The French Riviera and cinema: a true love story!

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Lumière brothers, inventors of the cinematograph, arrived on the sunny shores of south-east France. Fascinated by its light, essential at a time when outdoor filming required intense sunlight, they filmed some of the very first documentary sequences in 1896 at the Nice carnival. This geographical choice thus places the Côte d'Azur in the emerging cinematographic imaginary. Charles Pathé and Léon Gaumont also settled there. In this resort area adored by the European aristocracy, prodigious nature, sunshine, and architectural beauty make up the ideal setting.

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Les Studios de la Victorine: the genesis

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At the end of the First World War, the need for a competitive French film industry allowed the creation of the Victorine Studios in Nice in 1919. Inspired by Hollywood structures, these studios, created by producers Louis Nalpas and Serge Sandberg, offer a filming site on seven hectares, combining sets and vast illuminated sets. In 1926, the American director Rex Ingram, a Hollywood tycoon, author of “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse”, chose to settle on the Bay of Angels to shoot his next movie “Mare Nostrum” there. His influence was decisive: he bought the studios, modernized them, and helped to give them international visibility. Over the years, La Victorine attracted the biggest stars of cinema: from Marcel Carné, who shot memorable scenes of “Children of Paradise” there, to Alfred Hitchcock with his unforgettable “To Catch a Thief”, not to mention “Forbidden Games” by René Clément, the famous “Day for Night” by François Truffaut, or “Cop or Hood” by Georges Lautner. The Côte d'Azur is becoming a full-fledged character in the great global cinematographic landscape.

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The Cannes Film Festival: showcase of the 7 artistry

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In 1946, in a context of political and cultural reconstruction, the Cannes International Film Festival was born. Designed as early as 1939 as a response to the totalitarian instrumentalization of cinema (in particular at the Venice Film Festival under Mussolini), it became, from its first editions, a festival that celebrates creative freedom. The climb up the steps of the Palais des Festivals is not only a social event, it values aesthetic diversity, the avant-garde, and artistic disputes. In the extract of the festival regulations in 1948, we can read: ”The aim is to encourage the development of film art in all its forms and to create and maintain a spirit of collaboration between all film-producing countries.”. The Palme d'Or, which recognized filmmakers such as Federico Fellini, Emir Kusturica, Martin Scorsese, Wim Wanders, Jane Campion or Quentin Tarantino, became the ultimate award, capable of propelling the career of an author.

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The Riviera, world cinema set

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The beauty of the Côte d'Azur lies in its ability to metamorphose according to the desires of each filmmaker. Sometimes the scene of elegant detective stories, as in Alfred Hitchcock's “To Catch a Thief”, one of whose iconic scenes was shot on the famous Grande Corniche that connects Nice to the Italian border and overlooks the Mediterranean, sometimes a burning setting for troubled passions as in “The Swimming Pool” by Jacques Deray, shot in Ramatuelle with Alain Delon, Romy Schneider, and Jane Birkin: she embodies the Every filmmaker's dream.

In “Bay of Angels” by Jacques Demy, the Promenade des Anglais and the casinos of Nice become the scene of a dive into the hell of gaming, led by Jeanne Moreau. The tone changes with the popular and cult comedy “The Troops of St. Tropez”, where Louis de Funès anchors the city in the collective imagination. Jean Seberg, on the other hand, embodies a more melancholic Riviera in “Hello, Sadness”, a sublime adaptation of the novel by Françoise Sagan shot between Cannes and the Var coast. Impossible not to mention “And God Created Woman” by Roger Vadim, shot in Saint-Tropez, which revealed Brigitte Bardot to the whole world and gave the city its glamorous aura. The 1960s also saw the rise of Henri Verneuil's “Any Number Can Win”, where Jean Gabin and Alain Delon organized a heist in a palace in Cannes. Truffaut, with “Day for Night”, pays tribute to the backstage by filming the making of a movie in the Victorine studios. In the 1990s, the Côte d'Azur became an absurd playground in “Fear City: A Family-Style Comedy”, a crazy pastiche from the world of Cannes. In 2011, Jacques Audiard shot his poignant drama “Rust and Bone” there between Cannes and Antibes with Marion Cotillard and Matthias Schoenaerts, while “Grace of Monaco” by Olivier Dahan offered a Hollywood reconstruction of the Monegasque princely myth in 2014.

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And today?

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The love story of the Riviera and cinema continues more than ever. The Victorine Studios, now managed by the French company Color and the Nice Chamber of Commerce and Industry, aim to once again become a major production hub for cinema and international television series by investing 37 million euros to modernize all installations. At the same time, new festivals are proliferating, such as Canneseries, dedicated to television series, or the Cannes Film Meetings, strengthening the region's cultural footprint beyond the framework of independent cinema. Last year, the Alpes Maritimes Côte d'Azur Film Commission observed a 6% increase in the number of shootings (movies, commercials, clips, documentaries...) in the region, whose productions come from all over the world. Nice, capital of the French Riviera, had a record year with more than 610 days of filming! The Victorine studios hosted 540 days of occupancy on the sets. In total, the direct economic benefits amount to 62 million euros, to which can be added the indirect benefits (tourism, media, etc.) of more than 143 million euros. The Riviera is on your screens, and apparently for a long time!

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Cover: “The Swimming Pool” - Jacques Deray, 1969 © Corbis - Getty Images