From December 8, 2024, Notre-Dame will once again open its doors to the public, after years of construction. Wait until then with a selection of five documentary and fictional works which tell the story of the fire of April 15, 2019, but also five years of work and a historical look at the most famous cathedral in the world.
“Notre-Dame de Paris, the construction site of the century”: a look back at five years of work and eight centuries of know-how
The documentary by Vincent Amouroux shows the different stages of the cathedral construction site. The opportunity to look back on 800 years of Gothic architectural techniques. Historians, archaeologists and geologists have tried to uncover the secrets of the builders and we understand in this film that the marks left on the stone were revealed by the fire. Notre-Dame is revealed to the public in all its aspects in order to understand the intentions of the builders and restore the cathedral identically.
“Notre-Dame de Paris, the construction site of the century” by Vincent Amouroux currently on arte.fr, 2022.
“Notre-Dame de Paris, standing the test of the centuries”: between animated film and historical documentary
Notre-Dame is told through the voice of actress Sophie Marceau. An epic spanning more than eight centuries of French history, punctuated by wars and revolutions. A true ode to the builders of the cathedral, this documentary returns, thanks to animation, to the key dates of Notre-Dame de Paris, from its construction to the fire which almost caused its loss. We learn in particular that the cathedral was threatened with disappearance on several occasions well before the fire of 2019, but managed to survive over the centuries thanks to the continuous work of the builders.
“Notre-Dame de Paris, standing the test of the centuries” by Emmanuel Blanchard. France Télévisions, 2019.
“Notre-Dame de Paris”: a documentary as close as possible to the words of witnesses
After two notable documentaries on the attacks of September 11, 2001 and November 13, 2015, the director brothers Jules and Gédéon Naudet are tackling a new drama: the fire at Notre-Dame de Paris. A look back at the night of April 15, 2019 thanks to a minute-by-minute reconstruction of the events. The archive images are accompanied by comments from the actors involved who look back on the night of the fire. We learn, among other things, that saving the treasure proved to be perilous: with the emotion, no one on site was able to give the code of the safe to the firefighters.
“Notre-Dame de Paris” by Jules and Gédéon Naudet. TMC, 2020.
“Notre-Dame is burning”: relive the fire of the cathedral in the cinema
Latest film by Jean-Jacques Annaud, Notre Dame is burning recounts the night of the fire. Filmed in the Saint-Étienne cathedral in Bourges, the film adopts the point of view of the firefighters during this night of terror. To reflect the reality of the events, the director collected numerous archive images of the surroundings of Notre-Dame at the time of the events. He also recreated the cathedral and the belfry as a setting, then set them on fire. This is the particularity of this film: the flames filmed are real.
“Notre-Dame is burning” by Jean-Jacques Annaud. Pathé, 2022.
“Notre-Dame, la part du feu”: when fiction takes over the event
Netflix mini-series, Notre-Dame, the part of the fire builds his story around the drama of the cathedral fire. The six episodes introduce Parisian characters whose destinies were turned upside down by this event. A way of returning to the fragility of existence in a society plagued by divisions.
“Notre-Dame, la part du feu” by Hervé Hadmar. Netflix, 2022.
