Francofonia Page #3

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And for what?

Yes...

It was the museum fever of the Old World.

It was the best passion

the Old World was still capable of,

given its love of waging war

for any reason.

Mr. Tolstoy,

Mr. Tolstoy...

wake up.

Sadly I don't have the key

to his awakening.

I was asleep.

Sorry!

Wars, wars...

elemental forces... kings...

The Louvre has outgrown its clothes.

In the 20th century, the French president

decides on the construction

of the Grand Louvre.

A dig will begin

in the center of the square,

to reveal the Louvre's beginning,

its foundations.

Then a huge underground space

will be constructed

to connect all parts of the old Louvre

and create an entire underground city

with warehouses, labs,

streets and traffic lights.

Once again the Louvre

will be like nowhere else on Earth.

Freedom, equality...

brotherhood!

Freedom, equality, brotherhood!

- Without me.

Freedom, equality, brotherhood...

Lord, Lord,

how long ago all of it started!

What did?

The human search for form,

the battle against imitation.

The screams and moans.

The discovery of the soul...

and the incomprehension as to what to do

with the mortal and now superfluous body.

The hand is truly smarter than the head.

It forms and creates

faster than a thought is born.

This sculpture is 9000 years old.

And it was found in Jordan, in 1972.

I don't know

what my favorite architect, Pierre Lescot,

would say about this sculpture.

The end of the 16th century.

The French Renaissance.

One of Lescot's designs,

the facade of the Louvre.

Architects such as he were capable

of building the new capital of the world.

Pierre Lescot designed this wonder.

The Henry II staircase at the Louvre.

Listen here, contemporary architects.

Lescot was a mathematician, a painter,

a priest and an architect.

The year was 1553.

Lord!

How long ago it all started!

You again...

Are you stalking me?

And eavesdropping?

An intrusive ghost...

And who the ghost is...

You were saying? Well?

No, stay there.

Come closer. Come on. Closer.

Come!

Of course it was I

who brought all this here.

This?

All these sculptures

are from my campaigns...

when I waged war.

Everything here was brought back by me.

Everything here. Everything.

Why else would I have gone to war?

Well? Why?

For this, for art. That's it.

I went to war for art.

Do you like this corpse?

It's Seneca.

Is it that emperors know their art?

Me? Yes!

I had excellent advisers...

when it was a question

of taking or leaving behind.

The whole universe defines a work.

And war alone decides

where it will end up.

In Paris, military officials

had a quiet life in general.

They stayed in good hotels.

The French administration

remained in Paris.

The German army simply observed.

Many of the German officers in Paris

knew the French language.

Many of them

had been schooled in the liberal arts.

Historians, philosophers...

but now in uniform.

They'd often been

to Paris before the war

and didn't conceal

their love of French culture.

Ah, there you are.

Is there any hot water?

Count, was it interesting with M. Jaujard?

Yes, indeed it was.

But I don't envy him his position.

M. Jaujard told me in detail

how the Louvre's collection

was evacuated to various chteaux.

They have lots of space,

no risk of bombings, huge cellars.

I'm visiting

Chteau de Sourches tomorrow.

Would you care to accompany me?

Do you think Paris may be bombed?

London and Rotterdam were bombed.

Look at the photos

on my desk back there.

Did you know in Germany

that the Louvre was empty?

What do you think?

They packed 6000 crates,

how could it be a secret?

In 1939 I removed all art

from Cologne Cathedral.

And not only from there.

So in the museums

there was a presentiment of war?

We hadn't the slightest doubt

that war was imminent.

We simply continued with our work.

All museums must be prepared for war.

I'm off.

There's still the matter

of getting it on the truck.

What's this noise?

What's this noise?

What is this?

Your Majesty, this is

the Winged Victory of Samothrace,

from the second century BC.

Oh, yes?

It's not your trophy. It's from later.

It's beautiful.

What beautiful plumage.

I'm a civil servant

of the French Administration,

whose government

allies itself to the enemy.

Do I know why I'm working

for this government?

Yes, I do.

Do I know

that this could last a long time?

I'm a civil servant

of the French Administration,

whose government

allies itself to the enemy.

Do I know why

I'm working for this government?

Yes, I do.

Do I know

that' this could last a long time?

Of course there was nothing here

once upon a time.

The people who lived here

did so in fear of Viking raids.

In the 12th century,

they built a fortress with a castle.

People began to settle around it.

So it began.

How strange.

How astonishing.

To this very piece of land,

a little over one square kilometer,

these French kings and architects are to

cling, as if following a premonition,

and will work this land,

build on it, rebuild it,

and pass it on, one to the next,

without relenting.

Chteaux, palaces,

palaces, chteaux... a museum.

They will never lose ground, regardless

of revolution or elemental force,

until it can finally be proclaimed:

Our Louvre has been built.

That hardest,

most tormenting time, the Revolution.

Executions, killings...

Great names flimmered,

blood was spilled...

And nobody knew

where the army began or ended.

Grand words were spoken.

Human rights,

citizens, constitution.

Famine, guillotine, republic, democracy.

The young Napoleon decided

war would save the land.

War.

Follow me.

It was he who transformed the Louvre

into an official museum,

the place

where artistic war trophies are kept.

Suddenly the state understands

that it cannot exist without museums.

There!

That's me.

You don't recognize me?

It's you...

You on a donkey!

I'd show other paintings.

The Seine.

The view of the Louvre from Pont Neuf.

The year is 1666.

It is already a great city.

Hubert Robert in the year 1789.

The Grande Gallery.

He was an artist

and director of the Louvre

shortly before Napoleon came to power,

designing and painting

the skylights in the ceiling.

The Grande Gallery

was astonishing in its spaciousness.

It was from here

that the museum of the Louvre began.

It wasn't a road,

but the path of European art.

Step by step, year by year...

everyone in a row, eye to eye.

Robert had a sense of humor, too.

Here is the gallery in ruins.

It's just a fantasy, of course.

The Louvre was already

the center of the city back then.

A place for important meetings

for the citizens of Paris.

And painting

became a vital part of everyday life.

There was nothing comparable anywhere.

Let it not be forgotten,

the Louvre's works

are by order of French powers.

Visconti, the architect,

presenting to Napoleon III

the plans for the New Louvre.

The Louvre is a museum,

but also a palace for oneself.

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