In the evenings I often go for walks around Paris’ Left Bank, trying to capture street scenes during magic hour – when the city is at its most beautiful.
Yesterday’s photo expedition got completely derailed, as soon as I noticed a long row of white trucks lined up on rue Saint-Jacques. They are usually the telltale sign of a film shoot occurring nearby. That’s exactly how I stumbled upon the setup for a scene from Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris a couple of weeks ago behind the Pantheon – and had the privilege to see Woody Allen at work with cinematography wiz Darius Khondji.
Two days ago I had heard that Martin Scorsese was in Paris as well, to shoot his latest film Hugo Cabret, a drama set in 1930s Paris. So, I set about finding out where he will be shooting, hoping to catch a glimpse of the maestro in action. A friend told me that she’d heard he had been filming at the Sorbonne. And that’s where I headed.
I was blown away by the amount of technical equipment that circled half a perimeter of the Sorbonne: the entire rue Saint-Jacques has been taken over by prop trucks that come from the U.K. Four monster cranes are hovering over place du Pantheon, near Bibliotheque Sainte-Genevieve.
Something tells me that they will be here for a while… I’m planning to catch a glimpse of Scorsese and DP Robert Richardson in action. I’ll report back soon…
