AROUND THE WORLD
See how other governments have chronicled their cinema histories.
The Hollywood Museum, Los Angeles
For top-shelf memorabilia, this is the place to go. Spread across four floors are some 10,000 artefacts: Marilyn Monroe’s million-dollar honeymoon dress, Elvis’s bathrobe, Rocky’s boxing gloves and Hannibal Lecter’s jail cell. There are props from Superman, Star Trek, Transformers, Glee, and items made famous by Michael Jackson, Leonardo Dicaprio, Tom Cruise and Beyoncé. There’s also a display about the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
La Cinémathèque Française, Paris
The French take their museums seriously and it shows – this is among the world’s largest film-related archives. Many artefacts rep-date World War II, and were smuggled out of German-occupied France to escape destruction from the Nazis. On display are 18th-century image-making machines, magic lanterns, set drawings, storyboards, movie posters and photos. There are screenings every day.
Deutsche Kinemathek, Berlin
Germany has six museums dedicated to films and cinema. This one combines film and TV history, with a collection of 26,000 films and 1 million stills. A permanent exhibit is dedicated to film professionals driven into exile by the Nazis. This is also the home of the Marlene Dietrich Collection, showcasing the life of the firebrand actor who refused to work in Germany while Adolf Hitler was in power.
China National Film Museum, Beijing
Exhibitions run across 20 halls, covering more than 1,500 films and the worlds of 450 filmmakers. There are on-site theatres, and the displays run through China, Hong Kong and Taiwan’s film history, as well as educational films and the craft of filmmaking.
The Cinema Museum, London
Set in a workhouse where Charlie Chaplin spent his early years, it celebrates cinema from the 1890s with popcorn machines, vintage projectors, Art Deco cinema chairs, show-time boards, usher uniforms, lobby cards, more than 1 million photographs and fan magazines, and similar quirky artefacts.
RACHEL LOPEZ