Paris is a source of inspiration for countless artists and writers. From a film perspective, Paris is deeply involved in film creation, turning itself into a giant studio.
says this not only because cinema was born here in 1895, but also because its streets, subways, monuments, art galleries and cafes are all engraved with some dazzling cinematic moments. From Godard ("Breathless") to Genet ("Amélie"), from Marlon Brando ("Last Tango in Paris") to Woody Allen ("Midnight in Paris"), Paris has always been inseparable from movies.
When Emily was floating in the water on the Saint-Martin Canal, when the lovers on the Pont Neuf turned their love desires into powerful dance steps in the fireworks, when Celine imagined the world after Notre Dame de Paris disappeared, there was always a It will awaken your expectations for this city in an instant.
At this moment, the Paris Olympic Games is in full swing. Let us experience the charm of Paris through movies. Go to Paris by opening any of the movies below.
1, "Burnout"
"Burnout" is a masterpiece of the New Wave of French cinema. Like the New Wave directors of the same period, Godard also used Paris as his canvas, using a handheld camera to capture his protagonist's life in Paris.
To break away from the Hollywood "studio" style, the photographer kept the camera on the move, sometimes even in a wheelchair or trolley. As a result, "Breathless" abandons elaborate scenes and uses a realistic style to record Patricia selling the "New York Herald Tribune" on the Champs Elysées and Michelle being shot by a bullet. Raspail Avenue where it was located at the time.
Although the filming technique is not exquisite and the editing style is somewhat scattered, the jump cuts and unconventional photography make the film seem extremely flexible and full of life. At the same time, it also gives Paris a unique temperament: jumping, naive, and covered with a strong layer of existentialism.
2, "Amélie"
Most of the plot of "Amélie" takes place in the Montmartre district of Paris, the 18th arrondissement. As a romantic comedy, the rich artistic atmosphere and romantic atmosphere of Montmartre just fit the always whimsical Emily in the movie.
The Montmartre district is famous for the Moulin Rouge and the Sacre-Coeur Cathedral. The deux moulins cafe where Emily works and the apartment where she lives are located in this area. A 20-minute drive from here will take you to the Canal Saint-Martin, where Emily plays alone.
It is worth mentioning that the way "Amélie" shot Montmartre was not to replicate reality, but to adjust the picture to the main colors of green, yellow and red, making this world-famous area full of fantasy. And it just fits the Paris in the eyes of this girl full of whimsical ideas.
3, " Love at Sunset "
As one of the most classic love movies, "Love in the Trilogy" uses dialogue and the city to connect the decades-long story of a pair of lovers into a complete timeline. Each film is not only a life aspect of the hero and heroine at different stages, but also a love letter to three cities with completely different temperaments.
The second part of the series, "Love at Sunset," takes place in Paris at the beginning of the millennium. At that time, Jesse and Celine met again at Shakespeare's Bookstore in Paris after parting ways in Vienna. In their thirties, they were less naive and sharp than they were ten years ago, replaced by caution, defensiveness, and emotional repression. and restraint.
The two of them were walking on the streets of Paris. Under the dusk, the city was enveloped in a romantic and melancholic atmosphere, which was in line with their mood at this time. They passed by the Seine River and Notre Dame, talking about their lives. At dusk in this romantic city, even if they carefully suppressed their inner feelings, they were still quickly aroused, like the ripples caused by a ferry crossing the Seine.
4, "Midnight in Paris"
"Midnight in Paris" is a love letter written by Woody Allen to Paris, which is filled with his fascination with Paris and many Americans' idealized imagination of Paris.
In Woody Allen's romantic fantasy, a retro car is parked on the streets of Paris at midnight. After getting in the car, you can travel through time to Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Dali, Buñuel, etc. gathering of people. There to watch Ford dance, drink absinthe with Hemingway in the Place Saint-Michel, or eat chutney with Picasso in the Dome Restaurant.
All of this is not only Woody Allen’s beautiful vision, but may also be a scene that has appeared in the dreams of many artistic young people many times. The Paris of old carries the supreme yearning of idealists. It reflects people's dissatisfaction with reality and their desire to return to the nostalgia of a certain historical period.
But as the movie tells us: Paris will never be the same again, even though it's always Paris and you change with it.
5, "A Date in Paris"
"A Date in Paris" tells three love stories that took place in different areas of Paris. In this film, Paris is fully involved in the film and is one of the main characters in the story. Director Eric Rohmer depicts Paris as an oasis full of love and contemplation, and through three elegant love sketches, Parisians' attitudes towards sexual relations are demonstrated.
Through Rohmer's lens, Paris is an alluring world full of chance encounters: people are always meeting each other in parks, on buses, and on trains. Whether it is the familiar Sacré-Coeur Cathedral, the Picasso Museum, the Montmartre district, or the lesser-known parks and street corners, Paris seems to always be on the eve of love, opening its hearts to people who are about to fall in love.
The uniqueness of "A Date in Paris" is that it integrates modern Paris with daily life, and as the protagonist walks and communicates there, the daily life has the mood of a prose poem.
6, "Dream in Paris"
The passion of Paris is not only about love. The only city that plays movies in the palace carries the ideal of many young souls longing for liberation.
"Dream of Paris" describes this side of Paris. It is based on a magnificent social movement in the 1960s. Through the emotional entanglement of three young people, it reveals the intertwined aspects of the joys and sorrows of love and the times.
In this movie, the air of Paris is filled with idealistic elements of restlessness and romantic passion. The three protagonists protested at the Film Archive, ran hand in hand through the Louvre, and smoked on the Derby Footbridge... Their passion for life and politics was swept into the center of the storm together with the city of Paris, and they fell into a world full of sex. Liberation, democratic revolution, anarchism and other ideologies.
And after the storm, where the young people go, Paris will go.
7, "Youth of Fury"
Every city is multi-faceted, and so is Paris. Different from its predecessors, "Young and Furious" allows us to stop over-idealizing Paris. It focuses on the most backward suburbs of Paris and presents its chaotic and dangerous side.
"Young and Furious" is inspired by the real-life shooting incident of 17-year-old Makome M'Bowole in Paris in 1993. It tells the story of three angry young people living in a run-down suburb. The film uses a hate-filled perspective to depict Paris as a dystopian world of rampant crime, poverty and backwardness, filled with racial conflicts and violence.
It can be said that "Young and Furious" has no love for Paris. It has no Louvre, Notre Dame or Arc de Triomphe, just concrete ruins and boarded-up shops. Angry but thought-provoking, it serves as a warning to the entire modern world:
This is our future if we don't take action to correct the imbalances in society.
The above is an unofficial travel guide to Paris, which is different in every movie. We cannot define Paris through a movie, but we can touch every angle of Paris through various images. Only in this way can we avoid excessive idealization, uncover the rose-colored lining, and touch its true face. .
It is undeniable that movies about Paris always attract us, not because of the Louvre, the Champs Elysées or the Eiffel Tower, but because of the romantic sentiments scattered in the streets and the atmosphere of freedom that permeates the air. Because of this, Paris has become “the place most often thought of, talked about, and written about.”
Just one
editor-in-chief Chai Yingrui
