Los Angeles (AFP)

Los Angeles finally has a museum entirely devoted to cinema that made it famous, and it was high time, said Tom Hanks Tuesday, welcoming the press for a discovery of the Oscars museum, before it opens next week.

The city may be home to Hollywood studios and have dozens of museums on different subjects, from natural sciences to selfies, until now it had none dedicated to the seventh art.

After decades of procrastination, the Oscars museum opens to the public on September 30.

"It's important for Los Angeles to have a film museum," insists Tom Hanks, a member of the museum's board of directors and himself holder of two Oscars.

"We all know movies are made all over the world, and they're great. There are other cities with movie museums. But, with all due respect, this museum created in Los Angeles by the Academy of Oscars really has to be the Parthenon of the genre, ”he said.

The museum, located in the west of the city, will be the largest museum dedicated to cinema in North America.

Among the iconic treasures on display at the Oscar Museum are the costumes of ET and the legendary Star Wars droid C-3PO.

VALERIE MACON AFP

It was created thanks to some 390 million dollars donated by Hollywood institutions like Disney, Warner or Netflix, and was designed by the famous architect Renzo Piano, who notably contributed to the Center Pompidou in Paris.

It is a former department store dating from the 1930s that he converted to accommodate the main galleries of the museum.

There is added a metallic sphere housing the David Geffen cinema and its 1,000 seats, which seems to hover above the museum courtyard.

- Zeppelin -

“Don't call it the Dark Star!” Renzo Piano joked, referring to films from the Star Wars universe.

“Call it a zeppelin. A zeppelin to take you to another world,” the 84-year-old architect added.

The museum presents the visitor with a broad overview of world cinema, from its beginnings at the end of the 19th century to the present day.

Iconic treasures on display include the costumes of Dracula, an orc from "Lord of the Rings", the amphibian from "The Shape of Water" and the legendary droids from Star Wars, C-3PO and R2- D2.

There are also older pieces, such as the "Rosebud" sled from the film "Citizen Kane", considered one of the greatest masterpieces of cinema.

Iconic works of cinema, such as the amphibian in "The Shape of Water", are exhibited at the Los Angeles Oscars museum VALERIE MACON AFP

Only three sledges had been built for the filming needs.

Director Orson Welles was not satisfied with the first take in which the sledge burns up in the boiler and wanted to repeat this scene, which closes the film.

Only the third copy therefore survived.

The space reserved for temporary exhibitions will open with works by the king of Japanese animated films, Hayao Miyazaki, including a "tunnel of trees" inspired by his classic "My Neighbor Totoro" and leading the visitor to flying castles and other preparatory sketches.

"We want to make known through our galleries the diversity of international histories of cinematographic creation," museum director Bill Kramer told AFP.

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