Paris and Hollywood's Century-Long Love Affair Focus of New City Hall Exhibition

Paris and Hollywood will make their long love affair official at City Hall the Hotel de Ville on Sept. 18 at a new exhibition titled “Paris Seen by Hollywood.”

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The free exhibition will focus on Hollywood’s depiction of the French capital over the years and will feature film clips, photos, set models, costumes, scripts and posters from both French and American archives.

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A giant 20-meter long screen will show a mix of images that highlight Hollywood’s amour for Paris. The unique exhibit will be divided into four different areas: silent film, “the sophisticated Paris of romantic comedy” focusing on films from the 1930s and 40s, Hollywood’s Golden Age and the Cancan and post-1950s cinema.

“Paris Seen by Hollywood” will showcase more than 100 titles including Stanley Donen’s Funny Face and Charade, Vicente Minelli’s An American in Paris, John Huston’s Moulin Rouge and more recent titles like Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris and Martin Scorsese’s Hugo. Many of the films featured star Paris without even setting foot in the city.

“There is Paramount Paris and MGM Paris. And then of course there is the real Paris,” Ernst Lubitsch said. More than 400 documents taken from the French Cinematheque, the Margareth Herrick Library, Warner archive and private collectors will give public cinephiles a behind-the-scenes look at Hollywood’s fascination with the City of Lights for more than a century. 

Sets and sketches from An American in Paris and Moulin Rouge, dresses designed for Audrey Hepburn by Hubert de Givenchy and statues created by Dante Ferreti for Scorsese’s Hugo will all be on display.

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More than 20 screens will show more than 70 film clips and documentaries with footage from the sets of Funny Face and Hitchcock’s Topaz.

 “Paris, vu par Hollywood” is open every day except Sundays, from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m. from Sept. 18th through Dec. 15th at the Hotel de Ville de Paris.