17/08/2007

Film lovers will be in seventh heaven from Sunday August 19, as the Mairie de Paris is holding the sixth edition of the 3 jours 3 euros event, in collaboration with the National Federation of French Cinemas (FNCF).

Until Tuesday August 21 inclusive, filmgoers can see all films at any of the 376 Parisian cinemas (including 150 independent and 89 arthouse screens) for only €3 per film.

The event will no doubt especially benefit films released two weeks ago, such as Claude Chabrol’s A Girl Cut In Two [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (see news), starring Ludivine Sagnier, Benoît Magimel and François Berléand, Céline Sciamma’s Waterlilies [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (see interview), Eric Guirado’s Le fils de l’épicier, French/Lebanese co-production Caramel [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Nadine Labaki and Ognjen Svilicic’s Croatian/German/Bosnian film Armin [+see also:
trailer
film profile].

Cinemas in the French capital continue to undergo changes, with theatres on the famous Champs-Élysées forced to shut down because of the rise in rents, while new ones are mushrooming in less central areas. One of these is the construction of a 14-theatre complex in the 19th arrondissement by MK2. Its opening is planned for late 2012.

Paris continues its reputation as an attractive location for film production. In 2006, it hosted the production of 730 films compared to 660 in 2005. A total of 97 features, 137 telefilms, 80 shorts, 69 documentaries and 130 graduate films were shot last year.

The first half of 2007 has seen Jean-Paul Salomé reconstitute the France of 1944 in Les femmes de l’ombre (see article), a film about the French Resistance that follows five female spies (Sophie Marceau, Julie Depardieu, Marie Gillain, Déborah François and Maya Sansa) whose duty it is to get rid of a German colonel (Moritz Bleibtreu), suspected of endangering the Normandy landing.

Another popular film being shot in Paris this year is Ariel Zeïtoun’s Les Buttes Chaumont, starring Vincent Elbaz, Clémence Poésy, Sami Bouajila and Gilles Lellouche. The film is about the Gang des Postiches, a group of childhood friends from the Parisian area of Belleville and the infamous 1980s bank robbers.

(Translated from French)