Clemenceau and the cinema

Discover the link between cinema and Gerges Clemenceau in this exhibition!

You can discover the recently rediscovered film Le Voile du Bonheur by Édouard-Émile Violet, based on the play written by Georges Clemenceau in 1901, and just restored by the Centre National du Cinéma (CNC).

The birth of cinema

Georges Clemenceau (1841-1929) was fifty-four years old when cinema was born. He foresaw the emerging importance of the photographic and cinematographic image in communication.

His works adapted for the cinema

Clemenceau's works adapted for the cinema before and after the First World War are presented in this exhibition.

Clemenceau's play Le Voile du Bonheur (1901) was adapted twice in France: by Albert Capellani in 1910 and by Édouard-Émile Violet in 1923 - both of which were rediscovered a hundred years later - and his novel Les Plus Forts (1898) was adapted by the American director Raoul Walsh in 1920.

Clemenceau's interpreters on the big and small screens are also discussed. Renowned actors will be portraying the Tiger. Co-curator Jérôme Lucchini looks at the film The President (1961), in which thousands of viewers saw Jean Gabin as the reincarnation of Clemenceau. Two years later, Raymond Queneau played him in Claude Chabrol's Landru , followed by Raoul Curet and Bernard Lavalette in the series Les Brigades du Tigre (1974-1983) and others including Didier Bezace in Clemenceau (2012) and recently Pierre Arditi in Clemenceau, la force d'aimer (2023).

This exhibition was presented at the Musée Clemenceau in 2023.