Page 48 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Paris

46  INTRODUCING P ARIS

Remarkable Parisians Political Leaders

By virtue of its strategic position on the Seine, Paris has long Hugh Capet, first King of the
been the economic, political and artistic hub of France. Over Franks, made Paris his capital
the centuries, many prominent and influential figures from in 987. Philippe Auguste (1165–
other parts of the country and abroad have come to the city 1223) built the Louvre fortress
and encircled the city with an
to absorb her unique spirit. In return, they have left their impressive wall. Henri IV (1553–
mark: artists have brought new movements; politicians new 1610) was the first king to set
schools of thought; musicians, film-makers and fashion about making Paris a worthy
designers new trends; and architects a new environment. capital, building the Pont Neuf
and Place des Vosges. Cardinal
Richelieu (1585–1642), the power
behind Louis XIII, created the
Artists Académie Française and the
In the early 18th century, Palais-Royal (see p130). Louis XIV
Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684– (1638–1715) continued the
1721) took the inspiration for process. Napoleon modernized
his paintings from the Paris Paris, building bridges and
theatre. Half a century later, canals, though it was his nephew
Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732– Napoleon III who gave Paris its
1806), popular painter of the distinctive grands boulevards.
Rococo, lived and died here, Général Charles de Gaulle (1890–
financially ruined by the 1970), founder of the Fifth
Revolution. Later, Paris became Republic, gave France back the
the cradle of Impressionism. Its prestige it had lost in the war. The
founders Claude Monet (1840– current direction of Paris is largely
1926), Pierre-Auguste Renoir in the hands of its first female
(1841–1919) and Alfred Sisley Sacré-Coeur by Utrillo (1934) mayor, Anne Hidalgo (b.1959).
(1839–99) met in a Paris studio.
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec The Paris School eventually
(1864–1901) drank and painted moved to Montparnasse, Films and Film-Makers
in Montmartre, where Maurice home to sculptors Auguste Paris has always been at the
Utrillo (1883–1955) was born Rodin (1840–1917), Constantin heart of French cinema. The
and lived all his life. Utrillo Brancusi (1876–1957) and prewar and immediate post-
painted many local scenes and Ossip Zadkine (1890–1967). war classics were usually made
was one of the 20th century’s Contemporary artists who on the sets of the Boulogne
greatest painters of cityscapes. have developed international and Joinville studios, where
In 1907, Pablo Picasso (1881– reputations include Christian whole areas of the city were
1973) painted the seminal Boltanski (b.1944), known reconstructed. Jean-Luc Godard
work Les Demoiselles d’Avignon for his large mise en scène and other New Wave directors
at the Bateau-Lavoir (see p230), installations, video artist preferred to shoot outdoors.
where Georges Braque (1882– Pierre Huyghe (b.1962) Godard’s A Bout de Souffle (1960),
1963), Amedeo Modigliani and Sophie Calle (b.1953), with Jean-Paul Belmondo and
(1884–1920) and Marc Chagall renowned for her photographic Jean Seberg, was filmed in and
(1887–1985) also lived. and film installations. around the Champs-Elysées.
Catherine Deneuve (b.1943)
made her name in Luis
Buñuel’s Belle du Jour (1967).
In the 1980s came the
cinéma du look, epitomized
by visually stylish films such as
Les Amants du Pont Neuf (1991),
starring Juliette Binoche. A
number of recent film directors
have dwelt on darker, grittier
themes. Mathieu Kassovitz’s
La Haine (1995), for example,
deals with racism and violence
in the banlieues, while Céline
Sciamma’s Bande de Filles (2014)
focuses on black teenagers
coming of age in a deprived
Portrait of Cardinal Richelieu by Philippe de Champaigne (about 1635) Paris suburb.

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