Scorsese opens the Paris film centre.

The American film director, Martin Scorsese, recently presided over the inauguration of the new home of the Cinematheque Francaise film centre. The "spiritual home" of film buffs the world over has moved to a building designed by the architect Frank Gehry at 51 rue de Bercy. The Cinematheque Francaise was originally founded in 1936 and has known a variety of homes. Its task has always been to promote French cultural cinema and more recently to protect French culture from the invasion from Hollywood.

The new centre will have four screening rooms, exhibition halls and a library spread over 14,000 sqm. The inaugural evening was attended by a thousand guests including Souleymane Ciss, Wong Kar-wa and Manoel de Oliveira as well as the Larrieu brothers. The guests visited the new venue and were given the opportunity of viewing an old Jean Renoir film entitled "The Stream" which was recently restored by Scorseses own Film Foundation.