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CULTURE

Stars Wars exhibition in Paris pulls in thousands

The film may be 37 years old but the force continues to be with Star Wars as a new Paris exhibition looks set to break records for visitor numbers after a storming opening weekend.

Published: 18 February 2014 10:05 CET
Stars Wars exhibition in Paris pulls in thousands
A costume of character Darth Vader from the Star Wars film series is displayed during the presentation of the exhibition "Star Wars Identities" at the Cite du Cinema. Photo: Patrick Kovarik/AFP

The new exhibition named “Star Wars Identities” that opened at the Cité du Cinema to north of Paris at the weekend, has pulled in thousands of fans in just a matter of days.

The fact the opening coincided with the start of the school holidays in Paris, will have helped boost attendances but the main reason for success is the chance for fans to see scores original objects used in the cult films and to discover which Star Wars character they resemble the most.

Divided into three major themes "Origins, Influences and Choice" through which are explored ten components of human identity, the exhibition displays more than 200 original pieces from the archives of Lucas Arts Museum, including models, props, costumes and sketches who built the Star Wars universe created by George Lucas

There's even Darth Vader’s and Chewbacca's costumes as well as numerous props dozens of other objects being exhibited for the first time.

There’s R2-D2, Han Solo’s Millennium Falcon and Anakin’s full-sized Podracer.

Visitors are also given interactive electronic bracelets, which allows them to become their own Star Wars character. They can find out if they would be a Wookiee or Jedi Knight or more importantly if they too would have crossed over to the dark side of the force.

There were reports of lengthy queues on its opening weekend, so the best time to go appears to be in the morning, during the week – so you might need to take a day off work.

(Take a look inside the exhibition courtesy of this report from Parisian News TV)

Entry is regulated to 250 people, every half an hour.

A word of caution. Warning signs around the exhibition make it clear to visitors that it is forbidden to bring a lightsaber.

The exhibition runs until June 30, 2014. Tickets bought online in advance, cost €22 for an adult and €17 for under-14s, and should in theory mean you’ll have less of a wait when you arrive.

For more information CLICK HERE. 

To find out more about Parisian News TV CLICK HERE.

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CULTURE

New songs mark sixth anniversary of French star Johnny Hallyday’s death

Fans of the late Johnny Hallyday, "the French Elvis Presley", will be able to commemorate the sixth anniversary of his death with two songs never released before.

Published: 17 November 2023 09:05 CET
New songs mark sixth anniversary of French star Johnny Hallyday's death

Hallyday, blessed with a powerful husky voice and seemingly boundless energy, died in December 2017, aged 74, of lung cancer after a long music and acting career.

After an estimated 110 million records sold during his lifetime – making him one of the world’s best-selling singers -Hallyday’s success has continued unabated beyond his death.

Almost half of his current listeners on Spotify are under the age of 35, according to the streaming service, and a posthumous greatest hits collection of “France’s favourite rock’n’roller”, whose real name was Jean-Philippe Leo
Smet, sold more than half a million copies.

The two new songs, Un cri (A cry) and Grave-moi le coeur (Engrave my heart), are featured on two albums published by different labels which also contain already-known hits in remastered or symphonic versions.

Un cri was written in 2017 by guitarist and producer Maxim Nucci – better known as Yodelice – who worked with Hallyday during the singer’s final years.

At the time Hallyday had just learned that his cancer had returned, and he “felt the need to make music outside the framework of an album,” Yodelice told reporters this week.

Hallyday recorded a demo version of the song, accompanied only by an acoustic blues guitar, but never brought it to full production.

Sensing the fans’ unbroken love for Hallyday, Yodelice decided to finish the job.

He separated the voice track from the guitar which he felt was too tame, and arranged a rockier, full-band accompaniment.

“It felt like I was playing with my buddy,” he said.

The second song, Grave-moi le coeur, is to be published in December under the artistic responsibility of another of the singer’s close collaborators, the arranger Yvan Cassar.

Hallyday recorded the song – a French version of Elvis’s Love Me Tender – with a view to performing it at a 1996 show in Las Vegas.

But in the end he did not play it live, opting instead for the original English-language version, and did not include it in any album.

“This may sound crazy, but the song was on a rehearsal tape that had never been digitalised,” Cassar told AFP.

The new songs are unlikely to be the last of new Hallyday tunes to delight fans, a source with knowledge of his work said. “There’s still a huge mass of recordings out there spanning his whole career,” the source said.

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