22th-29th June, 9 am-6 pm; 30th June, 9 am-3 pm
Free Entry

What is she? asks André Breton and Leona Delcourt’s Nadja. And Jacques Rivette’s Céline et Julie. Or we could have borrowed our title from Max Ernst’ La Forme de tes yeux ne m’apprend pas à vivre (1925). What is Musidora? Let us attempt an answer, let us drape the Cineteca’s three entrances in her colours: let us cover them in posters, in photographs (many of them strikingly unusual), in pen-and-ink drawings, in private correspondence, in contemporary reviews and unexpected objects. In other words, in no particular order: those fascinating eyes, the lasting image of a black body-stocking, Gaumont’s vamp, the surrealist muse, and also her first steps (Académie Julian, Cinéma du Peuple, cabaret and music-hall memorabilia), the Spanish fiesta of the Musidora Film Company productions and her pioneering archival work at the Cinemathèque française (correspondence, inventory, lecture, Commission des recherche historique).

Émilie Cauquy