Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Travel Pics: Paris - Cinema Sights

Hello all. Here is the second post featuring pictures from my recent trip to Paris. This time, I'm showing pictures of the many cinemas, posters, filming locations and other things I saw that can be found in one of the most cinema-centric cities in the world.


The poster below is for the recent Argentinian Academy Award winner The Secret in Their Eyes.


I visited a whole slew of places from Jean-Pierre Jeunet's uber-popular Amélie, including Canal Saint Martin, where the titular character likes to skip stones...


...the Café des Deux Moulins on Rue Lepic in Montmartre...


...the fruit stand where Jamel Debbouze's Lucien is harassed by Urbain Cancelier's Collignon, his asshole boss...


Here is La Chambre Claire/Contacts, which was apparently one of Truffaut's favorite bookstores and specializes in books on photography (main floor) and cinema (basement). A very nifty place.


This is Le Champo, a nice little theatre where I watched Powell and Pressburger's ravishing film The Red Shoes - a fine night at the movies.


I also caught Kick-Ass while I was in Paris, but at a theatre on the Champs-Élysées rather than the one shown below.


This is the bridge over Montmartre cemetery, which was featured in The 400 Blows (in the scene when Antoine and his friend René are lugging around the stolen typewriter and cursing).


After crossing the bridge, I of course visited the Montmartre cemetery, where I visited a number of renowned figures' graves. Right at the entrance, you can find a gravestone for the Guitry family, including actor and filmmaker Sacha.


By accident, I discovered the grave of the French master of suspense Henri-Georges Clouzot.


Then, of course, I paid my respects to Monsieur François Truffaut.


I sought out quite a few locations for Truffaut's delightful 1968 film Stolen Kisses. Here is the hotel at 39 avenue Junot where Antoine Doinel works for a very brief stint as a night clerk...


...the entrance to the former Cinémathèque Française at the Palais de Chaillot, over which the film's opening titles play...

...and the park along Avenue de Breteuil where many scenes are set, including the highly amusing final one.


Now for a bit of Godard: this is rue Campagne-Première, where the legendary final scene of Breathless was shot:


Just a short walk from there is the Montparnasse cemetery, where I visited Jean Seberg...


...legendary Cinémathèque Française director Henri Langlois...


...and actress Delphine Seyrig, best known for her roles in Alain Resnais' Last Year at Marienbad, François Truffaut's Stolen Kisses and Chantal Akerman's Jeanne Dielman.


Finally, I leave you with the Bir-Hakeim bridge, a Paris landmark that has been used in many films, including Louis Malle's Elevator to the Gallows, Jules Dassin's Rififi, Bernardo Bertolucci's The Conformist and Last Tango in Paris and Christopher Nolan's upcoming Inception (you can clearly see the bridge's distinctive pillars in the trailer):