Take Your Pick: Summer Film Fun in Paris

Parisian cinema doesn’t go on vacation in the summer, it just takes it easy. (The “re-entry” in September is when serious fare comes back to the fore.) If you’re in Paris this summer and tire of the packed museums, exhibits and usual tourist sites, there are entertaining alternatives, even if you don’t speak French.

Lost in Frenchlation: Ready for Film Fun This Summer!

Manon Kerjean has been bringing French cinema to Anglophones ever since she founded Lost in Frenchlation in 2015. The main attraction is presenting French classics, as well as contemporary films, with English subtitles. She currently has agreements with several Paris theaters, as well as the Filmothèque. But Lost in Frenchlation has gone way beyond that, making the screenings a social occasion for young Parisians and internationals to meet.

The association also has a cinema podcast available on Instagram. They also offer movie tours with Ciné-Balade, and Manon’s involved in efforts to make cinema in France more inclusive and accessible. Lost in Frenchlation’s “Summer Camp” won’t include some of the usual features, such as Q&A’s with movie cast-members and drinks. The emphasis is on pure summertime film n’ fun. The films will be screened in three different independent (but air-conditioned) theaters: Tuesday screenings at L’Epée de Bois (100 rue Mouffetard, in the Latin Quarter), Thursdays at L’Arlequin (76, rue de Rennes at Saint-Germain-des-Prés), and Sundays at the Luminor (20 rue du Temple, in the Marais).

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Here’s their “movie menu” for July:

Sunday, July 6 (Luminor-7 pm): L’Amour Ouf (Beating Hearts) 2024. Directed by Gilles Lellouche and starring a host of leading contemporary actors: Adele Exarchopoulos, François Civil, Benoît Poelvoorde, Elodie Bouchez. The story of star-crossed lovers is based on a novel by Neville Thompson. We follow the two young couple in the 1980s when they first meet, then the 1990s after they’d gone to live separate lives, but are still very much in love. The film was a box-office success and garnered a supporting actor César award for Alain Chabat.

Tuesday, July 8 (L’Epée de Bois-8:30 pm). Intouchables (Untouchable) 2011. This buddy comedy about a denizen from the banlieue becoming the carer for a disabled person became an instant classic on its release and made oodles of money. It was directed by Eric Toledana and Olivier Nacache, and stars François Cluzet and Omar Sy (a comic who rocketed to superstardom thanks to the film).

Thursday, July 10 (L’Arlequin-8 pm): En Fanfare (The Marching Band) 2024. Directed by Emmanuel Courcol. A comedy starring Benjamin Lavernhe (he’s also a player with the Comédie Française). Two musical brothers, separated by the adoption of one of them, find each other. Their emotional relationship overlaps with their musical pathways: one is an orchestra conductor, the other a trombonist in a marching band. A classic tugs-at-your-heartstrings-and-your-funny-bone, the film was a big hit in France and also in Germany.

Sunday, July 13 (Luminor-7 pm) Vingt Dieux (Holy Cow) 2024. Directed by Louise Courvoisier. One of my recent favorites. A social drama directed by a brilliant young woman filmmaker, starring Clément Faveau, a neophyte actor with a Brando/Dean presence. Another film about a young person in difficulty who’s determined to make it by hook or by crook, this time in the world of high-level artisanal cheese-making.

Tuesday, July 15 (L’Epée du Bois-8:30 pm) Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot, 1953. This is one of the best-known comedy classics directed by Jacques Tati, French cinema’s greatest comic masters. He also stars in the film. The eponymous Monsieur arrives at a seaside resort and a series of misadventures ensue, involving a gallery of eccentrics. The film won numerous awards after it came out and remains a beloved cinematic treasure.

Thursday, July 17 (Arlequin-8 pm) Partir Un Jour (Leave One Day), 2021. Directed by Amélie Bonnin. Starring Juliette Armanet and Bastien Bouillon. The director made a short with the same title and decided to expand it into a feature film. This well-received feel-good movie is about a young woman chef-restaurateur who returns to her native village after her father suffers a heart attack — and meets her old flame. The film was featured at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival.

Sunday, July 20 (Luminor-7 pm). L’Histoire de Souleymane (Souleymane’s Story), 2024. Directed by Boris Lojkine. This story of an African migrant working as a deliveryman was acclaimed at the Cannes Film Festival. Abou Sangare, in the title role, won the Best Actor award at the festival. As in his first feature, Hope, director Boris Lojkine offers an affecting character study of someone who’s risked it all to start a new life in France.

Tuesday, July 22 (L’Epée de Bois-8:30). Portrait de la Jeune Fille en Feu (Portrait of a Lady on Fire), 2019. Directed by Céline Sciamma. Starring Noémie Merlant and Adèle Haenel. Whether you call it a period piece, a lesbian romance, or a study of the relations between art, sex and power, this film won worldwide acclaim on its release. It was the last film starring Ms. Haenel, now a prominent feminist and MeToo icon, before she retired from acting for political reasons.