The twinkling lights and landmarks of Paris have long inspired artists, from novelists to celebrated painters and, of course, filmmakers worldwide. The city's romance and beauty has dazzled movie audiences for decades, with countless films set against its backdrop.
While Hollywood has often showcased Paris in light-hearted romances and breezy musicals, the city also shines in grittier stories, mysteries, and action-packed thrillers.
Of course there are many beloved films beyond the 10 we've highlighted here, like Disney's animated Ratatouille. But we've decided to focus on the productions filmed on location in Paris, using the city's real sites.
Paris highlights: Montmartre
Amélie (2001) (credit: Miramax)
The beloved film Amélie is one of the first that comes to mind when thinking about movies set in Paris. The quirky 2001 French-language romantic comedy film was directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and has established itself in the top 10 most successful foreign films of all time. The film is a whimsical portrayal of contemporary Parisian life and follows Audrey Tautou as an introverted waitress who, despite her own feelings of isolation, sets out to improve the lives of those around her.
Filming supposedly took place in over 80 locations around Paris, but the story is mainly set in Montmartre in the 18th arrondissement. The Café des 2 Moulins (15 Rue Lepic, Montmartre, Paris) just around the corner from the Moulin Rouge and Boulevard Clichy, where Amélie works is a real place and references the two windmills of Montmartre: The famous Moulin Rouge and the Moulin de la Galette.
Canal Saint-Martin is another location where we see Amélie skimming stones in the film – the second neighbourhood favourited by the character in the film. It's quiet in the early mornings and a great chance to experience the scene as it appears in the film.
Paris highlights: The Orangerie & Rodin Museums, The Latin Quarter
The movie delights viewers with glimpses of Paris from the 1920’s as well as today, and we get to see real locations like Le Polidor restaurant as they would have been when filled with famous faces like Ernest Hemingway.
The story follows Gil Pender (Owen Wilson), a screenwriter and aspiring novelist. While vacationing in Paris with his fiancée (Rachel McAdams), Gil takes to exploring the city alone at night. On one of these excursions, Gil encounters a group of peculiar yet familiar revelers who sweep him back in time to a night with some of the Jazz Age's legends of art and literature. As Gil spends more time with these icons of the past, he grows increasingly dissatisfied with the present.
The movie’s opening montage set to a jazz score immediately establishes Paris as a main character of the film, with recognisable locations like the Left Bank shops along rue Grande, the columns of Parc Monceau, and the giant flea sculpture with its view of the Eiffel Tower.
Given that Midnight in Paris prominently features numerous literary figures from the 1920s, it makes sense that the renowned Shakespeare and Company bookshop appears in the film. However, the present-day Shakespeare and Company featured here is not actually the same as the one open at that time. The original store, founded by Sylvia Beach, was a frequent haunt of famous authors like Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Gertrude Stein.
Paris highlights: Saint-Germain-des-Prés, 7th arrondissement
The 2011 French heartwarming buddy comedy-drama film was written and directed by Éric Toledano and Olivier Nakache. It tells the story of a Parisian aristocrat (François Cluzet), quadriplegic since a paragliding accident, who hires a young man Driss (Omar Sy) to be his live-in caretaker. As different as the two men are, they bond and develop a close friendship.
The plot is inspired by the true story of Philippe Pozzo di Borgo and his French-Algerian caregiver Abdel Sellou who were discovered by the directors in a documentary film, À la vie, à la mort. It is the 2nd highest grossing French movie in France and popular around the world, even inspiring an American remake called The Upside (2017) starring Bryan Cranston and Kevin Hart.
The settings in the film contrast the two vastly different lives of the main characters. Driss lives in the housing complex of Noue-Caillet, located in the northern Parisian neighbourhood of Bondy. Constructed in the late 1950s, this typical post-war social housing development starkly contrasts with the opulent mansion where Phillipe lives in the 7th arrondissement. Built in 1723, the mansion houses the Dutch Embassy and is occasionally rented out for filming.
Paris highlights: Le Marais, The Left Bank
The second installment in Richard Linklater's dreamy Before trilogy, Before Sunset follows the continuing relationship between Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Céline (Julie Deply). Nine years after meeting on a train and spending a night together in Vienna in the first film, the couple's lives intersect once again in Paris. The dialogue is clever and poignant as the pair meander through the city, visiting locations like the Marais district, Le Pure Café, and the Promenade Plantée park.
The story follows Jesse and Céline as they reconnect at his book launch at the iconic Shakespeare and Company bookshop. From there, they wander through the nearby streets, eventually ending up at the romantically vintage Le Pure Café. Their stroll continues along the Coulée Verte, an old railway line converted into an elevated garden walkway. Finally, they part ways at Céline's apartment off the rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine. Through this meandering journey, the film explores the characters' evolving relationship and the ways in which their lives have unfolded since their initial chance encounter.
Paris highlights: The Latin Quarter
The 1963 film Charade is a suspenseful romantic comedy starring Audrey Hepburn as Regina Lampert and Cary Grant as Peter Joshua. While vacationing at a French Alps ski resort, Regina and Peter happen to meet. Returning to Paris, she discovers her husband has been murdered, leaving her a widow. Soon, she and Peter are chasing after three of her late husband's World War II associates around Paris, who are pursuing a large sum of money the group had stolen while behind enemy lines.
The two main characters meet up at the marionette show, the Theatre Vrai Guignolet, located in the Jardins des Champs Élysées at the Rond Point des Champs Élysées. The show continues to this day, with afternoon performances on Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays.
