France’s CNC has launched Garance, a web portal bringing together the collections and resources of seven French film heritage institutions, in what it describes as a world-first single access point for cinema archives.
The platform brings together the collections and resources of seven institutions: the CNC, Cinémathèque de Corse – Casa di Lume, Cinémathèque française, Cinémathèque Gnidzaz de Martigues, Cinémathèque de Grenoble, Cinémathèque de Toulouse and Institut Jean Vigo.
The catalogue spans fiction, animation and documentary shorts and features alongside the material history surrounding them, from posters, costumes and sets to cameras and other equipment, drawings, magazines, photographs and archival documents.
Aimed at industry professionals, researchers and students as well as cinema enthusiasts, Garance allows users to search across collections previously held in separate catalogues.
Its film collection lists more than 180,000 works dating from 1892 to the present day, including 130,000 fiction titles, 30,000 documentaries and non-fiction works and 20,000 trailers and advertisements, with French films accounting for a significant proportion.
Several titles can be viewed in full directly through the portal, including Paul Hurst’s 1926 silent western Battling Kid, Ford Beebe’s 1932 crime feature The Pride Of The Legion and Sam Newfield’s 1936 western The Lion’s Den.
For other films, Garance provides detailed catalogue information and directs users to the partner institutions where they can be viewed. Agnès Varda’s Cléo From 5 To 7, for example, is listed as accessible through the CNC and the Cinémathèques française and de Toulouse, while François Truffaut’s The 400 Blows and Jean-Luc Godard’s Band Of Outsiders are available through the two cinémathèques.
The platform will also feature original editorial content, including stories, news and themed investigations exploring films alongside the crafts, techniques and objects that have shaped cinema history.
The participating institutions have harmonised their cataloguing practices and pooled their data to create the shared database, with the project expected to expand further. The CNC said other institutions, including Lyon’s Institut Lumière, could eventually join Garance.
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