France Cinema

Paris can justifiably claim to be the world’s capital of film appreciation. With more than 370 screens within the city limits, distributed among over 100 movie theatres and multiplexes, a fabulous cornucopia of movies are screened, both brand-new and classic. Although American movies dominate the market, virtually every filmmaking industry in the world has found a niche in the city’s art houses. Theaters change their programs on Wednesdays. The cheapest practical guides to what’s on are Pariscope and L’Officiel des Spectacles with complete theater listings and timetables for some

300 movies. Movies shown in subtitled original language versions are coded “VO” (version originale); dubbed movies are coded “VF” (version française). The Fête du Cinéma is held for three days in June. The system is that you pay full price for one movie and then every movie seen subsequently in any theater on that day costs around two euros. Film buffs think nothing of taking in six or seven screenings in one day.

MOVEMENTS IN CINEMA

Paris was the cradle of the cinematograph over 100 years ago, when Auguste and Louis Lumière invented the early film projector. Their screening of L’Arrivée dun Train en Gare de La Ciotat (Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station) in Paris in 1895 is considered by many to mark the birth of the medium. The French reverence for movies as a true art form is based on a theory of one of the world’s first film critics, Ricciotto Canudo, an Italian intellectual living in France, who dubbed cinematography “the Seventh Art” in 1922. The title holds true even today. The city was of course also the incubator of that very Parisian vanguard movement, the new wave, when film directors such as Claude Chabrol, François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, and Eric Rohmer in the late 1950s and early 60s revolutionized the way movies were made and perceived. The exploration of existential themes, the use of long tracking shots, and the rejection of studios for outside locations are some of the characteristics of New Wave film. In 2001, the success of Amélie revitalized the Parisian moviemaking scene; many of its locations are easy to spot as you walk around town. The same is true of The Da Vinci Code, also featuring Amelie star Audrey Tautou.

MOVIE ZONES

Most Paris movie theaters are concentrated in several movie belts, which enjoy the added appeal of nearby restaurants and shops.

The Champs-Elysées remains the densest theater strip in town, where you can see the latest Hollywood smash hit or French auteur triumph, as well as some classic reissues, in subtitled original language versions. Theaters in the Grands Boulevards, in the vicinity of the Opéra de Paris Garnier, show movies in both subtitled and dubbed versions.

The Place de Clichy is the last Parisian stronghold of Pathé, which operates no fewer than 13 screens there, all showing dubbed versions. A major hub of Right Bank movie activity is in the Forum des

Halles shopping mall.

The Left Bank, historically associated with the city’s intellectual life, remains the center of the art and repertory cinemas. Yet, it has equally as many of the latest block busters. Since the 1980s, many

theaters in the Latin Quarter have closed down and the main area for Left Bank

theaters is now the Odéon-St- Germain-des-Prés area. The Rue Champollion is an exception. It has enjoyed a revival as a mini-district for art and repertory movies.

Farther to the south, Montparnasse remains a lively district of new movies in both dubbed and subtitled prints.

BIG SCREENS AND

PICTURE PALACES Among surviving landmark theaters are two Grands Boulevards venues, the 2,800-seat Le Grand Rex with its

Baroque decor, and the Max

Linder Panorama, which was

refurbished by a group of

independent movie buffs in

the 1980s for both popular

and art film programming.

The massive new 14-screen

MK2 Bibliothèque theater

(plus bar, stores, and exhibit-

ion space), recently opened

up in the revitalized 13th

arrondissement and just across

the river, the Bercy movie

complex is worth a visit too.

In the Cité des Sciences et

de l’Industrie at La Villette,

scientific movies are shown at

La Géode (see p237). This has

a hemispheric screen (once

the world’s largest) and an

“omnimax” projector which

uses 70-mm film shot horizon-

tally to project an image

which is nine times larger

than the standard 35-mm

print. Along the Canal St-

Martin, MK2’s twin theater

complexes – Quai de la Loire

and Quai de la Seine – are

linked by a canal boat.

REVIVAL AND

REPERTORY HOUSES

Each week, more than 150

titles representing the best of

world cinema can be seen. For

old Hollywood movies, the

independent Grand Action

mini-chain can’t be beaten.

Other active and thoughtful

repertory and reissue venues

include the excellent Reflets

Médicis screens in the Rue

Champollion and the Pagode.

The latter is particularly

striking: the Oriental pagoda

was constructed in 1895 and

has been recently renovated. Studio 28 in Montmartre is a

lovely old movie house with

lights in the theater designed

by Jean Cocteau and a

charming garden bar full of

fairy lights and kitsch cut-outs

of old movie stars. Opened in

the 1920s, Studio 28 claims to

be the first ever avant-garde

theater and once played host

to film greats such as Luis

Buñuel and Abel Gance. They

screen everything from the

latest releases through to Fellini

festivals and documentary

shows. There are at least ten

films screened here each

week, including art-house

classics and pre-releases. The

theater also holds regular

debates with well-known

directors and actors. Another

Parisian institution, Studio

Galande has shown the

Rocky Horror Picture Show to

costumed movie-goers every

Friday night for over 20 years.

