Visit France through French cinema: Episode 1 - The Rhône–Alpes Region

Including the top of Western Europe, a wine valley and a regional capital at the adjoining of two major rivers and rich with a twenty century history, the Rhône-Alpes region offers many assets to attract filmmakers.

Autumn Tale, by Eric Rohmer (1998) was filmed in the grape-harvesting time, in the Rhône Valley, in both Drôme and Ardèche states. The vineyards and the beginning of grape-harvest, the light of fall, still blue skies, the warmth of ocher stone houses are in harmony with this story of loneliness, friendship, meetings and romantic quest. It is a beautiful film that depicts the back end of life for ordinary people: conversations under trees, alfresco dining and walks among vineyards.

On a landscape of Drôme again, in the Vercors area, a Prealps massif, for The Girl from Paris takes place between a farm at the land’s end, where there are lush or snowy meadows at the bottom of steep cliffs. The clashing of cultures and generations between a Parisian girl who has left computers and a mountain breeder who is handing over his farm to her, this confrontation is supported by two excellent actors. The third character is nature, serenity and hardness of which reconcile these both lonely. Filmed in July & August 2000 and January 2001 by Christian Carion, the film depicts the changing seasons and the beauty of the mountain countryside.

Films made in Lyon are innumerable. For historical reasons, their list includes films about resistance, Lucie Aubrac being the last one released. Thrillers and gang stories, including Requiem for a Killer, Les Lyonnais, and 11.6, are the last ones. Thérèse Raquin by Marcel Carné, a 1954 film, is the most representative of the bourgeois manners genre. But beyond the historical context, it is the city atmosphere, often at the center of the story, which interested directors.

Arrête ou je continue by Sophie Fillières was shot in and around Lyon in the spring of 2013. In this movie, Emmanuelle Devos, tired of her stressful daily life is looking for some relax time. She is going to breathe in the Monts du Lyonnais and get lost in the silence of the woods. The film is a return to the law of nature rather than the to laws of social status, according to the director. As for Lyon, Sophie Fillières wanted to show its labyrinthine and its hill side rather than its monuments. She loved the proximity of a capital city with a luxurious nature.
Bertrand Tavernier, born in Lyon, faithfull to his city (he presides over the Lumière Institute and its film festival) shot several films in the regional capital. "Lyon is Rimini of my own", he said, referring to the Fellini hometown. He directed in 1988 a documentary entitled Lyon, the inner eye. In this film, he confesses he likes, during a timeof doubt, coming back to Lyon for shooting.

In 1974, his first film, The Watchmaker of Saint Paul takes place here, in the old Saint-Paul district, with scenes in other typical landmarks of the city, including the banks of the Saône river, Place Bellecour, the slopes of the Croix-Rousse district, and La Tête d'Or Park. The atmosphere of the city is beautifully shown. In harmony with this drama is much more than a framework of filming; the history of Lyon has created real peoples like the two characters of the watchmaker and his son, the one who respects established order and the rebel. They are antagonists that this film will reconcile. Bertrand Tavernier returns to Lyon in 1980 for A Week's Vacation; the story starring Nathalie Baye, a teacher who doubts his work, is also inseparable from its setting, blur sky and misty waves banks of Rhône and Saône. In 1986, Bertrand Tavernier includes a sequence in Lyon into Around Midnight, a jazzmen story in Paris and New York.

The state of Haute-Savoie and the Alps are the perfect setting for filming climbers’exploits, but paradoxically, cinema often makes them a place for behind-closed-doors movies. In 1993, The Groundhogs by Elie Chouraqui, an annual meeting in a family mountain cottage, is an example of this. In order to view Chamonix and Mont Blanc at dawn, we prefer to watch a juge (Francis Huster), an attorney (Fabrice Luchini) and their wives going on hike in the film by Claude Lelouch, Tout ça... pour ça! also released in 1993. A movie ‘in camera’ too, but taking place alfresco ! Lelouch came back at the foot of Mont Blanc to shoot Salaud, on t'aime, just released in France, with gorgeous pictures of the Alps worthy of National Geographic. The passing of the seasons and the wildlife seem to include Johnny Halliday whose character, at the very heart of the story, has four girls named after the four seasons.

Shot on Mont Blanc, Malabar Princess by Gilles Legrand was released in 2004. The white glacier, in which a mother disappears, and the plane that gives the film its title, is the core of research and obsession of the characters. Jacques Villeret plays the role of the grandfather beautifully; a gruff mountaineer living in a remote chalet disturbed by the interruption of life. The Mont-Blanc Tramway (a picturesque cog railway), which climbs up to 1,400 miles, also holds a large role in the film. It is also featured in Salaud, on t'aime.

Between 2004 and 2012, Pascal Thomas explores the neighboring state of Savoie, with the work of Agatha Christie, by adapting three short stories of the British queen of thriller. Pastures and Savoy castles replace the English countryside and Victorian homes. Shot in fall of 2004 near Chambéry, in the villages and countryside of the Bauges and Tarentaise massives, By the Pricking of My Thumbs, is released in 2005. The shores of Lake Bourget, with Serraz and Chatillon castles, and Francin castle near Chambéry, provide a framework for adventures of a couple, as unlikely as their names, formed by Belisaire and Prudence. The same castles and their surroundings give a framework in winter of 2008 for Crime is our business. The second episode of the adventures of the wacky couple is played by Catherine Frot and Dussollier. The mountain scenes are shot in the Val d'Arly between the Aravis range and the Mont Blanc. In 2012, the director goes to the same place again for a third time - « It would be ugly, I would perhaps not be back ! he summarized » - but this time, for Partners in crime, he films in summer. For the purposes of filming, the Avenières castle, a four star hotel of Cruseilles, this one in Haute-Savoie, is transformed into a clinic. Some scenes are shot in the streets and in the pool of thermal baths of Aix-les-Bains. You will like these three movies for their screwball characters and witty dialogues as well as for the scenery, which is beautiful in any season. « When nature offers beauty, you take it » Pascal Thomas said about this trilogy.

To be continued … Episode 2 : The Aquitaine region

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