Henri Langlois was a French film archivist and cinephile. A pioneer of film preservation, Langlois was an influential figure in the history of cinema. His film screenings in Paris in the 1950s are often credited with providing the ideas that led to the development of the auteur theory.
Henri Langlois
Place Henri Langlois in the 13th arrondissement in Paris is named in his honour
Film preservation, or film restoration, describes a series of ongoing efforts among film historians, archivists, museums, cinematheques, and non-profit organizations to rescue decaying film stock and preserve the images they contain. In the widest sense, preservation assures that a movie will continue to exist in as close to its original form as possible.
Stacked film cans containing rolls of film
Decayed nitrate film
Packard Humanities Institute, Santa Clarita, Nitrate film Film Vault
Simulation of a film archive: the shelves have been left almost empty to help visitors better visualize the gap between the number of surviving films and the number of films actually made.