CINÉMATHÈQUE

FRANÇAISE

The private “school” of the

New Wave generation, this

famous film archive and

repertory theater was created

by Henri Langlois in 1936

(see p200). It has lost its

monopoly on classic film

screenings, but it is still a

must for cinephiles in search

of that movie film no longer

in theatrical circulation or,

perhaps, recently restored or

rescued. The association is

now housed at 51 Rue de

Bercy in a wonderfully

futuristic-looking building

The sail-like façade has given

the building its nickname:

“dancer revealing her tutu.”

The movie library has more

than 18,000 digitalized

movies, and there are enough

exhibitions, projections,

lectures, and workshops

to satisfy the appetite of

any film enthusiast. For those

interested in the building’s

architecture there are tours on

the first Sunday of each month.

NON-THEATRICAL

VENUES

In addition to the Ciné-

mathèque Française, film

programs and festivals are integral parts of two highly

popular Paris cultural

institutions, the Musée

d’Orsay (see pp144–5) and

the Pompidou Center (see

pp110 –11) with its two

screening rooms. The Musée

d’Orsay regularly schedules

film programs to complement

current art exhibitions and is

usually restricted to silent

films. The Pompidou Center

organizes vast month-long

retrospectives, devoted to

national film industries and

on occasion to some of the

major companies.

Finally, the Forum des

Images (see p109) in the

heart of Les Halles is a

hi-tech film and video library

with a vast selection of films

and documentaries featuring

the city of Paris from the late

19th century to the present

day. The archives here are

amazing and include news-

reels and advertisements

featuring Paris alongside the

feature films and documen-

taries. The Forum has three

theaters, all of which run

daily screenings of feature

films. One ticket allows the

visitor access to both the

video library and to the

theater screenings. The

screenings are frequently

grouped according to theme

or director, making it possible

to spend several hours enjoy-

ing a mini-retrospective. See

website for details.

TICKET PRICES

Expect to pay around €9

at first-run venues or even

more for films of unusual

length or special media

attention. However, exhibitors

practice a wide array of

collective discount incentives,

including cut-rate admissions

for students, the unemployed,

the elderly, veterans, and

large families. Wednesday

is discount day for everybody

at some theaters – prices are

slashed to as low as €4.

France’s three exhibition

giants, Gaumont, UGC,

and MK2, also sell special

discount cards and accept

credit card reservations for

their flagship houses, while

repertory houses issue

“fidelity” cards.

MOVIES WITH STRONG

IMAGES OF PARIS

Historical Paris

(studio-made)

An Italian Straw Hat

(René Clair, 1927)

Sous les toits de Paris

(René Clair, 1930)

Les Misérables

(Raymond Bernard, 1934)

Hôtel du Nord

(Marcel Carné, 1937)

Les Enfants du Paradis

(Marcel Carné, 1945)

Casque d’Or

(Jacques Becker, 1952)

La Traversée de Paris

(Claude Autant-Lara, 1956)

Playtime

(Jacques Tati, 1967)

New Wave Paris

(location-made)

Breathless

(Jean-Luc Godard, 1959)

Les 400 coups

(François Truffaut, 1959)

Documentary Paris

Paris 1900

(Nicole Vedrès, 1948)

La Seine a rencontré Paris

(Joris Ivans, 1957)

Paris as seen by

Hollywood

Seventh Heaven

(Frank Borzage, 1927)

Camille

(George Cukor, 1936)

An American in Paris

(Vincente Minnelli, 1951)

Gigi

(Vincente Minnelli, 1958)

Irma La Douce

(Billy Wilder, 1963)

Paris when it Sizzles

(Richard Quine, 1964)

Frantic

(Roman Polanski, 1988)

French Kiss

(Lawrence Kasdan, 1995)

The Ninth Gate

(Roman Polanski, 1999)

Moulin Rouge

(Baz Luhrmann, 2001)

The Bourne Identity

(Doug Liman, 2002)

Le Divorce

(James Ivory, 2003)

Before Sunset

(Richard Linklater, 2004)

Film Festivals

Film festivals are a way of life for Parisian movie buffs.

There are several major events each year and lots of

small themed festivals happening at any given time

around the city. The annual Paris Film Festival, held at

the end of March, may be dwarfed by its glitzier sister

in Cannes, but the capital’s version is a far friendlier

event for the public to attend – and there are still more

than enough opportunities to spot celebrities.

OPEN-AIR FESTIVALS

There are several outdoor

cinema festivals throughout

the summer, including the

Festival Silhouette which

shows short films in the

lovely Buttes Chaumont (see

p234), the Cinéma au Clair

du Lune festival, which has

projections of films at Parisian

sites which are relevant to the movie and Le Cinéma en

Plein Air, which draws crowds

to a lawn in La Villette (see

pp236-7), where a giant

inflatable screen shows old

and contemporary classics.

This is one of the summer’s

Tourism of France

Thursday, April 7, 2016

France Cinema

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