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Unforgettable scenes
From simple shots to longer sequences inside trains or buses, a number of film makers have shot unforgettable scenes on the RATP’s networks.
In 1985, Luc Besson’s film Subway immortalised the fascinating
world of the Paris metro and RER with its stellar leading pair of Isabelle
Adjani and Christophe Lambert. Besson was following in the footsteps of many
other directors who have filmed unforgettable scenes in the RATP’s networks
over the generations. In Alex Joffé’s La
grosse caisse (1965), Bourvil plays a station manager who dreams of holding
up the train that collects the takings at the end of the day. Two years later,
Jean-Pierre Melville put the finishing touches to his film “The Samurai” (a
favourite of directors such as John Woo and Jim Jarmusch), in which Alain Delon
plays a lone hired murderer in an impressive manhunt set in the metro. In 1975,
Henri Verneuil chose to shoot a scene of his film Peur sur la ville on the roof of the metro, with actor Jean-Paul
Belmondo executing one of his most famous stunts. In 2001, the Paris metro provided a
backdrop to the blockbuster movie Amélie.
Jean Pierre Jeunet’s film, an international hit, immortalised Porte des Lilas
station, which is used as Abbesses station for the purposes of the movie.
More recently, the metro has been used by the Coen brothers for their short-film contribution to the Paris Je t'aime project, by Jean-Paul Salomé in Femmes de l'ombre, and Vincent Cassel in Jean Francois Richet’s Mesrine.
Other films in which the metro has featured include:
Ça commence par la fin by Michaël Cohen, Toutes Les Filles Pleurent by Judith Godrèche, Les aventures extraordinaires d’Adèle Blanc-Sec by Luc Besson, Sans queue ni tête by Jeanne Labrune, Au nom des gens by Michel Leclerc, A bout portant by Fred Cavayé, Monsieur papa by Kad Mérad, Mon pote by Marc Esposito, Hors la loi by Rachid Bouchareb.
