France: To Watch Before Visiting
TV Shows, Movies and Documentaries set in France and Paris that you must see before visiting. They’ll enhance your understanding and appreciation of the city, and you’ll never look at its iconic landmarks in the same way again.
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- DirectorJean-Pierre JeunetStarsAudrey TautouMathieu KassovitzRufusDespite being caught in her imaginative world, Amelie, a young waitress, decides to help people find happiness. Her quest to spread joy leads her on a journey where she finds true love.
- DirectorBaz LuhrmannStarsNicole KidmanEwan McGregorJohn LeguizamoA poor Bohemian poet in 1890s Paris falls for a beautiful courtesan and nightclub star coveted by a jealous duke.
- DirectorWoody AllenStarsOwen WilsonRachel McAdamsKathy BatesWhile on a trip to Paris with his fiancée's family, a nostalgic screenwriter finds himself mysteriously going back to the 1920s every day at midnight.
- DirectorMartin ScorseseStarsAsa ButterfieldChloë Grace MoretzChristopher LeeIn 1931 Paris, an orphan living in the walls of a train station gets wrapped up in a mystery involving his late father and an automaton.
- DirectorBrad BirdJan PinkavaStarsBrad GarrettLou RomanoPatton OswaltA rat who can cook makes an unusual alliance with a young kitchen worker at a famous Paris restaurant.
- DirectorVincente MinnelliStarsGene KellyLeslie CaronOscar LevantThree friends struggle to find work in Paris. Things become more complicated when two of them fall in love with the same woman.
- DirectorBernardo BertolucciStarsMichael PittLouis GarrelEva GreenA young American studying in Paris in 1968 strikes up a friendship with a French brother and sister. Set against the background of the '68 Paris student riots.
- DirectorRichard LinklaterStarsEthan HawkeJulie DelpyVernon DobtcheffNine years after Jesse and Celine first met, they encounter each other again on the French leg of Jesse's book tour.
- DirectorTom HooperStarsHugh JackmanRussell CroweAnne HathawayIn 19th-century France, Jean Valjean, who for decades has been hunted by the ruthless policeman Javert after breaking parole, agrees to care for a factory worker's daughter. The decision changes their lives forever.
- DirectorLuc BessonStarsAnne ParillaudMarc DuretPatrick FontanaConvicted felon Nikita isn't going to jail; she's given a new identity and trained, stylishly, as a top secret spy/assassin.
- DirectorWallace WorsleyStarsLon ChaneyPatsy Ruth MillerNorman KerryIn 15th-century Paris, the brother of the archdeacon plots with the gypsy king to foment a peasant revolt. Meanwhile, a freakish hunchback falls in love with a gypsy dancer.
- DirectorLasse HallströmStarsJuliette BinocheJohnny DeppJudi DenchA French woman and her young daughter open up a chocolate shop in a small remote village that shakes up the rigid morality of the community.
- DirectorSofia CoppolaStarsKirsten DunstJason SchwartzmanRip TornThe retelling of France's iconic but ill-fated queen, Marie Antoinette. From her betrothal and marriage to Louis XVI at 14 to her reign as queen at 19 and to the end of her reign as queen, and ultimately the fall of Versailles.
- DirectorOlivier AssayasFrédéric AuburtinGurinder ChadhaStarsJuliette BinocheLeonor WatlingLudivine SagnierThrough the neighborhoods of Paris, love is veiled, revealed, imitated, sucked dry, reinvented, and awakened.
- DirectorDoug ShultzStarsEdward HerrmannGeorge IvascuRodica LazarDocumentary about the bloody beginning, bloodier middle and unceremonious end of the French Revolution, an event that ended in blood the reign of kings in France and laid the foundation for a new - republican - system of government.
- DirectorAleksandr SokurovStarsLouis-Do de LencquesaingBenjamin UtzerathVincent NemethA history of the Louvre during the Nazi occupation and a meditation on the meaning and timelessness of art.
