The National Gallery of Art's summer preservation festival is saluting the French National Film Archives with a series of Ciné-Concerts!

This rare film program at the NGA will include a unique silent French farce and boulevard comedy, a mystery film, and early "wonders of science" shorts -- tinted and toned as they were when they were originally released!

Since 1969, the French National Film Archive / CNC (Archives Françaises du Film/Centre National du Cinéma et de l'image animée) have been collecting and conserving the incomparable cinématic heritage of France. It is estimated that 80 percent of these films produced during the early 1900's have disappeared. Each year, approximately 2,000 new titles are added to the film archive collection facilities in Bois d'Arcy and Saint-Cyr.

WHAT: From Vault to Screen: New Preservations from France

Curator Eric Le Roy and film conservator Caroline Patte

WHEN: Sunday, July 17 at 4:30 PM

WHERE: National Gallery of Art - 4th and Constitution Ave., NW - East Building Concourse, Auditorium

ADMISSION: Free

MORE INFO

Presented with the generous support of TV5MONDE

SUNDAY, JULY 17 AT 4:30 PM

Ciné-Concert: Mots Croisés followed by Bonheur Conjugal!

East Building Concourse, Auditorium

Phil Carli, piano

New York bank employee Percy Johnson, off to France with fiancée Mary Brown after winning a crossword-puzzle championship (hence the film's title Mots Croisés, or Crosswords in English), encounters en route the Snowdens, who've got ménage a quatre on their minds—then those train tickets to Nice get switched and hilarious complications ensue. The production house Cinédor produced this engaging farce. (Michel Linsky and Pierre Colombier, 1926, 35 mm, silent with live piano, 61 minutes)

In Bonheur Conjugal! (Marital Bliss), debt-ridden playboy Jack de la Mainmise, bored with his time-to-settle-down marriage to the wealthy bourgeoise Comtesse de la Roche Hapique, runs off to follow his actress first love Monette on tour in the south of France, but only after mortal consequences. (Robert Saidreau, 1922, 35 mm, silent with live piano, 64 minutes)