London in French Film

London in French Film - 1896 to 2013

trailer for Les Poupées russes (Cédric Klapisch 2005)

For the moment this post is just a chronological list, with a few comments and illustrations. When the list gets long enough I shall try to identify some constants in what French filmmakers see or imagine when London is their object.

c. 1896 - les frères Lumière

First exhibited in May 1896, this film shows a London street corner where three women dance for the benefit of a male audience. The whole film can be watched here.

Other London subjects filmed by Lumière operators include a troupe of entertainers in front of a restaurant on Rupert Street (some commentators see them as black, others as white men in black-face):

A view of Saint Martin's Place, with the National Portrait Gallery on the left:

The theatre in Leicester Square where the Lumière Cinématographe was exhibited:

And a lion in London Zoo:

Almost seventy years later, the same zoo (though a different lion) served as backdrop to a Brigitte Bardot photo-shoot in the Swinging London film A coeur joie:

1902 - Le Sacre d'Edouard VII (Georges Méliès)

Commissioned to produce a film of Edward VII's coronation in Westminster Abbey, where no cameras were allowed, Méliès reconstructed the event in his Montreuil studio. For a detailed account see Elizabeth Ezra, George Méliès (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000), pp.66-68: here.

1907 - Le Tunnel sous la Manche (Georges Méliès)

Edward VII reappears in Méliès's fantasy about a train tunnel under the English Channel:

Various London types gather in this scene to welcome the train, including, below, street criminals and policemen:

The busby-wearing guards that Méliès posts by the station entrance would return regularly in French cinematographic views of London:

Le Cerveau (Gérard Oury 1969)

L'Entente cordiale (Vincent de Brus 2006)

Méliès makes Charing Cross the terminus, in a fairly accurate representation of the station:

Monsieur Ripois (René Clément 1954)

When a cross-channel train eventually did arrive in London, in 1994, the terminus was of course at Waterloo:

Les Poupées russes (Cédric Klapisch 2005)

1909 - Oliver Cromwell (Camille de Morlhon for Pathé)

The climax of this highly melodramatic version of historical events is the execution of Charles I in front of the 'scrupulously reconstructed' palace at Whitehall.

(For further details see here.)

1912 - Les Amours de la reine Elisabeth (Louis Mercanton et Henri Desfontaines)

As with Oliver Cromwell, the retelling of episodes from English history prmpts the reconstruction of London landmarks. Here, right, it is the Tower of London, for the execution of Essex:

1925 - Rêve et réalité [Ame d'artiste] (Germaine Dulac)

This Paris-made melodrama includes street views of London as back projection to car rides or as inserts in scenes of characters walking in the city.

These buses may well have been red. Films in colour made the most of the red bus as an emblem of London. Here is a small sample of what was to come:

1937 - Drôle de drame (Marcel Carné 1937)

Alexandre Trauner's sets create a fanciful, picture-book vision of London, be it the refined district where most of the action occurs:

Or the shady environs of Limehouse where the protagonists go to evade attention:

Prévert's script ironises about the unreality of the London represented in the film when he has the novel-writing protagonist say, on arriving in this sordid place: 'I described this district in my latest novel but to tell the truth I have never been here before.'

1946 - Jericho (Henri Calef)

A brief sequence in London is introduced, almost inevitably, by a view of Pugin's Clock Tower, but an image that is emblematic of London generally here points directly to this specific location, because opposite the Palace of Westminster is the War Office, where this sequence is centred:

1954 - Monsieur Ripois (René Clément)

As the sample below shows, this Franco-British co-production displays many of the emblematic London sites that would become a staple of tourist cinema in London - landmarks, buses, pillar boxes, telephone kiosks, the Tube, black cabs,bobbies, pubs...:

The frame above illustrates the film's humour about its own Frenchness, placing the authentic Frenchman Gérard Philipe in front of Leicester Square cinemas playing Moulin Rouge and Lili, Hollywood visions of an ersatz Frenchness.

Monsieur Ripois is also one of the finest London films of the 1950s, exploiting a great variety of real locations and authentic types in its bitter tale of an Alfie-style philanderer. As an outsider's vision of the city it matches Dassin's 1950 classic Night and the City:

1955 - Du rififi chez les hommes (Jules Dassin)

A brief glimpse of Piccadilly Circus in Dassin's Paris-centred film.

