Cité du Cinéma

The Cité du Cinéma, nicknamed Hollywood-sur-Seine, is a film studio complex supported by the film director and producer Luc Besson, located in Saint-Denis, north of Paris. The studio complex is intended to be a competitor of Cinecittà in Rome, Pinewood in London and Babelsberg in Berlin. It was inaugurated on 21 September 2012.

History

Designed in 2000 by Luc Besson, launched in 2004, this project required technical and financial studies for many months. The project is now supported by major companies in the sector and many PME leaders in their field : film development, lighting renter ...

In late 2006, the company has made the website owner who belonged to EDF, and began work in March 2010, which will end in April 2012. Date the Vinci Construction Group gave the keys to the director and owner of the Cité du Cinéma, Luc Besson.

This should strengthen the role of cluster-image Plaine Commune with its fifty television studios (including the Plaine Saint-Denis), and 14 movie sets (in Epinay-sur-Seine, Aubervilliers, Stains and Saint-Ouen).

On 11 April 2012, the company Vinci pilot project, announced that issued the site.

The Cité du Cinéma should be opened in May 2012 in accordance with the 2012 Cannes Film Festival but was eventually extended to Friday, September 21, 2012 in the presence of many international movie stars and public figures (Dianna Agron, Tarak Ben Ammar, Samuel Benchetrit, Luc Besson, Carole Bouquet, Clotilde Courau, Mireille Darc, Robert De Niro, Jamel Debbouze, Virginie Efira, Pascal Elbé, Mylène Farmer, Marina Foïs, Whoopi Goldberg, Salma Hayek, Jimmy Jean-Louis, Gérard Krawczyk, Christopher Lambert, Jack Lang, Mélanie Laurent, Virginie Ledoyen, Tommy Lee Jones, Gilles Lellouche, Benoît Magimel, Sophie Marceau, Kad Merad, Géraldine Nakache, Michelle Pfeiffer, Jean Reno, Jean-Paul Rouve, Ludivine Sagnier, Marie Sara, Eric Serra, Virginie Silla, Laura Smet, Melissa Theuriau, Jean Todt, Michelle Yeoh, Elsa Zylberstein). On the occasion of the inauguration, a short film on the construction of the complex was projected for visitors.

The first film to be shot in the studio is The Smurfs 2 in July 2012.

Events

November 16, 2012, Orange Business Services is organizing the event SIPPEREC dedicated to local communities in Ile de France which was the opportunity to meet Aastra customers but also many prospects, and to discuss the current needs of the market.

November 25, 2012, the traditional closing ceremony of the annual meeting MINECON was held in the Cité du Cinéma. 2000 and 500 fans attended the concert VIP Skrillex, Birdy Nam Nam and A-Trak in the nave of the Cité.

March 27, 2013, 350 people Crédit Agricole d'Ile-de-France met in the Cité du Cinéma during a day focused on mutual values. After a conference taking place in one of the plates, the day ended with an aperitif and a gala dinner in the restaurant.

April 17, 2013, SOCFIM chose the Cité du Cinéma to celebrate its 20th anniversary. After the speeches of the leaders, the 500 guests were able to immerse themselves in the world of cinema through various workshops and stunts performed by professionals.

In May 2013, the blogger Garance Doré made a report on the École de la Cité, founded by Luc Besson, whose holding Kering is a partner.

May 22, 2013, the Cité du Cinéma welcomes former United States President Bill Clinton for "30 years of the discovery of AIDS." For this event organized by UNITAID, more than 400 public officials were invited (Nikos Aliagas, Cécilia Attias, François Bayrou, Yamina Benguigui, Luc Besson, Carole Bouquet, Philippe Douste-Blazy, Nolwenn Leroy, Pierre Moscovici, Pascal Nègre, Dominique Ouattara, Christiane Taubira, Valérie Trierweiler) and were gathered in the nave for dinner.

June 7, 2013, the beer brand tequila Desperados flavored opens an ephemeral private club at the Cité du Cinema called the Desperados Wild Club. To celebrate the event, five music artists were invited to play in the nave : Freddy Jay, Naive New Beaters, Club Cheval, Kavinsky and Madeon.

