MARSEILLE’S MOVIE INDUSTRY A short distance inland from Marseille’s industrial port, up on a hill called Grand Littoral, 14-metre-high white letters spell out the city’s name – like Hollywood, just a bit more low-key. This huge sign was a gift and publicity stunt from Netflix when it launched its 2016 TV series Marseille, starring Gérard Depardieu. If you needed a symbol of this town’s place in the movie industry, this is it. In many ways, Marseille is France’s answer to
Hollywood. Like Los Angeles’ movie district, it has the weather (300 days of sunshine a year), and it spoils directors with its variety of terrain. Within a few square miles you can find gritty city streets, chic neighbourhoods, beaches, forests and the Calanques mountains as a backdrop. This explains why, over the years, hundreds of film and TV studios, production companies and their associated industries, have flourished across the city. One of the first
major film factories was Studios Pagnol, established in 1932, where French writer Marcel Pagnol adapted many of his books to great acclaim. Following this, the movie industry blossomed in the post-Second World War period. And the cameras haven’t stopped rolling since. The list of movies and TV series filmed or set in
France’s second city is long and occasionally illustrious. The French Connection (1971) is perhaps the most famous. Over the years, other great dramas have appeared, including The Marseille Contract (1974), French Connection II (1975), Betty Blue (1986), the Taxi franchise, Baise-Moi (2000), The Bourne Identity (2002), The Count of Monte Cristo (2002), the Transporter franchise, A Prophet (2009) and The Connection (2014). But if you want to experience modern-day Marseille
in all its glory, then head for the Netflix series of the same name. The opening scene might be a symbol for this town’s combination of grit and glamour as the lead character, Gérard Depardieu’s Mayor Robert Taro, struts into a packed Olympique de Marseille football stadium minutes after consuming a prodigious line of cocaine. “Putain, ce que j’aime cette ville!” he says to himself. (“I f***ing love this city!”)
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