In 1968, French culture minister André Malraux tried to fire Langlois due to the latter's arrogance and iron-fisted rule of the museum. On 7 February, officially due to Langlois' mismanagement and inadequate housing of archived filmstock, the state-supported Cinémathèque board replaced Langlois with Pierre Barbin. Local and international uproar ensued, and even the prestigious Cannes Film Festival was halted in protest that year. Protesters in Paris included the student activist Daniel Cohn-Bendit from University of Nanterre-Paris. Support came in telegrams from renowned directors, from Alfred Hitchcock to Akira Kurosawa to Federico Fellini to Gianni Serra. Malraux eventually reinstated Langlois after intense debate on 22 April, while reducing museum funding. The was in retrospect seen as a prelude to the larger May 68 protests.
