Henri Langlois(1914-1977)

Henri Langlois was born on 13 November 1914 in Smyrna, Ottoman Empire [now Izmir, Turkey]. He was a producer and director, known for Montage de films muets français (1974), Le métro (1934) and Spatiodynamisme (1958). He died on 13 January 1977 in Paris, France.

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Trivia
He had a wish to make a 35mm color-film with painter Marc Chagall. Chagall came with the idea to portray his life by means of his paintings. Langlois started filming in 1952 and in 1954 he asked Joris Ivens to supervise and edit the already large amount of shot material. In 1958, when Ivens (with assistant Tinto Brass) edited most of it, and Langlois finished the last recordings, the film suddenly disappeared. It was never found again.

Quotes
Films are like Persian rugs: you keep them at their best by using them. Before you can show an old film, it has to exist -- that is, it has to have been conserved (in the archival sense). And in order to conserve it, first it has to have been "collected" (in the going-out-of-one's-way-to-rescue-and-save-what-others-discard sense). The cinema is a means towards the acquisition of knowledge in the manner of Saint Thomas: by touch. Read all you like about love, but if you haven't made love, your idea of it will be totally false.