Paris qui dort

Imagine Paris a hundred years ago. No one, of course, would expect to see the whole city – except for the very top of the Eiffel Tower and the night watchman who sleeps there – frozen on the spot! Yet that is exactly what happened a century ago... not in reality, of course, but in Paris qui dort, the astonishing first film as director by one of the true greats of French cinema, René Clair.

In this science-fiction comedy, featuring surrealism and social criticism, Clair took the liberty of transforming the capital into an oneiric scene. Here this classic silent film is accompanied by music from the French Romantic repertoire, thus creating a new experience, nevertheless firmly rooted in history.