The Hotel St Jacques, where the pair are staying (the hotel where Grant famously takes a shower in his suit), is not the actual St Jacques hotel on the rue des Écoles near the Sorbonne. Instead, the hotel featured in the film is 24 rue Censier, situated much further south near the Censier Daubenton metro station.
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Paris highlights: The Louvre Museum
Based on the mystery thriller novel by Dan Brown, the movie tells the story of Symbologist Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) who travels to Paris to unravel a bizarre murder in the Louvre Museum. Accompanied by cryptographer Sophie Neveu (Audrey Tautou’s second mention on this list), they follow cryptic clues in some of Leonardo da Vinci's most famous paintings leading to the discovery of a religious mystery protected by an age-old secret society.
We get to see plenty of cinematic shots of the Louvre’s impressive interior and exterior. It’s not often in films we get to see both the 16th-century Grande Galerie and the 1993 Inverted Pyramid at its entrance.
Other Parisian landmarks featured prominently include the Sacré-Cœur Basilica, where the villainous monk Silas (Paul Bettany) receives orders from the secret society, and the Église Saint-Sulpice, a Baroque rival to Notre Dame located just north of the Jardin du Luxembourg.
Paris highlights: Palace of Versailles
In the 2006 historical drama directed by Sofia Coppola, Austrian princess (Kirsten Dunst), marries Dauphin of France (Jason Schwartzman) and becomes Queen of France upon the death of King Louis XV in 1774. However, Marie Antoinette's seemingly charmed life soon takes a dramatic turn due to family tensions and the growing threat of revolution.
The entire story takes place at the iconic Palace of Versailles, and the majority of the movie was shot on location there. However, the production team also utilised other sites in the Paris region, including chateaux, Parisian mansions, and studio spaces - particularly for interior scenes like the Queen's private apartment and bedroom, which were not suitable for filming at Versailles.
The Palace of Versailles is an exceptional historical site, with 700 rooms, 2,000 windows, 1,250 chimneys, 67 staircases, and 700 hectares of gardens. Gaining filming permission to shoot at Versailles wasn't easy and came at a steep cost, with the production paying €15,000 per day (€300,000 total) to shoot at the palace. Additionally, the crew had to adhere to strict rules that made the process extremely challenging, like not being able to touch the original furniture and needing to keep shutters closed to preserve fabrics.
Fortunately the crew was able to film a lavish ball scene for the wedding of Marie-Antoinette and Louis XVI in the famous Hall of Mirrors, despite the fact that the space was closed for renovation during the time of filming. If you're looking for advice on how to transform a filming location for period dramas and historical films, we've got you covered.
Paris highlights: Montmartre, Pigalle, Le Marais
The 2006 anthology film "Paris, Je t'aime" features an ensemble cast of actors from various nationalities. Consisting of eighteen short films set in different Parisian arrondissements, the two-hour movie depicts the concept of love as directed by 22 filmmakers, including Gurinder Chadha, Sylvain Chomet, the Coen brothers, Isabel Coixet, Gérard Depardieu, Wes Craven and Alfonso Cuarón.
Each love story takes place in a different neighbourhood, giving viewers a highlight reel of the city - from a pair of mime artists meeting at the Eiffel Tower, to a backpacker falling in love with a vampire on the Boulevard de la Madeleine.
Paris highlights: The Seine, Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois
In this iconic action-thriller, former CIA operative Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) must use his specialised skills to rescue his abducted teenage daughter and her friend, who were taken by human traffickers shortly after arriving in Paris on vacation.
The film showcases both the iconic tourist attractions and hidden corners of the city. Mills investigates his daughter's apartment on Avenue d'Eylau, with its direct view of the Jardins du Trocadéro and the Eiffel Tower. He questions prostitutes at Porte de Clichy, then takes refuge in the unassuming Hôtel Camelia International on rue Darcet.
Later, he meets a contact on a bench in the Square du Vert-Galant by the Pont Neuf, and observes the action in the Place du Louvre from the ornate Gothic tower of L'Eglise Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois. In a climactic chase, Mills drives at top speed down Quai Henri IV before leaping onto the traffickers' boat from the Pont des Arts.
Paris highlights: Place du Trocadéro, Grand Palais
Fallout is the sixth instalment in the high-octane spy action series and one of the few big budget action movies set in Paris. In this film, a group of terrorists plans a simultaneous nuclear attack on multiple cities by detonating three plutonium cores. Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and the IMF team race against time to thwart this global disaster.
The films are known for their globetrotting stories, with Fallout's opening scene in New Zealand's Milford Sound. However, a significant portion was also shot in Paris. Key Parisian locations featured were the Trocadéro Esplanade near the Eiffel Tower, where Walker meets the CIA Director, and the Quai d'Austerlitz along the river, which served as the backdrop for an ambush scene next to the Pont de Bercy. The filmmakers even captured a parachute landing on the roof of the Grand Palais des Champs-Élysées.
The famous chase sequence showcases Tom Cruise racing around several well-known Parisian landmarks on his motorbike, including the Opera Garnier and Arc de Triomphe (which was closed to traffic for 90 minutes to make filming possible!) Additionally, the boat and underground river scenes were shot at the picturesque Canal Saint-Martin.
For a truly captivating movie backdrop, nothing compares to the charms of Paris. This list showcases how the city's iconic locations and architectural splendour can elevate a wide range of film genres - from romantic dramas to suspenseful thrillers. Whether you're a cinephile or a filmmaker, we hope these films set in Paris will inspire you. It's no wonder location scouts worldwide are eager to harness the city's timeless allure.
If you're looking for more film inspiration from other iconic cities, we've listed the best films about New York City.
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