- DirectorNick Clarke PowellStarsSerge AberdamRichard ClaySo WhatUK art historian, Dr Richard Clay, visits Paris to show how The French Revolution tried to erase the previous order by destroying the art that symbolized it, and how destruction of public space is used even today to influence people.
- StarsHenry RamerEan WoodMichael GnarowskiOf all the remarkable events of this century perhaps the most fascinating has been the spontaneous growth, flowering and then decay of a handful of great cities. These cities were places where art, culture and political liberties co-mingled with corruption, brutality and decadence. Everything and just about anyone could be bought and sold. The immigrant would struggle beside the artist. Gamblers, thieves and prostitutes co-habited with soul-savers, the rich and the powerful. The exhilarating combination of the seamy with the sublime made these places a magnet for all the lost souls and refugees of the world. Pushing the limits of tolerance and freedom, they defined the social, political and sexual culture of the 20 th century. Their names ring out: Paris of the '20s, Berlin of the '20s and '30s and Shanghai of the '30s. In the period between the wars, these were the LEGENDARY SIN CITIES of the world. Contemporary footage mixed with rare and richly evocative archival films, stock shots and stills give resonance to the stories of an extraordinary cast of characters: novelists and artists, musicians and journalists, rogues and sinners. Added to the mix are excerpts from feature films, married with the music of those remarkable times. What results is a richly drawn portrait of a time and place that helped define our century.
- DirectorAlan RickmanStarsKate WinsletAlan RickmanStanley TucciTwo talented landscape artists become romantically entangled while building a garden in King Louis XIV's palace at Versailles.
- DirectorBrian Henry MartinStarsDan CruickshankShrabani BasuOn the centenary of the end of the conflict, Dan Cruickshank reveals the extraordinary story behind the design of the WW1 cemeteries and memorials and of the remarkable man whose vision created them.
- StarsAndrew Graham-DixonAndrew Graham-Dixon examines the history of French art, revealing how it emerged from a struggle between tradition and revolution, and rulers and citizens. He compresses centuries of culture into three thematically linked chapters.
- DirectorChris DurlacherStarsDavid Bark-JonesJohann ChapoutotPip DonaghyOn 8th November 1918, an Englishman, a Frenchman and a German gathered in secret on a train carriage in a forest near Paris. Their meeting would last for three days. It's aim: bring peace to Europe, and an end to four long years of brutal war.
- 2005–201244mTV-PG8.2 (130)TV EpisodeStarsAnthony BourdainLouisa ChuHost Tony Bourdain checks out rumors that darkness is the excuse for Icelanders to party the night away.
- DirectorToby OppenheimerStarsAnthony BourdainPaul BocuseDaniel BouludIn this food-centric episode, Bourdain accompanies world-renowned chef/restaurateur Daniel Boulud as they travel back to Boulud's hometown of Lyon, France for a "once-in-a-lifetime" pilgrimage to the city's rich food culture and legendary chefs, with a focus on Nouvelle Cuisine innovator Paul Bocuse.
- 2013–201843mTV-PG8.3 (113)TV EpisodeDirectorToby OppenheimerStarsAnthony BourdainCédric FabreLionel FrancBourdain and travel companion chef Eric Ripert (Le Bernardin) visit France's oldest city to experience its stew of cultures and cuisines and eat as much Corsican cheeses as they can handle.
- StarsAnthony BourdainEric RipertExplore the varied ethnic communities that contribute to the pulse of Paris.
- DirectorTom VitaleClaudia WoloshinStarsAnthony BourdainDavid BuwichenRaquel CarenaIn Paris, Anthony Bourdain does as the French do with a coffee at Le Pure Cafe, a sit down at Le Dome for an enormous shellfish tower, a find in the lost art of bread baking and an indulgent in a guilty pleasure, a duck press.
- DirectorKarim AïnouzMichael GlawoggerMichael MadsenStarsMeret BeckerGennadi VengerovBenedicte C. WestinSix directors tackle the question "If buildings could talk, what would they say about us?" by capturing iconic buildings with narration from the perspective of the buildings.