Friday, October 24, 2008

More Movies Starring Paris

Love in the Afternoon

Director Billy Wilder's 1957 bittersweet romantic comedy about an American playboy (Gary Cooper) and the mischievous Paris gamin (Audrey Hepburn) who attempts to entrap him. Lots of action takes place at the Ritz, with views of the Place Vendôme out the window.

An American in Paris

The 1951 classic starring Gene Kelly as a struggling American artist and Leslie Caron as a pretty young parisienne. Their "American in Paris Ballet," set to the music of George Gershwin, makes you want to go to Paris and fall in love.

More Movies Starring The City of Light

Ratatouille

Last year's animated hit about a rat named Remy who has a talent for cooking. The Paris backdrop is almost as good as the real thing, all air brushed and rose colored.

Le Divorce

A 2003 movie based on a sly comedy of manners, starring Kate Hudson, about the fundamental incompatibility of a French family and an American family. Features scenes of contemporary Paris, plus French actor Thierry Lhermitte as sexy Uncle Edgar.

Funny Face

This quirky classic starring Audrey Hepburn opposite Fred Astaire, dancing their way through 1950's Paris, from beatnik cafes in Montmartre to the couture ateliers on the Rue du Faubourg St.-Honoré.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Starring... Paris!


If you can't afford Paris in the springtime this year, cuddle up on the couch and rent a movie and pretend. Here are a list of some of the films that best show off the French capital.

Amélie

Probably one of the most famous French films in recent times, this 2001 eccentric romantic comedy follows a shy young waitress looking for love, mainly around Montmartre. A popular debut for Audrey Tautou, who went on the star alongside Tom Hanks and Paris in 2006's The Da Vinci Code.

Sunday, October 05, 2008

An Experience of Grand Proportions at Cinémathèque Française


Cinémathèque Française houses the largest archive of films, movie documents and film related projects in the world. The collections origin seems to stem from the intensive efforts of Henri Langlois in the 1930s to collect and preserve films. Langlois acquired one of the largest collections in the world by the beginning of World War II, only to have it nearly wiped out by the Germans in occupied France. They ordered the destruction of films made prior to 1937. Langlois and his friends smuggled a huge number of films and documents to unoccupied France to protect them until the end of the war.

The Cinémathèque Française holds daily screenings of a variety of films from all over the world.