Forum des Images

David Britain writing for VINGT Paris - photo Forum des Images

Although its location inside Forum des Halles is not the most desirable, Forum des Images is the gem of this underground maze. Nowhere else will you find such an enormously varied film agenda including 1920s silent film, contemporary art house cinema and everything in between. There is a strong emphasis on the French cinema tradition with regular screenings of films by the French masters of cinema such as Marcel Carné, Louis Malle, Jean Luc Godard and Jean Renoir.  They even offer the delightful ‘Menu Court’ – showings of short films at 1.15pm every day for €1 designed to fit into your lunch break. Upcoming film festivals include The Paris Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, the Retour du Flamme silent film festival and a retrospective of Quebecois film.

However, Forum des Images is not just a great cinema. The frequency of master classes, cinema lessons and debates are what make it so unique to Paris. The master classes are open to anyone with a ticket and have included highly influential members of the film community such as Claude Chabrol and Gérard Depardieu. Forum’s biggest coup to date is the master class by Francis Ford Coppola taking place this week. Fear not that tickets for this event were sold out in a few hours since the video is available to watch online.

Isabelle Hupert, star of some of the most astonishing French films of the last decade such as La Pianiste and Ma Mère, will also be taking a master class on 16th of December, tickets for which go on sale 3rd of December. If you’re feeling especially invigorated by this grand array of cinematic education then you can even hop next door to the Bibliotèque de Cinéma François Truffaut and have a look at some of the 17,000 books about film.

Forum des Halles, 101 Porte Berger, Paris 1

Metro: Les Halles & Chatelet

Comments

[susie]

Just check their site for details, it's a constantly changing programme!
enjoy