June 11, 2013, The 9th Annual Evea Group meeting took place at Cité du Cinéma. The main customers and partners were brought together to discuss the latest developments in Cloud Computing.

September 29, 2013, the Kenzo Spring-Summer 2014 runway show of Paris Fashion Week took place in the central nave at the Cité du Cinéma.

October 3, 2013, the Cité du Cinéma hosted 130 attendants for the launch of its "movie nights", the first in a planned series of similar evenings with a specific theme. The theme of the inaugural event was Bollywood.

October 10, 2013, the VIP restaurant Le B.O. was inaugurated in the presence of many public figures (Luc Besson, Nader Boussandel, Emma Colberti, Vanessa Demouy, Dominique Farrugia, Xavier Giannoli, Philippe Gildas, Vahina Giocante, Tewfik Jallab, Scarlett Johansson, Hande Kodja, Henri Leconte, Philippe Lellouche, Mathias Malzieu, Caterina Murino, Virginie Silla, Alain Terzian, Ariel Zeitoun).

October 16, 2013, the press conference of the film The Family place at the Cité du Cinéma. The film crew composed of French director Luc Besson and American actors Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer and Dianna Agron was invited to talk about the film.

November 27, 2013, the 4th annual National Meeting for Equal Opportunities Convention (Nos Quartiers ont des Talent), it was held in the central nave and hosted 3 000 graduates and nearly 40 public and private partners.

December 6, 2013, the FIA hosted its annual gala : The FIA Prize Giving 2013. 800 people attended in the presence of Luc Besson and Jean Todt, and many personalities from the world of motorsport : Sébastien Loeb, Alain Prost, Loïc Duval, Sebastian Vettel, Sébastien Ogier, Fernando Alonso, Mark Webber, Allan McNish, Tom Kristensen, Yvan Muller and Robert Kubica.

February 15, 2014 to June 30, 2014, the exhibition Star Wars Identities takes place in two film sets almost 2 000 m² which will be revealed over 200 original pieces from the archives of Lucas Arts Museum : models, props, costumes, sketches that built the Star Wars universe.

Tenants

• The laboratory Arane.
• The VIP restaurant Le B.O.
• The advertising agency Blue Advertainment.
• The transport company Cinématrans, specialized in handling film equipments, theatrical wardrobe, location & studio logistics.
• The nursery La Cité des Enfants.
• The post-production studios Digital Factory.
• The École de la Cité.
• The Louis Lumière College.
• The rental company audiovisual Next Shot.
• The audiovisual production companies DACP, Irina Production and Pass Pass la Cam'.
• The production companies located are Ariel Zeitoun's Ajoz Films, Alain Chabat's Chez Wam, Luc Besson's EuropaCorp, Dominique Farrugia's FEW and Jamel Debbouze's Kissman Productions.
• The Studios de Paris.

Numbers

• An area of 62 000 m² at the site of the Pleyel Crossroads :
  • 190 parking spaces : 40 seats guaranteed day and 150 seats guaranteed in the evening.
  • 577 m² for the mezzanine : 32 meters long, 17 meters wide. It can accommodate up to 500 people for cocktails and up to 380 people for sit-down meal.
  • 1 700 m² for the restaurant : 32 meters long, 25 meters wide and 17 meters high. Five different buffets. It can accommodate up to 2 000 people for cocktails and 1 100 people for a seated meal. A cafeteria, gym, florist, grocery store and a nursery with a capacity of 10 cribs.
  • 4 000 m² for the offices : carpentry, painting workshop, the workshop model, the locksmith, the light shop, camera shop, machinery, office manufacturers, production offices, dressing rooms actors, 12 VIP boxes with a terrace, more spacious, are upstairs. In front of the boxes : dressing - makeup - hairdressing, sewing costumes and more inside the building, storage spaces.
  • 4 280 m² for the central nave : 220 meters long, 20 meters wide and 18 meters high. It can accommodate up to 2 500 people.
  • 8 000 m² for Louis Lumière College.
  • 9 350 m² for 9 studios : 613 m² for studio 8, 776 m² for studios 1 and 2, 792 m² for studio 7, 998 m² for studio 6, 1 045 m² for studios 3 and 4, 1 243 m² for studio 9 and 2 068 m² for studio 5 on 16 meters height. 5 pools of 150 m² for studios 2, 3, 7 and 9 and 420 m² for studio 5 a depth of 3 meters. The floors are wood studios 1, 2, 3, 7, and 8 and polished concrete for apartments 4, 5, 6 and 9. All trays are equipped with a technical grid extended over the entire surface of the plate and heating and air conditioning (two plants redistribute icy cold or hot air on all trays). They can accommodate up to 1 500 people for all kinds of events : convention, dance, workshop.
  • 19 000 m² for the seat of EuropaCorp.
• The auditorium : 500 seats for professionals. The stage is 18 meters long and 7 meters high. 3D video projection.
• A cost of 140 million euros : 130 million by the Caisse des dépôts et consignations and 10 million by Vinci.
• Architect office : Reichen and Robert.

