Paris 36

Spring 1936 – in a working-class district in the north of Paris, a neighborhood that probably had a name once but that everyone now simply calls the Faubourg. At the top of the hill, a view over Paris to one side and, to the other, the burgeoning suburbs of the city. A small square, a few shops, lopsided buildings, cobbled streets and the peeling façade of the neighborhood music hall, the Chansonia.

PIGOIL (Gérard Jugnot), a stage-hand, thirty years with the Chansonia, MILOU (Clovis Cornillac), a hotheaed electrician and a skirt-chaser, and JACKY (Kad Merad), former sandwich man, decide to take hold of their destiny by occupying the Chansonia and producing the “hit” musical that will allow them to buy the hall.

In addition to their lack of experience, they have to deal with the hostile antagonism of the neighborhood “godfather”, GALPIAT (Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu), and come to terms with the arrival of a mysterious and attractive young singer, DOUCE (Nora Arnezeder). The dream of a whole neighborhood, can the Chansonia “rise from its ashes?”

“This immensely enjoyable French musical seeks to create, stylistically and emotionally, the tone of French Popular Front films of the 1930s.” (Philip French, The Observer)

“The plot and script are well supported by art director Jean Rabasse and costume designer Carine Sarfati, who have imbued the movie with a beautiful period look, captured in exquisite detail by cinematographer Tom Stern -- this is a great-looking movie that must be seen on a big screen to be fully appreciated.” (Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide)

“A handsome, old-fashioned melodrama.” (Allan Hunter, Daily Express)

“It looks a treat, with Eastwood’s cinematographer Tom Stern shooting fluidly in ’Scope with an alternating colour palette of cobblestone grey and boudoir rouge, and luxuriates in evidently painstaking costume and set design. The cherry on the cake is newcomer Nora Arnezeder as Douce, the provincial ingénue with the yellow bangs and the golden voice.” (Wally Hammond, Time Out London)