Amicale du Cinéma Citroën poster: rebroadcast of the film "DS 19" by Paul Magès

In this document

The poster announces a session of the Amicale du Cinéma (Citroën's Cinema Association), scheduled for "Wednesday, May 15, at 6:15 p.m.", in the "Cinema Hall, at Javel" p. 1.

The program specifies that this is a 2nd screening, organized "at the request of many people" p. 1 — which indicates that the film had already been screened at least once before.

Two films are announced:

• "DS 19", presented as an "8 mm colour film by Mr. Magès" p. 1;
• "Et pourtant...", described as a "16 mm colour film" p. 1, with no further mention of the author.

No year appears on the document; only the day and month ("Wednesday, May 15") are mentioned p. 1.

Context

The Amicale du Cinéma mentioned here likely corresponds to a club or association of amateur filmmakers within Citroën, whose factory on the Quai de Javel, in Paris, was one of the historic automobile production sites. Paul Magès joined in August 1925 and spent his entire career there, for 49 years, until his retirement in September 1974 (draft letter to Mr. Sarre; photographs of retirement); the association's session is therefore part of this long life within the company.

The DS 19, launched by Citroën on October 6, 1955, remained an object of pride for the brand's engineers for decades; it is therefore not surprising that an amateur film was dedicated to it by one of its designers.

Paul Magès, the engineer who invented the hydropneumatic suspension, an iconic feature of the DS, seems to have been an amateur filmmaker himself, this poster being a tangible clue; the collection also attests to the family's taste for imagery, as his son Pierre caricatured and filmed him (caricature of Paul Magès drawn by his son Pierre), although no direct link can be established between these two practices.

Archivist's perspective

This small, sober and functional advertising document offers an unexpected glimpse into life at Citroën: beyond technical files, it reveals a collective leisure activity, where engineers shared their personal achievements, including cinematographic ones.

The mention of a "2nd screening" requested by the public p. 1 suggests that Magès' DS 19 film had met with some success among his colleagues, a likely sign of the interest aroused by the perspective of one of the fathers of the DS on his own creation.

The absence of a precise date (only the day and month appear, without a year) does not allow this screening to be situated with certainty in Magès' career chronology; however, it falls within the period when the DS occupied a central place in Citroën's identity, between its presentation in 1955 and Magès' retirement in 1974.

This document would benefit from being compared with other items relating to Magès' audiovisual or associative activities, if they exist in the collection, in order to better define the exact nature of this 8 mm film, which is now probably lost or not preserved.