbott that one of the tic or cultural importance”. Joseph Goebbels, real strengths of the FIAF project came from a cinema enthusiast who fully understood the 5. Rolf Aurich, op. cit., p.16. 3. See, for instance, Laurent Mannoni, Histoire de la 6. Final Report of the Berlin International Film Congress Cinémathèque francaise (Paris: Gallimard, 2006); Haidee April 25th – May 1st 1935, p.5. Source: BFI National Library, London. Wasson, Museum Movies: The Museum of Modern Art 7. Rolf Aurich, op. cit., pp.20-21. and the Birth of Art Cinema (Berkeley/Los Angeles: University 8. Another international organization, strongly inÃuenced this of California Press, 2005); Christophe Dupin, “The Origins time by Fascist Italy – the International Institute of Educational and Early Development of the National Film Library: Cinematography based in Rome – also showed an interest 1929-1936”, Journal of Media Practice, 7.3, 2006; Rolf Aurich, in the formation of ¢lm archives and in the facilitating of the “Cinéaste, Collector, National Socialist: Frank Hensel and the circulation of (educational) ¢lms between countries in the Reichs¢lmarchiv”, Journal of Film Preservation, #64, April 2002. early to mid-1930s. However, there is little evidence in the 4. John E. Abbott and Iris Barry, “An Outline of a Project correspondence between the future founders of FIAF that for Founding the Film Library of the Museum of Modern Art”, they were inÃuenced, even indirectly, by an organization that 17 April 1935, reproduced in Film History, Autumn 1995, vol.7, was always much more interested in ¢lm as a classroom tool no.3, p.325. than as an art form. 44 Henri Langlois’ passport photograph, 1939 John Abbott and Iris Barry during their European tour, summer 1936. Frank Hensel Olwen Vaughan, 1938 the fact that unlike most other international cultural and artistic aspects of the medium – a ¢lm organizations of the 1930s, FIAF had not development which would indeed inÃuence the been initiated by the German-Italian axis. 9 work of the NFL in its formative years. They did, however, ¢nd a key ally in Olwen Vaughan, the The ¢rst signi¢cant step towards the estab- Secretary of the BFI since May 1935. Unlike the lishment of serious contacts between emerg- rest of the BFI sta©, Vaughan was truly interest- ing ¢lm archives took place in the summer of ed in ¢lm as an art form. Besides her job at the 1936, on the occasion of the Abbotts’ tour of BFI, she was running the BFI-a¦liated London Europe (25 May to 30 August), whose objective Film Institute Society, which programmed rep- was “to search for noteworthy foreign ¢lms ertory ¢lms and invited ¢lmmakers and critics to add to the collection of the Film Library”. 10 to lecture about ¢lm. After a ¢rst operational year during which they had been looking west to Hollywood to secure While in London, the Abbotts were also in- prints of American silent ¢lms, which fed their terviewed by Ernest Lindgren, the discreet and ¢rst ¢lm programmes, they now turned to diligent 26-year-old curator of the National Europe.
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