Shooting

Feature Film

• 2012 : Taken 2 by Olivier Megaton.
• 2013 : 20 ans d'écart by David Moreau. (scenes in the nave and in the office).
• 2013 : The Smurfs 2 by Raja Gosnell.
• 2013 : The Family by Luc Besson.
• 2014 : Le Jeu de la Vérité by François Desagnat.
• 2014 : Mea Culpa by Fred Cavayé.
• 2014 : 3 Days to Kill by McG.
• 2014 : Aimer, boire et chanter by Alain Resnais.
• 2014 : Lucy by Luc Besson.
• 2014 : The Hundred-Foot Journey by Lasse Hallström.
• 2014 : Une nouvelle amie by François Ozon.

Short Film

• 2013 : Once Upon a Time... by Karl Lagerfeld. (2 days of shooting with Keira Knightley and Clotilde Hesme on the initial success of Coco Chanel in Deauville).
• 2013 : Twaaga by Cédric Ido.

Music Video

• 2012 : Doom and Gloom by Jonas Åkerlund.
• 2012 : My Name is Zlatan by Rachid Dhibou. (song of the humorist Al'Pach).
• 2013 : Cent Fois by Rachid Dhibou. (song by the rock group LSX).
• 2013 : Ghost by Vikram Milkshoot. (song by the hip-hop group Les 1comparable's).
• 2013 : Still of the Night, Is This Love, Give Me All Your Love, Fool for your lovin' and Walking in the shadows of the blues by Rémi Brion. (songs by the group SnakeBite, tribute band to Whitesnake).

Television

• 2012-2013 : Le Monde d'Après. (French monthly current affairs programme, broadcast Monday nights on France 3).
• 2013 : Y’a pas d’âge. (French TV series of 60 episodes of 7 minutes broadcast on France 2 from Monday to Friday at 19:45 and Saturday at 18:10. The shooting lasted 4 months).

Advertisements

• 2013 : Givenchy by Cédric Klapisch. (advertising for the 10th anniversary of perfume Very Irresistible with Amanda Seyfried).

Access

• By car : A86 motorway, exit 08a Saint-Denis Pleyel.
• By public transport :
  • By bus : Bus 139 and Bus 274, station Rue Ampère.
  • By Paris Métro : line 13, station Carrefour Pleyel, exit Cap Ampère.
  • By RER : RER D, station Stade de France - Saint-Denis.

External links

• Websites : http://la-cite-du-cinema.eu/ and http://www.citeducinema.org/en/
• Film on the construction of the complex : http://vimeo.com/69151057
• Video on the dimensions of the spaces : http://vimeo.com/47861158
• "France's Cite du Cinema aims to lure Hollywood". Reuters. September 21, 2012.
• Goodfellow, Melanie (September 21, 2012). "Luc Besson officially opens Cité Du Cinéma complex". Screen Daily.
• Kelly, Brendan (December 14, 2012). "Critics: Cité du Cinéma sale could hurt industry". Montreal Gazette.