Murder in Chartres filmed in Eure-et-Loir
This is one of the last names in a long list. Murder in Chartresa new production from France Télévisions is in the box. For three weeks, last September and October, the TV film team settled in Chartres, as well as in other towns in the department. In the cast: actors Gil Alma and Alexia Barlier.
The scenario is not yet known, but according to the production director, “the plot in Chartres combines a legend around the Holy Virgin and the disappearance of a girl for twenty years”. For obvious reasons of confidentiality, we will not know more! To complete the cast, no less than 117 extras, from Eure-et-Loir and neighboring departments, made an appearance, sometimes fleeting, in front of the camera.
One of the actresses for a day, for example, was chosen for a “chic and bourgeois” wedding scene at the cathedral. Another extra added: “The actors were super nice, very professional and accessible.” The Château de Châteaudun also served as a setting to immortalize some scenes supposed to take place… at the cathedral. And it was in Maintenon that filming ended on October 11. What will viewers see? A little patience, the broadcast is scheduled for summer 2025.
When James Bond arrives in Anet
It was almost sixty years ago… On February 16, 1965, the team ofOperation Thunderthe fourth episode of the James Bond saga, arrives at Anet Castle to shoot the film’s pre-credits sequence. The famous spy who was codenamed 007 was at the time the Scottish actor Sean Connery.
In this scene that remains famous, James Bond, with the relaxation that characterizes him, manages to escape a horde of killers thanks to… a jet-pack, a gadget that allows him to fly away when the situation becomes critical. Republican Echowho followed the shooting at the time, shares some anecdotes thanks to the sagacity of a journalist who did not sign his article.
We learn in particular the budget of the film – “2 billion old francs” – and even the menu of the meal taken by Sean Connery with a starlet of the time at the restaurant opposite the castle. After three days, filming was suspended due to the cold and resumed a few days later… in the Bahamas!
The timeless War of the Buttons tour in Armenonville
It was a little over sixty years ago. On April 18, 1962, an entire country discovered a children’s film by Yves Robert which quickly became a phenomenon. The War of the Buttonsadaptation of a novel by Louis Pergaud, is the biggest success of the year, with more than 4 million admissions. Six decades later, there are 9 million…
It is ahead of Hollywood films like The cannons of Navarone, and even the epic Ben Howson of William Wyler.
Not bad for a film with a much more modest budget which was shot largely in the Eurelian countryside, in Bailleau-Armenonville, and in the nearby Yvelines.
Since then, numerous initiatives have taken place to preserve the memory of these memorable weeks. In 2019, a first tribute day to the film took place on site.
Then in 2021, to celebrate sixty years of filming, Martin Lartigue, the famous P’tit Gibus, who made an entire country laugh with his memorable phrase, “if I would have known, I would not have come”, returned in Bailleau-Armenonville. A beautiful nostalgic moment.
When Charles Berling brings Jean Moulin back to life
Evoking the journey of Jean Moulin, leader of the Resistance, during the period of the Occupation, is a thorny challenge that Yves Boisset, experienced director, met with flying colors with his two-part TV film, soberly titled Jean Moulinreleased in the summer of 2002 on France 2.
Charles Berling plays the former prefect of Eure-et-Loir in what remains one of his greatest roles. A large part of the filming took place in the historic center of Chartres.
GTmaxa blockbuster from Netflix
A sign of the times, television platforms are taking up more and more space in film production, alongside traditional studios. In 2023, for example, comedy Cashcarried by a prestigious casting – Raphaël Quenard or Agathe Rousselle, who won a Palme d’Or with Titanium – enjoyed great success when it was broadcast on Netflix.
This gangster story, half-serious and half-zany, was filmed largely in Chartres and many sites are immediately recognizable.
The experience must have pleased the streaming giant, since the filming of many scenes from the action film took place over ten days. GTmax.
Directed by Olivier Schneider, a stuntman who has worked in several James Bond films or in Takenthe feature film brings together veterans of the Seventh Art (Clémentine Célarié, Gérard Lanvin) and emerging talents (the young Ava Baya, who is also a singer) in a heist story.
On the first day of filming, September 11, 2023, the production arrives at the Tonnes motocross circuit, in Dampierre-sous-Brou, with… five hundred extras! Eight days later, we pack everything up and we have to get down to editing and post-production. When it was released last November, GTmax ranked directly number 1 among films viewed. A great success for a filmmaker whose first production this is.
When Steven Spielberg was filming Munich to Faverolles
September 2005. The village of Faverolles, 850 inhabitants, very close to Yvelines, emerges from its usual calm and welcomes a large American production team. She comes here out of sight to shoot a Steven Spielberg film… just that. The director of Jaws or E.T. is not here to make a blockbuster Jurassic Parkbut to tell a story based on real events: that of the attacks on the Munich Olympic Games in 1972.
In the casting of Munich – this is the title chosen for the film – Éric Bana, Mathieu Kassovitz or Daniel Craig, the future James Bond. The filming takes place in the greatest secrecy.
Present on site, Republican Echo cannot approach. “I believe that it is planned to shoot a few scenes outdoors as well as in a beautiful private property in the hamlet. But I don’t know more,” declared the mayor at the time, Alain Feys, in our edition of September 22, 2005.
After Budapest and Paris, a few scenes were quickly shot in this village of Eure-et-Loir, before the whole team flew to New York. The feature film was released in January 2006 and attracted just over a million spectators in France.
