ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the film Paris Express or Souvenirs of Paris directed Marcel Duhamel and Pierre Prevert. Screenwriter Duhamel and filmmaker Prevert, who both would play an important part in French Poetic Realism during the 1930s, collaborated in the late 1920s on the production of Paris Express or Souvenirs of Paris. The filmmakers take us to Les Halles and take a promenade on the fortifications on the Northern edge of the city between Montmartre and Clichy, followed by a stroll on the Grands Boulevards. The film explores the canals, Place Maubert, Montparnasse, and some public gardens, concluding with some shots taken from the terrace of a building. Tilted angles and camera movements evoke the hectic rhythms of the modern city, which is first and foremost explored from the viewpoint of the flaneur. Their movements are sometimes halted in front of a shop window or at a cafe terrace.
