{"id":495154,"date":"2026-06-16T07:26:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T07:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/495154\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T07:26:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T07:26:09","slug":"doc-series-building-paris-from-ftd-launches-at-sunny-side-of-the-doc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/495154\/","title":{"rendered":"Doc Series ‘Building Paris’ from FTD Launches at Sunny Side of the Doc"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tFrance TV Distribution<\/a> has added the documentary \u201cBuilding Paris\u201d (\u201cConstruire Paris\u201d) to its lineup and will premiere it at Sunny Side of the Doc<\/a>, running June 22-24 and designed to bring the international documentary community together in France.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe doc focuses on 19th century Paris and the radical changes it went through after Emperor Napoleon III and Baron Haussmann set out to modernize the city. The filmmakers had exclusive access to famous monuments like Haussman\u2019s Opera House and hidden locations beneath the city, combined with impressive VFX.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201c\u2018Building Paris\u2019 tells the transformation of Paris on three levels: the visible city, with its elegant buildings and grand boulevards; Paris from above, with its endless sea of zinc rooftops and exceptional viewpoints, including the roof of the Op\u00e9ra Garnier, which is normally closed to the public; and finally the hidden city beneath the streets,\u201d said director Guy Padovani (\u201cChauvet Humanity\u2019s First Great Masterpiece,\u201d\u00a0\u201cDenisova Unveiled\u201d).<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe film also reveals how Paris went on to influence cities and capitals across Europe, South America and, more recently, China. One striking example is a district in Hangzhou that recreated an entire Haussmannian neighborhood, complete with its own Eiffel Tower,\u201d Padovani continued.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe two-part 45-minute episode documentary series has been \u201ccommissioned by France T\u00e9l\u00e9visions for its flagship primetime science strand, \u2018Science Grand Format.\u2019 It\u2019s also part of the Global Doc initiative, an alliance of major international broadcasters. The project follows the success of \u2018The Eiffel Tower: Building the Impossible.\u2019 Distributed by France TV Distribution, the film was sold to more than 35 countries worldwide,\u201d producer Patrice Gell\u00e9 told Variety.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFollowing the worldwide success of the film about Eiffel, we are convinced that this proposal will appeal to our foreign partners, who will discover both the medieval and the rebuilt Paris in a completely unprecedented way, along with the history of this iconic city that has influenced major capitals around the world,\u201d said Julia Schulte, SVP International Sales at\u00a0France TV Distribution.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBuilding Paris\u201d is produced by\u00a0Gell\u00e9\u00a0and\u00a0Catherine Alvaresse\u00a0(KM \u2013 Banijay, France) and will be distributed worldwide by France TV Distribution.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOpera House. Building Paris. \u00a9KM<\/p>\n

\n\t
Variety had a chance to talk to producer Gell\u00e9 and director Padovani about the documentary:<\/p>\n

\n\tCan you talk a little bit about Haussmann\u2019s work and his legacy in transforming Paris into the city it is today? <\/p>\n

\n\tPatrice Gell\u00e9: How can a medieval city be transformed into a modern metropolis\u2014the City of Light? That was the starting point of our documentary. Before Haussmann\u2019s works began in 1853, Paris was a dangerous and unsanitary medieval city, plagued by open-air sewers, poor living conditions, and cholera outbreaks. The city lagged far behind modern capitals such as London. Our film reveals that the iconic Paris we know today was largely inspired by London. During his exile there, the future Emperor Napoleon III discovered a highly organized urban plan, a revolutionary sewer system, and vast public parks like Hyde Park. These innovations shaped his bold vision to rebuild Paris as a modern and sustainable capital.<\/p>\n

\n\tGuy Padovani: Emperor Napoleon III and Baron Haussmann achieved what many thought impossible: they radically transformed Paris into one of the most beautiful capitals in the world. The masterpiece of the Second Empire is undoubtedly the Op\u00e9ra Garnier. At the time, it boasted the most spectacular fa\u00e7ade in Paris, adorned with sculptures, marble columns, and gilded ornamentation. We were granted exclusive access to film its magnificent fa\u00e7ade while it\u2019s undergoing restoration. I could also film in one of its most secret and fascinating locations: the underground lake beneath the Opera House, alongside the Paris Fire Brigade, which conducts underwater rescue training exercises there every year. The reservoir was built to stabilize the monument, which stands on marshy ground. \u2028<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat kind of VFX techniques did you work with?<\/p>\n

\n\tPadovani: I wanted to create premium visual effects that would immerse audiences in the extraordinary rebirth of Paris. To achieve this, I imagined a family and a young maid living in a newly built Haussmannian apartment building and witnessing the transformation of the city from their doorstep. We follow them throughout the story through highly realistic facial animation and character performances, combined with a visual style inspired by 19th-century paintings. These CGI sequences are designed to convey the emotion, power and monumental scale of the transformation.<\/p>\n

\n\tGell\u00e9: Our ambition was to bring back the magic of Old Paris and the colossal transformation led by Napoleon III and Haussmann, with premium production values in both cinematography and visual effects. Nearly one-third of the film\u2019s budget is dedicated to VFX, allowing us to create an immersive journey through Paris\u2019s most spectacular monuments. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBuilding Paris \u00a9Paris Muse\u0301es -Muse\u0301e Carnavalet<\/p>\n

\n\tDid you discover any interesting historical bits of information that set Paris apart from other major cities?<\/p>\n

\n\tGell\u00e9: What sets Paris apart from cities such as London, New York or Rome is that its modernization lasted for more than 40 years. Imagine living with construction works day and night for most of your life \u2013 that \u2018s what makes this transformation so extraordinary! Napoleon III and Haussmann faced criticism and opposition throughout the project: the destruction of historic streets and buildings, the expropriation of thousands of residents, and the rise of real-estate speculation.<\/p>\n

\n\tPadovani: 60% of the city was transformed. Around 20,000 buildings were demolished and 30,000 were constructed. More than 64 kilometers of new streets and wide avenues were created, and 80,000 trees were planted. In that sense, the transformation of Paris under Napoleon III and Haussmann remains one of the most fascinating urban projects of the 19th century.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"France TV Distribution has added the documentary \u201cBuilding Paris\u201d (\u201cConstruire Paris\u201d) to its lineup and will premiere it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495155,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[146,228106,85,46,228107],"class_list":["post-495154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-france-tv-distribution","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sunny-side-of-the-doc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}