Obituaries - Jan. 20, 1988

Jean Mitry; Film Historian

Jean Mitry, 83, film historian and co-founder of the Cinematheque Francaise. In a 65-year career, Mitry produced dozens of articles and books on films, including works on American director John Ford, Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein and personalities Charlie Chaplin and Rene Clair. He also compiled the “Larousse Dictionary of the Cinema” and the “Aesthetic and Psychology of the Cinema.” He compiled the 35-volume “History of Cinema” and was rewriting the volumes at the time of his death. In 1936, Mitry created the Cinematheque Francaise with Henri Langlois and George Franju. A cinematheque is a place where early and avant-garde motion pictures are collected and shown. In Paris on Monday of cancer.