Continuation of my June in Paris story, celebrating my 75th birthday with my daughter and granddaughter.
On our fifth day we slept in a little. My daughter and I did our usual breakfast buffet in the hotel basement.
We left our last full day in Paris open to fit in whatever wish list items we still wanted to see. We took the Metro to the Catacombs Museum which was still closed due to a workers strike. My daughter had backup plans to go to the La Cinémathèque Française (Cinema Museum) since she is a film buff, like her brother as was their Dad. I love film too, but they watch movies almost daily and share time with each other enjoying them. When their Dad and I were dating we went to as many as five films a week, so I guess I’m kinda of a film buff too. Their Dad could see just a short clip of a movie and tell you the name of it, when it was released, who the actors were, what actors were considered for the role and didn’t take it (even what awards they did or didn’t get). Since my granddaughter loves animation, is studying animation and plans to make it her career, this was a perfect choice. Plus, my daughter minored in Film Studies
We took the Metro train since the station was across from the closed Catacombs museum. We had to take a bus too, but it was not too far. The Cinema Museum is free with a Paris Pass, which we were still able to use.
The Cinémathèque contained actual theaters, a café, a gift shop, and museum exhibits. The main exhibition at the museum is dedicated to George Méliès, who was one of the very first filmmakers, known for the earliest special effects. He produced the first science fiction silent film called “Voyage to the Moon” in 1902 (which played at the exhibit).
Photos by Paula Nicewanger/Weekly view
(Top) One of the exhibits of film props and poster in the Cinema museum (bottom) One of the displays of very early projectors used in film making.
The museum was very dark inside like a movie theater with just enough lighting to highlight the exhibits with explanation signs in French and English.
The exhibit explored turn of the century magic and illusion technologies as the precursors to film, and displayed early equipment, props, storyboards, models, and films. There was a Magic Lantern invented by the astronomer Christiann Huygens in 1659 (in the Nertherlands), which is an optical instrument that makes it possible to project images (painted on glass plates) onto a screen in a darkened room, using the light of a candle or oil lamps. Kinda of the first slide projector.
In the 1790s, elaborate magic lanterns were used for a new kind of light show, the “phantasmagoria.” A mobile lantern would slide on rails for producing more modern tracking shots that could expand or contract. This method was the ancestor of what is often used in today’s horror films. Méliès was a very skilled “lanternist” and the “phantasmagoria” was a major source of inspiration for his macabre, burlesque, high-flown style.
There was a model of the studio that Méliès used to create his films, including the famous “Voyage to the Moon,” It was a greenhouse structure with glass walls and ceiling to let in as much light as possible during filming.
On another floor of the museum was a temporary Wes Anderson exhibit, which totally made my granddaughter’s day, and made up for missing the catacombs. Wes Anderson films were not familiar to me, but I must have seen one because the model of the Grand Budapest Hotel seemed familiar. It was nominated for an Oscar in 2014, so I probably saw it then. My daughter and granddaughter know and love this filmmaker. This filmmaker’s style is so eccentric, he is his own genre.
My grand-daughter loved seeing the actual Fantastic Mr. Fox figure from her favorite film.
I was thrilled to see my granddaughter get so excited about seeing the actual figures from her favorite stop motion film, the “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” produced the year she was born (2009). When we returned home, I did watch that and his newest film, “The Phoenician Scheme” and enjoyed it very much. Often Bill Murray, Anjelica Huston, and Jeff Goldblum are in his films and I like them all.
We took an Uber back to the hotel to rest and start packing for home. For dinner, my daughter and I walked a few blocks to a Japanese restaurant. The food was good and the place very nice. We had hot tea for dinner, so we stopped at a little pub around the corner from our hotel for my usual glass of cab and she had an exotic looking cocktail. A nice ending to another great day!
Next Time: Our last day in Paris and highlights
