François Reichenbach’s short films

Presented by Laurence Braunberger, director of Les Films du Jeudi, and Sarah Marty, legal owner of François Reichenbach’s work.

François Reichenbach has traveled the world, capturing the singular energy of places and peoples. His short films, produced by Pierre Braunberger and shot between the 1950s and 1960s, are a mosaic of sensibilities and points of view, at the crossroads of avant-garde, poetic essay and documentary portrait. Three of his films – Impressions de New York (1956), Houston Texas (1956) and L’Américain se détend (1958) – reveal the United States through the lens of the unusual and the contrast. Novembre à Paris (1956) and Le Paris des photographes (1962) respond to each other, between an impressionistic portrait of the city and a self reflective documentary gaze. Illuminations and Artifices (1963), followed by Aurora (1966), combine visual experimentation and social activism.

The restorer – LES FILMS DU JEUDI with COSMODIGITAL – LITA FILMS

Les Films du Jeudi (also known as Les Films de la Pléiade and Les Films du Panthéon) has a film catalog spanning from 1920 to the present day. Most of these films were produced by Pierre Braunberger, one of the most significant independent producers of the 20th century—an unparalleled talent scout who, however, remains relatively unknown to the general public. Pierre Braunberger played a key role in the beginnings of the Nouvelle Vague (including figures like François Truffaut, Agnès Varda, Jean-Luc Godard, Alain Resnais, Jacques Rivette, François Reichenbach, Jean Rouch, and Chris Marker), as well as Jean Renoir and Jean-Pierre Melville, and more recently Gérard Pirès, Gérard Krawczyk, and many others. In 1987, the Centre Georges Pompidou paid tribute to him, and the Cinémathèque Française honored him in May 2001.

Since his passing, Laurence Braunberger, his daughter, has taken over the management of the company and is dedicated to preserving and restoring the films in the catalog, usually with the support of the CNC, as well as distributing them. She produces the projects that are dear to her with the same sparing approach her father used.