Location
Does anybody know where this was filmed?
And does that splendid location still exist?
why wouldn't it still exist? was there a WW3 that I missed or something? anyway, for me it seemed quite like Paris.
I lived in Paris at the time this film was released and remember driving around trying to find the location - which I eventually did, in the west of Paris, near the Porte Saint-Cloud. Given the wholesale 'development' of Paris and many other European cities there has certainly been no need for a 'WW3' as the previous correspondant suggests to destroy many interesting and historical buildings. Why not demolish your house and build in the same space a nice block of 60 flats? The quick buck rules. You know it makes sense.
So, the location may well no longer exist today.
It seemed like a historic building, I suggest that its quite hard to demolish a historic building in Paris and build a Mc'donalds in its place.. I'm quite sure that the parisian mayor's office would never allow the demolition of a historic villa. Here in Budapest, if you live in a historic building, and want to fix the fence, you must ask their agreement even for that. Im guessing Paris is quite alike, otherwise it wouldn't look like a historic city
shareI have just re-seen the film at L'Institut Francais in London, and (yet again!) wondered whether you could be more precise about the location, as I would like to visit it (if it's still there!). Is that really Boileau's lime tree in the film??
shareYes, the tree is non-fictional and the house does really exist on Rue Boileau- so it makes sense that it's really Boileau's tree ( but I cannot remember neither the number of the house nor the Arrondissement ), as I read in some trivia about this film which not listed on IMDB.
shareAP, Merci bien. Armed with my "Plan de Paris par Arrondisement", I will look for the location the next time I am in Paris. If you get any further clues, I'd be grateful if you'd let me know. Amities, MR.
sharethey say it's on Rue Boileau, in the 16th, (75016)
and now it is the Vietnames Embassy
here is the google street view ... does not look like it ...
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=62+rue+boileau+paris&sll=48.843445,2.263162&sspn=0.003968,0.009634&ie=UTF8&ll=48.842582,2.262899&spn=0.000992,0.002409&t=h&z=19&iwloc=addr&layer=c&cbll=48.842609,2.262939&panoid=6LWLUkN6X5Zc6ahGVM9AUw&cbp=12,301.70916957412373,,0,3.095768374164799
I was looking for this place too.
In the film where Philippe meets the boy at the gate, which appears to be the rear or side of the house, the number says 64 (rue Boileau). Just before this scene there is a shot of them talking on the roof while someone is riding a bike around in circles where you can see the opposite side of the street with part of the same building you can see in google street view (part of a real school). It looks like they've added a new modern glazed style building right next to it on the left http://archiguide.free.fr/PH/FRA/Par/P16EcolBoileauPen.jpg (rue Boileau 63). It does seem as though, if it's the same location, the villa in the film has been destroyed and replaced with the Vietnamese embassy (62-66). Although later on near the ending you can see the Linden tree and the gate were in the same place as the villa.
More or less where Philippe greets the school boy who asks him if he's an Arab is where you can see the front of the embassy on rue Boileau and google street view.
I wonder if Boileau's Linden tree with the plaque was torn up also.
EDIT: Just found this picture from 1977 outside the gates of the Embassy http://www.corbisimages.com/Enlargement/U1899926.html which matches up with the photo above and the tiled gates of the Embassy in google street view except the white glazed building doesn't exist yet (where the bricked empty gap appears on the far right).
This small side road on Boulevard Exelmans is probably where where they drive off the main road and up to the front gate which would now approach the embassy from behind, although it looks as though the building on the left here has been widened and the road narrowed (you can possibly see where the newer building and pavement begin and end although that might actually be to do with google): http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=1+Hameau+Exelmans+75016+Paris,+France&; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp;layer=c&sll=48.842584,2.261667&cbp=13,53.1,,0,0&cbll=4 8.842526,2.261547&hl=en&sspn=0.006295,0.006295&ie=UTF8& ; ; ; ; ;hq=&hnear=1+Hameau+Exelmans,+75016+Paris,+Ile-de-France,+France&a mp;a mp;a mp;a mp;a mp;ll=48.842534,2.261542&spn=0.00298,0.006759&t=h&z=17& ; ; ; ; ;iwloc=A&panoid=sXxEMe1d_J3kS98_AiRJag. The older buidlings on the opposite side of Boulevard Exelmans also match up closely with the ones you can see behind them as they drive up in the film apart from a new modern block that now exists where there was a gap back in 1973 as well as the large building you can see from their POV at the end of Exelmans. Can't be a 100% about all of this but it looks like the garden and the villa were destroyed only a small number of years after they filmed it in '73. The tree might still be there though as there seems to be a small garden and some trees to the side.
Erm, that was fun sleuthing. Shame about the results.