1959 - Babette s'en va-t-en guerre (Christian-Jaque)

This war-tine comedy has some studio made views of London streets and skyline, and a few real authentic exteriors, including St Pancras station on the Euston Road:

And the Victoria Embankment, with view of the Houses of Parliament:

There is also a nice view in an office of Harry Beck's Underground map:

1964 - Allez France! (Robert Dhéry)

This comedy about French tourists finding their way around London shows all the familiar sights, though it concentrates on the French obsession with British policemen. The film's English title is The Counterfeit Constable:

1965 - L'Enfer sur la plage (José Bénazéraf)

1966 - Fahrenheit 451 (François Truffaut)

Truffaut's film was set in an unlocalised future but used at least one London location, the Alton Estate in Roehampton. (Twelve years later the estate featured as itself in the opening of Sweeney 2: see here.)

1967 - Fantômas contre Scotland Yard (André Hunebelle)

1967 - A coeur joie (Serge Bourguignon)

Bardot had been in London eight years before in Babette s'en va-t-en guerre:

She returns when London is Swinging, for a fashion shoot in which she is posed in front of various London sights:

A coeur joie is s standard tourist film, if slightly cooler:

1969 - One + One [Sympathy for the Devil] (Jean-Luc Godard)

Godard's London film avoids the obvious tourist sites and Swinging streets, though it does feature a cool red Mini.

the Metropolitan Hotel, Old Park Lane, W.1

45 Cadogan Street, S.W.3, corner with Halsey Street

271 New King's Rd, S.W.6.

somewhere near Hyde Park?

junction of Shalcomb Street and Lamont Road, S.W.10

Albert Bridge viewed from the Chelsea Embankment, S.W.3

Albion Quay, Lombard Road, S.W.11

47 Hurlingham Rd, S.W.6

Battersea Railway Bridge viewed from Albion Quay

224 Norwood Road S.E.27

Three places filmed remain unidentified, though the prefabs in the first of them look very much a part of the Excalibur Estate in Catford:

Ector Road , S.E.6 - Google Maps

The lengthy shot of this last location features, briefly, two familiar signs of London:

Most of the identifications above were made on the 'homelesshome' blogspot, here; there are more 'then and now' pictures here, on the Reel Streets site.

1969 - Le Cerveau (Gérard Oury)

French cinema's enthusiasm for Swinging London is most apparent in the Carnaby Street sequence of this international crime caper:

1969 - L'Armée des ombres (Jean-Pierre Melville)

1973 - Le Silencieux (Claude Pinoteau)

1975 - Bons baisers de Hong Kong (Yvan Chiffre)

1976 - Dracula père et fils (Edouard Molinaro)

1988 - Kung Fu Master (Agnès Varda)

1992 - Damage (Louis Malle)

1999 - Mauvaise Passe (Michel Blanc)

2000 - Esther Kahn (Arnaud Desplechin)

2001 - Intimacy (Patrice Chereau)

2001 - Le Stade de Wimbledon (Mathieu Amalric)

2001 - Ma femme est une actrice (Yvan Attal)

2005 - Les Poupées russes (Cédric Klapisch)

2005 - Swimming Pool (François Ozon)

2006 - L'Entente cordiale (Vincent de Brus)

2008 - Mes amis, mes amours (Lorraine Levy)

2009 - Espion(s) (Nicolas Saada)

2009 - London River (Rachid Bouchareb)

Bouchareb’s film avoids the city centre and almost all of the clichés, documenting instead the ordinary vitality of the Finsbury Park area. London River is French cinema’s most accurate and most affecting vision of London.

Seven Sisters Road, N.4

Blackstock Road, N.4

Wightman Road, N.4

Finsbury Park Mosque

2012 - Le Capital (Costa-Gravas)

2013 - Made In Dream (Jean-Claude Flaccomio)

This post was a supplement to the Through Different Eyes event on May 11 & 12 2013 as part of Something Else for the Weekend, which was part of UCL's Festival of the Arts.

L'Enfer sur la plage (José Bénazéraf 1965)