The Institut audiovisuel de Monaco has officially inaugurated the first part of the 23rd season of its signature initiative, ‘Tout l’art du cinéma’, spanning from September to December 2026.
Under the joint curation shaping the institute’s cultural oversight – with editorial notes and direction provided by the institute’s director Vincent Vatrican and the prominent film historian, critic, and associate programmer Jacques Kermabon – the autumn calendar offers a rigorous exploration of film heritage, archival restoration, and auteur retrospectives.
The new autumn highlight: ‘Les archives du lundi’
A major new addition this season is ‘Les archives du lundi’ (Monday Archives), introduced to intrigue audiences and encourage blind trust in the institute’s curatorial vision. Taking place every Monday at 3pm, the initiative features two alternating archival programmes each month. Emphasising the mystery and the institute’s commitment to discovery, head of collections Estelle Macé explains the core philosophy behind keeping the exact line-up under wraps: “Come and trust us.”
Tativille and the mechanics of modern satire
The programming opened on Tuesday 22nd September at the Grimaldi Forum with Jacques Tati’s 1964 masterwork, Playtime. As curatorial notes authored by Kermabon and Vatrican emphasise, the film represents a fundamental artistic shift: “The international success of Mon Oncle opened new horizons for the filmmaker, who wanted to push his satire of modern society further by tackling the gigantism of our cities, where humans are reduced to the state of ants.”
Constructing the sprawling, steel-and-glass studio set known as ‘Tativille’ in a Parisian suburb, Tati acted as an architectural visionary. Elaborating on his methods, Vatrican and Kermabon highlight his intent not to represent the world as it is, but rather to invent it from scratch, substituting traditional narrative progression for structural forms and sonic textures. The Tati retrospective extends later in the cycle with Jour de fête on 17th November at the Théâtre des Variétés.
The cabinet of curiosities: Recovering the 1956 princely wedding
A centrepiece of the early-season schedule—unveiled during a mid-September press conference—highlights local media history through a dedicated exhibition inside the institute’s ‘Cabinet de curiosités’. Following the discovery of original reels and outtakes from Jean Masson’s 1956 documentary Le Mariage de Monaco, the institute undertook a meticulous photochemical and digital laboratory restoration. As Estelle Macé explained regarding the immense value of recovering these foundational records: “Reviving these forgotten images restores their full historical depth to foundational moments of our collective memory.”
This extensive archival undertaking will culminate in a dedicated cine-conference on 16th October at the Grimaldi Forum, featuring a 4K screening and a sequence-by-sequence formal breakdown of the documentary.
Partnerships, auteur cinema, and heritage revivals
Institutional partnerships further diversify the autumn line-up. On 6th October, the Théâtre des Variétés will host Sophie Letourneur’s Voyages en Italie (2022) in collaboration with the Fondation Prince Pierre de Monaco, portraying ordinary home life in an honest, unfiltered way. Later in the season, on 4th November, the Salle Garnier will serve as the venue for a cine-concert presentation of Charles Chaplin’s Modern Times (1936), featuring a live orchestral arrangement conducted by Frank Strobel in partnership with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo.
Rounding out the initial months of the twenty-third season are significant screenings of historical and contemporary works, including Giuseppe De Santis’s Pâques sanglantes (1950), Shôhei Imamura’s Pluie noire (1988), and Joachim Trier’s recent family drama Valeur sentimentale (2025).
Magic lanterns, animation, and youth workshops
The season also extends its educational and generational reach through dedicated family programming and youth workshops. Designed for children aged four and older, a special family session titled ‘Que le spectacle commence!’ will take place on 23rd October at the Petite Salle de l’Institut. This presentation will explore pre-cinematic visual culture—long before screens and smartphones—focusing on magic lanterns and hand-painted glass slides brought to life by a lanternist-storyteller.
Complementing the public screening, a hands-on workshop titled ‘Invente ton spectacle de lanterne magique’ will be hosted for participants aged eight and older on 22nd and 23rd October. Led by historian and cinematic lanternist Anne Gourdet-Marès, the workshop introduces students to the technical secrets of the magic lantern, allowing them to paint their own transparent glass plates, invent original stories, and perform their own live-narrated projection.
Ultimately, by passing these optical crafts to the next generation, the institute ensures that the foundational mechanics of moving images remain as alive as the stories they project.
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Jacques Tati’s 1964 masterwork, Playtime. Photo Credit: Institut audiovisuel de Monaco