Movies in Paris: On se fait un ciné ?

I discovered classic American movies on rue Christine in Paris - adorable Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullivan in Ernst Lubitsch’s The Shop Around the Corner, terrifying Robert Mitchum in Night of the Hunter, and desperate Gena Rowlands filmed by her husband John Cassavetes in A Woman Under the Influence and Opening Night - all in v.o. (‘vey oh’), or version originale with French subtitles.  As my French improved, I added French subtitled Russian, Chinese and Spanish-language movies, and finally, French movies. Trois hommes et un couffin, the hilarious misadventures of a playboy turned father and his pals whose lives are turned inside out with the unexpected arrival of a baby, later adapted into a cringe-worthy remake with Ted Danson and Tom Selleck, was my first French movie without subtitles. There were, in fact, side titles since I was in Tokyo, but that’s another story.

© Fédération Nationale du Cinéma

With 376 screens, almost half of which are in independent theaters, and 450-500 different movies playing each week, many of them in English, Paris is a cinéphile’s paradise. Strolling down the Champs-Elysées or in the Latin Quarter you can’t miss the small cinémas and people crammed together, hugging the narrow curbs in lines snaking down side streets on a Wednesday night, when new films are released. Last spring I encountered a traffic-clogging line for Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris. The French love Woody Allen, and it’s set in Paris, so that was perhaps to be expected. But I didn’t expect to have to pick my way around knees and toes to reach my seat in an almost sold-out showing of The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu, made up entirely of archival footage.  Did I mention that it’s three hours long?  

It’s somewhat of a Paris tradition to get lost in the darkness of the movie theater. The American film director Bob Swaim came to Paris in the mid-sixties to study anthropology with Claude Lévi-Strauss, but ended up spending so much time at the movies that he decided to go to film school instead. David Sedaris, in his book Me Talk Pretty One Day, writes about the allure of the Parisian revival house, and his visitors’ quizzical looks when he tries to tempt them into seeing a movie rather than the sights. “I didn’t come to Paris to sit in the dark,” they say. “But it’s French dark,” Sedaris wheedles. Invariably, his guests trot off to Notre Dame, and he heads to the movies.

Twenty years ago on hot summer nights, we’d scour the Pariscope for air-conditioned movie houses and select our movies accordingly. For almost thirty years, the Fête du Cinéma at the end of June has brought throngs of people out to the movies for reduced rates.  The event has been so successful that one night was extended to three, and now there is a springtime version, le Printemps du Cinéma, as well as the Festival du Cinéma at the beginning of July, and the month-long outdoor Cinéma en Plein Air at the Parc de la Villette.  

© 2012 Première

Going to the movies is a huge Parisian tradition that shows no sign of abating.  Unlike in the U.S. where annual ticket sales are declining, 2011 was the best year for French cinemas since 1966 with an 8% increase in ticket sales over 2010, itself a banner year. The French film industry courts movie goers with unlimited annual passes valid anywhere in France for a bit more than $25 per month along with a host of other reductions. The French government finances the renovation of historical movie houses and the Ministry of Culture promotes many of the more than 166 film festivals held every year in France.

You can visit the French Cinema Museum, the Cinémathèque Francaise, located in a Frank Gehry building that had been built for the American Center, or the François Truffaut Cinema Library and film space next door, the Forum des Images on ‘Cinema Street’ in the Les Halles Shopping Center.

On se fait un ciné ? How about a movie? Whether you go to a mega UGC Ciné Cité at Les Halles or Bercy for a blockbuster, new release film, or try a cozy art house theater in the Latin Quarter, to guide your choice it’s useful to buy a Pariscope which appears every Wednesday at Paris newsstands. The Pariscope is your 40 centime passport to theater, music, museums and art galleries, flea markets and fairs, and most of all, to cinema.  If you don’t speak French, make sure that the film you choose is shown in its original version (v.o.), in a language that you understand. Pariscope lists the time of the séance, when the previews and commercials begin.  Projection of the film begins 10-25 minutes later.

The films are listed at the beginning of the middle Cinéscope section.  Current release films are listed first, then second run films (reprises) and film festivals.  Under the name of the film and its French translation is a short synopsis with the name of the theater and a number.  Flip to the section ‘Salles Paris’, look up the number of the theater and find the location of the theater, ticket prices, and show times.

© Cinémathèque Française

Cinémathèque Francaise, http://www.cinematheque.fr/

51 rue de Bercy, 12^th, M: Bercy. Closed Tuesday. Library, Exhibits, Screenings. 

Bibliothèque du cinéma François Truffaut, 4 rue du Cinéma, Forum des Halles, 1st, M: Les Halles. Closed Monday.

Forum des Images, 2 rue du Cinéma, Forum des Halles, 1st, M : Les Halles. Closed Monday. www.forumdesimages.fr, http://www.forumdesimages.fr/fdi/English

David Sedaris’ NPR segments on his time in Paris. http://www.npr.org/programs/specials/lists/sedaris/

Vocabulaire du Cinéma/Movie Vocabulary

On se fait un ciné ?                                        

How about a movie?

Une place pour Le Dernier Métro, s’il vous plaît.

One ticket for The Last Metro.

Une place tarif réduit/étudiant, s’il vous plaît.

One student/discounted ticket.

A quelle heure commence le film ?

At what time does the film start ?