Les Films de la Pléïade et les Films du Jeudi
Les Films de la Pléiade and les Films du Jeudi were founded in 1945 and 1964, respectively, by Pierre Braunberger (1905- 1990), talent finder and non-conformist producer of more than 200 films which include Jean Renoir’s A Day in the Country and La Chienne, Jean-Luc Godard’s My Life to Live, François Truffaut’s Shoot the Piano Player, Claude Lelouch’s L’Amour avec des si... and Une Fille et des fusils, Maurice Pialat’s L’Amour existe, Alain Resnais’s Toute la Mémoire du monde and Le Chant du styrene, Jean Rouch’s La Chasse au lion à l ‘arc and Gérard Pirès’s Elle court, Elle court, la banlieue and Attention les yeux.
In 1966, Braunberger, a great admirer of Max Ophuls, bought up all the rights to Lola Montes at an auction and assembled a version close to the original. In 1991, his daughter, Laurence Braunberger, took over from him and contributed as rights owner to the film’s restoration at the behest of la Cinémathèque française.