Here we glimpse a future in which all mysteries are solved

June 8, 2013 3:19 PM

Toute la mémoire du monde (1956: 21 minutes) is a remarkably lovely documentary short by Alain Resnais about the Bibliothèque nationale de France in the age of print. Via The Funambulist.

Resnais previously and more previously.

posted by theodolite (5 comments total)

My favorite. Should be a double bill with Le chant du styrène, an ode to the powers of plastic.
posted by homerica at 7:32 PM on June 8, 2013

Now I know where heaven was in 1956. :)
posted by Celsius1414 at 9:25 PM on June 8, 2013

Wow, thanks! theodolite. The Citizen Kane of library docs. Stick Cary Grant in there, and it could be a Hitchcock film. And I noticed this in the opening credits: "Chris and Magic Marker."
posted by steef at 5:20 AM on June 9, 2013

Also noted in credits, Musique: Maurice Jarre (Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago..)
posted by ovvl at 7:08 AM on June 9, 2013 [1 favorite]

Excellent, thanks for posting this!

The architect of the Bibliotèque Nationale, Henri Labrouste, is currently the subject of an exhibition at MoMA in New York, there's a comprehensive page here.
posted by carter at 8:16 PM on June 9, 2013