Paris in the Springtime

My Paris Stories: Movies I Love

The beautiful Place Furstemberg which you may recognize from the final scene of Martin Scorsese’s The Age of Innocence

♫ I love Paris in the springtime…
or ♫ April in Paris, chestnuts in blossom…

There are so many songs—and so many wonderful recordings of songs—that celebrate the magic of Paris in spring.

Perhaps, like me, you are dreaming of strolling leisurely along the Seine, stopping in at the famous Shakespeare & Company bookshop, or sitting down at a small pavement café to rest your feet, have coffee and people-watch. If so, this post is for you.

I am teaching a course this spring at the Copenhagen University Extension program about films that are set in Paris, and in which Paris has a deeper symbolic meaning. So if you can’t be in Paris right now, here are five (very different) films from my (very long) list of favourite films set in the City of Lights.

Charade
(Stanley Donen, 1963)

Charade is often described as "the best Hitchcock movie that Hitchcock …