[Critique] Paris Ciné-Balades, Juliette Dubois

Surpassing New York with around twenty filmings per day, Paris is the most filmed city in the world. With its illustrated guide Paris Cinema walksJuliette Dubois offers readers different routes through the streets of the capital, following in the footsteps of famous film sets and neighborhoods dear to fans of the seventh art.

Discovering Paris

Juliette Dubois is a Parisian guide specializing in cinema history. About ten years ago, she founded Ciné-balade (www.cine-balade.com), a tourist activity offering alternative circuits to rediscover the capital and its suburbs, through the feature films that were shot there. From George Meliès to Cédric Klapisch, including François Truffaut, Francis Veber and Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the collection uses cinema as an entry point to the cultural exploration of the city and its heritage.

Divided into chapters, Paris Cinema walks presents fifteen detailed itineraries, corresponding to fifteen routes calibrated to last between one and two hours of walking. These walks cover different themes: thrillers, cartoons, Audrey Hepburn films, musicals, The fabulous destiny of Amelie Poulainor even the actuate. Each category pays tribute to cinema personalities, cult films, or some tasty places to eat after a good walk.

A practical and aesthetic book object

Paris Cinema walks is very practical thanks to its medium format, very easily transportable, and its flexible but robust cover. Its 176 pages make it a complete but space-saving object, and the layout is pleasant, combining illustrations, maps and texts on thick paper offering very appreciable reading comfort.

Each route begins with a map of the district which will then be explained by an itinerary, detailed step by step on the following pages. Numerous photos of the films, neighborhoods and monuments described illustrate and support the point, to allow the walker to find their way as best as possible. Finally, the titles, the different colors and the varied fonts direct the reader to the most important information to remember.

Cultural wandering

In addition to these itineraries, the author offers a few inserts to learn more: whether anecdotes about the world of cinema or biographical elements on certain renowned directors or actors, Juliette Dubois encourages curiosity cinephile of his audience and suggests some ideas that he can explore further on his own. The collection only offers a few synopses and brief allusions to the film sequences presented, and is not intended to offer a detailed analysis or a detailed summary of the feature films.

To note that Paris Cinema tours favors fairly old cinema, by Gerard Oury, Jean-Luc Godard or Claude Sautet. This love of the classics is felt from the first chapter entitled “Paris thrillers”, which does not go beyond the year 2006. The last film offered is all the same In body by Cédric Klapisch, released in 2022, and Juliette Dubois even alludes to the series Greek saladby the same director, dating from 2023. Despite these few forays into post-2010 cinema, younger moviegoers may be a little frustrated.

Paris Cinema walks is therefore an informative and original guide which invites you to walk the streets of the capital to discover behind the scenes of the greatest films of our heritage. Offering detailed itineraries, various anecdotes and a practical format to carry in a backpack, it will allow lovers of dark rooms to relive their most beautiful memories in the great outdoors.