This was my first time at the cinémathèque française, which I visited specifically for the recently opened Romy Schneider exhibition.
90-minute guided tours in french are available on Saturdays and Sundays at 4:30 pm.
Booking for the exhibition and/or tour is available online and a number of options (entry+tour, entry+movie) and discounts (jobless, student etc) are available
The tour started on time, after we got an earpiece from the front desk (in exchange for an ID). All the details are explained in an email received the day before the visit.
Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and shared many additional details on Romy Schneider’s life and relationships with directors and other actors from that time. While it’s fine to tour the exhibition alone, the guided tour really added to the experience with additional context and details from the era which would not have been available from the description of each item. In addition, a detailed exhibition booklet is available from the front desk with a complete description of all the events (film showings, conferences) supporting the Romy Schneider exhibition.
Overall, the cinémathèque did a great job putting together this Romy Schneider special and the guided tour is a must.
My only regret is that the space on the 5th floor (where the exhibition is displayed) tends to get very cramped as visitors move very slowly (there are many screens showing extracts from movies which last several minutes). As our group was fairly large, it was at times difficult to get around and follow the tour