2015 – "120 years of cinema: Gaumont, for as long as cinema has existed"

To celebrate its 120th anniversary, Gaumont planned a free exhibition at the Centquatre-Paris in April 2015.

Four months of work and approximately 420,000 square feet were opened to the public for a 120-year exploration of cinema, inventions, creation, and emotions.

This exhibition, directed by Dominique Païni and designed by Nathalie Crinière, offered a complete journey through the history of cinema since 1895.

Two rooms were transformed into museums, where visitors could discover pieces from the Gaumont Collection and the Musée des Arts Forains, film extracts, posters, costumes, old equipment, rare objects, décor pieces, and the works of Annette Messager.

An interactive room was designed by artist, photographer, and writer Alain Fleischer.

An exhibition intended to be familial, fun, and educational.

"This exhibition resonates with all audiences, speaking to extreme cinephiles just as much as non-cinephiles.

To feel something together is very important.

This was our goal: pleasure and poetry. "

Ariane Toscan du Plantier

Besides the Gaumontrama where you could watch film extracts from the Gaumont catalog—plunging audiences back into their memories of the big screen—, visitors could also (re)discover Gaumont News as well as restored heritage films, sometimes with a pianist, to share the experience of this lesser known heritage.

"Silent films were not made to be silent. In the room they would have orchestras, there would be a pianist, people would talk, applaud, react.

Often when we talk about heritage films, people are under the impression that these are rather boring, but not at all! At the time, when people would go and watch six episodes in a row of Fantômas or Feuillade's Vampires, it was their Game of Thrones! "

The CENTQUATRE-PARIS, a space for production, creation, and sharing for all arts and all audiences, has thus welcomed its first cinematography exhibition. Both historical and modern, interactive, magical, playful, and entertaining… An exhibition just like cinema itself.

About the exhibition

PUBLICATIONS

Two works were published to accompany the exhibition.

A large-format book published by Éditions La Martinière and written by Jean-Luc Douin (preface by Nicolas Seydoux), and an update by Gallimard of the book published about the history of Gaumont in 1994 (Découvertes Collection, Abrams Discoveries in the US).

"120 YEARS COLLECTION" DVD BOX SET

9 DVD box sets portraying the diversity of the Gaumont catalog. Each covering a decade of films on average by the daisy-blazoned brand, these limited-edition box sets (1200 pieces) offer a glimpse into 120 years of cinema, from silent films to the most recent latest hits.