MNsnowflake

I've been disappointed with movies lately (Such as "Paris, je t'aime" and "Avenue Montaigne") that I hope will celebrate Paris with lots of spectacular views of the city, similar to the way "Summertime" (movie starring Katharine Hepburn and Rosano Brazzi and directed by David Lean) features Venice. Does anyone know of any movies that you feel really show off the city? P. S. I actually did like Avenue Montaigne, but in that respect was disappointed.

sarge56

(And "Three Coins in the Fountain" for Rome?)

I can only think of "Charade" and "An American in Paris", though I think the former is better for showing off Paris.

Did you see "Summertime" on TCM yesterday? WHILE I was searching for it on Netflix, I was flipping channels and could not believe it was on TCM at the same time. Crazy! (We leave for Italy in five weeks.)

alihutch

My favourite film set in Paris is Amelie

MNsnowflake

Yes, I saw it, which is what got me thinking about posting this. Venice is a co-star in the movie. The photography is wonderful. David Lean made such wonderful movies.
Three Coins in the Fountain is good, but not quite in the same class. Amelie is a wonderful, quirky film and does show the Montmartre area.

Guenmai

The movie Charade with my all time favorite Audrey Hepburn. I wore out two VHS videos of it and then had to go to DVD. LOL! I can speak the lines by heart. There's also Audrey Hepburn in Funny Face also filmed in Paris. I like the old movies. Happy Travels!

Guenmai

There's also the movie, Diva, which I own and is a very good movie. Happy Travels!

WillTravel

For Rome, there's also La Dolce Vita. I think other Fellini films too, come to think of it.

Jay_G

It might not do it in the same way as Summertime does for Venice, but 'C'etait un rendez-vous' certainly celebrates some of the best known landmarks in Paris in the early hours of the morning.

For those who haven't seen it, it's a single-take car journey from the peripherique to the Sacre Coeur at breakneck speed, with no account taken of red lights, pedestrians or other traffic.

It only lasts about ten minutes, but will certainly have you looking at Paris in a different way. The whole thing's up on You Tube if you fancy a bit of escapism at your desk. You may want to turn the sound down if you're in an office, unless you work in a garage and the sound of of a V12 being thrashed is a normal occurrence.

Jay_G

Another one is 'When the cat's away' (Chacun cherche son chat) by Klapisch.

Again, it's a much more modern ode to Paris and is mainly set in Bastille, so doesn't have picture postcard shots of Paris, but is definitely a love story to the city.

kerouac

Usually it would be an American romance that would show as many Parisian monuments, etc., as possible. French films are self conscious about this and generally avoid doing it except if they're going to the export market (which generally indicates a bad French movie).

However, 'Un Monde sans Pitié' enchanted many French viewers for the way it depicted Paris.

WillTravel

Kerouac, do you happen to know the districts where Un prophète was filmed? There are a few scenes of "classical" tourist Paris, but mostly not.

kerouac

Imdb says that a ritzy Paris street scene was on avenue Montaigne (the shootout, I suppose) -- that would have put it at the Plaza Athénée. A second unit filmed some street scenes in Sao Paulo, Brazil (!)

cw

You can take a look at the pages put together by the American Embassy in Paris that list American movies set or with scenes in France. The list is annotated to say whether the filming was done on location and where those locations are. It's fun to read.

http://france.usembassy.gov/root/pdfs/films.pdf

KevDon

I must disagree with you in your original post, Paris Je t'aime is a film I love and I think it shows off the modern city (and not just the monuments) greatly!

I think many are put-off by the short films themselves . . .

oakglen

"The Ninth Gate" so impressed the star(Mr. Depp),that he bought a home in Paris. The hotel that he stayed in, on the left bank, has changed it's name (a ****), but is still available to us tourists.

MNsnowflake

Thanks for all the great input. Will check out a number of these. We see a lot of French films at our local foreign film theater and very much enjoy them -- regardless of whether they show off a particular city. But seeing Summertime just got me wondering if there were any quality films that also show off Paris. We try to see most French films that come to our theater, but were not quite so diligent in the past when work and family didn't always permit movie-going. So thanks for the tips.