"Toute la mémoire du monde" or "All the Memory of the World" is a French black-and-white film by Alain Resnais from 60 years ago. It's interesting that two of the three people involved with this documentary became over 90 years old and the third also made it past 80. Admittedly, most of the books in this documentary are much older still. And that's basically what it is: a 20-minute documentary about a gigantic library in the French capital. I have to say it was never really interesting and even to people who often go to libraries I'd rather recommend to read a good book than to watch this one here. It's really only worth a watch for nostalgic reasons, maybe especially for French or even better Parisian citizens. The rest can really do without it. Not recommended.

Toute la mémoire du monde is a short documentary that Alain Resnais made before he became one of the giants of the New Wave. In some ways it does prefigure some of the ideas he would explore in his future feature films. For instance, while this may be a documentary about the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, it is also interested in exploring the mazes of the mind; in this respect it has much in common with Resnais most famous film Last Year at Marienbad. We look at this famous library and liken it to a physical representation of a mind. We see how knowledge is organised within it, with the purpose of storing it away for some future reference not yet known. The library is depicted as a growing entity; almost alive. As more books are published it burrows deeper into the ground to accommodate them and to ensure that the memories of our culture are never lost.Aside from this, it works as an interesting look at a famous institution. When you watch it now, it's difficult not to think that the smallest of computers could now store the entire contents of the library back then. Advances in technology have changed things irrevocably. But I like to think that this old library is still growing and evolving to accommodate physical media and always will do. Some things are worth preserving and to never be forgotten.

France is one of the few nations in the world where books and literature are held in very high esteem. This is an extremely propitious sign which symbolizes the vitality of the true 'book culture'. This culture finds its reflection in French documentary film "Toute La Mémoire Du Monde" which has been directed by Alain Resnais-one of French cinema's greatest directors. Apart from books, Resnais also discusses all forms of printed information. Although this film was shot in 1956 at Bibliothèque Nationale De France (BNF), French National Library, one could still find intact many of the places shown in the film. This is because even after an interval of 57 years, BNF continues to grow at an amazing pace without sacrificing even an ounce of its resources. One should not wonder if one is told that the use of technology to do all activities related to books have increased significantly at BNF. Toute La Mémoire Du Monde has been shot like a feature film with a mellifluous background score, taut narration and highly professional camera work. As a film, it is an extremely important work of art for students, librarians, information seekers, cultural enthusiasts and anybody who is interested in the enigmatic world of books.Lastly, it must be mentioned that Resnais has used memory as knowledge for this film as it is through knowledge that human beings would be able to overcome all their differences.This is the reason why "Mémoire" is as important as "Connaissance".

This one prefaces Resnais subsequent work, memory and what forms appear in it. The consistently brilliant touch of this is that he visualizes memory by means of cinema, a space which the camera can literally explore.Here he stumbles upon a fitting metaphor for the mind, the National Library of France. We see how knowledge is routinely amassed and categorized there, how people daily wade through so much information which then is merely stored away for future reference. What looks frightening to me is not that what is infinite and beyond words is believed that it can fit into shelves, but the megalomania behind the enterprise, the belief that among these shelves the secrets of the universe may be unlocked one day.But what is stored away there is merely thought or the objects of it. Our civilization destroyed by some imaginary catastrophe, how will an alien visiting the ruins of this library know how we experienced through our eyes a gust of wind or a sunset?To accommodate with the ever increasing influx of information, we're shown how the library burrows further underground, digging deeper inside of us. Resnais explores this cavernous place with a camera that recalls the future endeavors of Sacha Vierny, and although a bit obvious in what is intended by it, as a prologue of what was then to come, it's a great watch.