Rachida Dati visited TSF, the first permanent outdoor studios in France

An artificial space that offers « all the advantages of Paris without the disadvantages of Paris », declares Olivier Henrard, interim president of the National Cinema Center (CNC). In Seine-et-Marne, in the middle of wheat fields, harmonious Haussmannian facades: the first permanent exterior decorations in France have emerged from the ground and offer a real « sandbox » to film and series directors 50 km from Paris, the capital overloaded with filming requests.

Also read“There is an emergency”: why France is slow to acquire new film studios

Carriage gates at the entrance to a metro station, these settings – a “backlot” in the jargon – of the streets of Paris constitute « the project of a lifetime » for Thierry de Segonzac, president of TSF studios. « Explosions, demonstrations, shootings, fire : everything that, today, the public roads no longer allow to be filmed, the filmmakers can do it here »smiles the owner of the new fake Parisian district. For him, « the absence of backlot in France was really an anomaly ».

In the 1960s, the New Wave movement led French cinema towards more natural settings, abandoning studios. Over the years, France has invested little and its delay over its European neighbors has been evident with the entry into the dance of streaming platforms, at the origin of « heavy series in production, sometimes even more important than feature films »underlines Thierry De Segonzac. Of the 300 million euros directed to the film industry, as part of the France 2030 public investment plan, fourteen were allocated to new sets in Seine-et-Marne. « One of our missions is to sell the destination France to host filming »specifies Olivier Henrard, interim president of the CNC.

 

“ “It’s clean, it’s secure, it’s my dream Paris. »

Rachida Dati, Minister of Culture

« It’s clean, it’s secure, it’s my dream Paris ! », quips Rachida Dati according to our colleagues from the local newspaper The Briard Country . Visiting the site on Wednesday, the Minister of Culture affirmed how much « these are important investments for the cinema ecosystem »ensuring its « political will to develop French cinema, to preserve its financing tool ». The latter also affirmed its desire to facilitate access to the cultural profession. « It remains a club. Apprenticeship and alternation are almost non-existent. How do you want to promote access to cultural professions if apprenticeships and work-study programs do not exist? ? », lamented the minister.

Rachida Dati strolls along the gravel of a small, typically Parisian interior courtyard where Johann George, TSF’s chief production designer, praises the modularity of the installations. The glass roof on the ground floor of this courtyard « could be a printing workshop from the beginning of the century as well as a coworking office in 2024 »enthusiastically testifies the guide to this Paris in Potemkin village version. Lost in the wilderness, these studios have already been admired by 1.5 billion people: viewers of the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics. While walking on « the grand boulevard »Thierry De Segonzac raises his arm in the direction of the « Zidane door » because it is not in Paris but in this setting that the idol of French football, Olympic flame in hand, made his way through a Jacques Tati-style traffic jam.

Stéphane Demoustier filming at the studios

A filming better kept than a state secret for a result of 36 seconds. « A very very beautiful business card »laughs the studio boss, accustomed to promoting his 30 hectares of available land. In addition to these Parisian streets, the construction of twelve classic studios, from 600 to 4,000 square meters, will begin in 2025. Last week, the film crew The Unknown of the Great Archdirected by Stéphane Demoustier, on the story of the architect chosen to build the La Défense arch, came to shoot sequences also reports The Briard Country. To avoid the repeated destruction of sets, TSF also provides storage spaces, all with little artificialization of the soil because the whole is built on the pre-existing concrete roads of a former NATO air base.

Walking these real fake streets of Paris for the first time, filmmaker Cédric Klapisch has an eye for details. « I missed the existence of this place by almost three months. I would have liked to have something like that because filming in Paris became complicated », confides the director of Young danger and of The Spanish Inn. He who has just filmed, on a green screen, actors on board an omnibus, has « needed to have buildings scrolling and here it would have been quite easy to do »he adds. « It’s a sandbox, it’s a place where we can play »concludes Klapisch with a smile.