Netflix will become a patron of the Cinémathèque française and contribute alongside it to the restoration of Abel Gance's film "Napoleon".
This piece of history of the 7th art, shown for the first time in 1927, is a silent feature film of more than seven hours.
The American online video giant Netflix announced on Thursday that it had become a patron of the French Cinémathèque, and contributed alongside it to the restoration of a piece of history of the 7th art, "Napoleon" by Abel Gance.
No financial amount has been specified: "the French Cinematheque has committed to a confidentiality clause regarding the amounts received from its generous patrons and donors, to which Netflix is no exception," the director told AFP. of the communication of this institution of cinephilia, Jean-Christophe Mikhaïloff.
But symbolically, this support for the restoration of a monument of French cinematographic heritage is important for the multinational: Netflix, like the Cinémathèque, intends to show that it supports "the preservation and the influence of French and international cinematographic heritage and (wants) promote its transmission ", according to a joint statement.
The partnership concluded with the Cinémathèque will also extend to the organization of screenings, conferences and master classes.
A silent film of more than seven hours
Netflix, whose success is shaking up the global economy of the 7th art, had already sought to give pledges to French cinema, in particular by signing with MK2 during the first confinement a partnership to distribute a vast catalog of films by French authors, including François Truffaut, Jacques Demy or Alain Resnais.
By this first foray into the restoration, he tackles a monument in the history of cinema: "Napoleon", by Abel Gance, with Albert Dieudonné and Antonin Artaud, was screened for the first time in 1927. This silent film over seven hours has many visual innovations and has been the subject of several restorations.
The current one was undertaken in 2008 by the Cinémathèque, which hopes to see it complete by the end of 2021, the bicentenary of Napoleon's death, for a budget of around 2 million euros.
It is "both a restoration but above all the reconstitution of a lost work", after "thousands of hours of research and analysis of missing film elements found in the four corners of the planet" , argued Jean-Christophe Mikhaïloff.
Whole sections of the film - famous in particular for its technical inventions, including the "triple screen" - have irreparably disappeared, because the film has been cut and re-edited several times.