Prisoner of war… An ordeal as old as the world, shared by millions of men during the Second World War, a long complaint of which countless accounts, thousands of sketches, sometimes photos, remain today, but also a film ‘shot’ under the cloak by Frenchmen in a German camp, a single and unique film, made despite … Continued
Discover old and modern houses, mansions, tenement houses, blocks of flats and decrepit old houses as you wander through the neighbourhoods. Compare the charm of the old buildings and the suburbs with the graceless modern urbanisation.
Illustrated with engravings, drawings by the cartoonist Puig Rosado and archive documents from the Second World War, this film highlights the contradictions involved in building walls, particularly military walls, in which ordinary people are always the victims in the face of social hierarchy.
It’s a fascinating game to compare images of the Paris of yesterday with those of the Paris we know today, especially if you prefer the “imagiers” to the painter. The imagiers were the modest and conscientious creators of maps and engravings of Paris. If only a handful of images remain of Paris in the Middle … Continued
Two areas of Paris are particularly rich in memories of the old University: the Ile de la Cité and the Latin Quarter. This film chronologically follows in the footsteps of the old masters of the Cloître Notre-Dame, then the growth of the Domaine des Escholiers, on the left bank where Abelard’s pupils and all those … Continued
Original title : La Conquête du Froid For thousands of years, hostile to man and beast alike, the cold was nothing more than a natural scourge linked to the eternal return of winter. In the course of the last century, the liquefaction of certain gases made it possible to produce artificial cold, the useful and … Continued
Water has always been a key issue for a city. A source of both blessings and disasters, it is a constant part of the city’s history. The subsoil of Paris is full of mysterious remnants of ancient hydraulic installations, and history is full of anecdotes from the time when Parisians didn’t even have a litre … Continued
The first successful balloon ascent was attempted by Pilastre de Rozier on 5 June 1783. This first feat was to be followed by many others, always dangerous, sometimes unfortunate, and which were repeated until the appearance of the aeroplane, which put an end to the career of the “lighter than air”.
Original Title : L’Amour à Paris This is not strictly speaking a history of love in Paris, the subject would be too vast… It is the history of love with a small “a”, of easy, venal love, and even of prostitution. Embellished by the passage of time, all that can be odious in the exercise … Continued
Original title : Les Almohades Following in the footsteps of the Almohads from Tinmel, the cradle of the movement, and Marrakech, the capital of their empire, to Seville where only a minaret recalls the memory of the conqueror Yacoub el Mansour, we will grasp the specificity of an Almohad aesthetic, at work in the mosque … Continued