"Hollywood goes to the Riviera" by NiceLife

To Catch a Thief (1954)

Reformed cat burglar John Robie (Cary Grant) meets spoiled heiress Frances Stevens (Grace Kelly), against a gorgeous Riviera backdrop. Robie and Stevens picnic and flirt high above Monaco, the actors little knowing then that Kelly would take up residence in the Royal Palace below as Prince Grace. Even less that she would be killed in a car crash as she left the road on the upper corniches, mimicking the film's car chase. Hollywood apes Life, only to find Life out-apes Hollywood.

The film won an Oscar for best cinematography. Ravishing colours courtesy of Eastman and real 35mm filmstock, shot in VistaVision. Hitchcock directs. No guns and explosions, no special effects, no severed limbs Tarantino-style, no murders, no harm to anyone except rich old ladies aggrieved at the loss of their precious jewels (insured of course, so no-one is actually hurt at all).

Made within a decade of the end of World War II, audiences wanted light-hearted fantasy, and Hollywood ensured they got what they wanted. But oh, how they designed cars then.

Grant's not the only one to lose his bearings. The famous Nice Flower Market is not located in the Cours Saleya as known and loved by all by millions of visitors - its staged on the Av Felix Faure/ Albert 1st gardens. You can see the landmark Tour Saint Francois of Vieux Nice in the background.

Grants outfit's are so fifties - a man wearing slacks and a red bandana around his neck? On anyone else it might look camp, but on Cary Grant, no.

The film has no problem being set in a foreign country. In the best Hollywood tradition, everyone speaks either English with an American accent, or English with a French accent (just to let you know they are French) . And the insurance man from Lloyds of London of course speaks English with errr... an English accent.

The scenes in Cannes are a true delight - tacky beach huts below the Carlton, Le Souquet, profile of Cap d'Antibes and the Esterel on the skyline .

Ronin (1998)

Robert de Niro tries to decide on which Villefranche restaurant to have lunch. (Should have posted a question on VT!)

Villefranche is lavishly featured in this excellent film of mercenaries and betrayal, much of it shot on the Riviera. Lots of car chases, guns and explosions in this action-packed blockbuster directed by John Frankenheimer

The star of the film however is Vieux Nice, and the Port.

Port of Nice - perfect setting for furious gun battle and explosions, and the splendid rue Rossetti a long straight ski-run for speeding cars. Cars pile into the market stalls at Place St Francois, toboggan into alfresco dinner tables. Pedestrians dive for cover as speeding cars accelerate up the impossibly narrow streets off Place ste Reparte. Authentic location shooting allows you to pick out every well known landmark and street corner. Virtual Tourism with explosions, brilliant!

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988)

Rival small-time conmen Michael Caine and Steve Martin are ouwitted by a glamourous con-woman, against splendid backdrop of the Riviera. Walk-on parts go to the Villa Ephrussi, Musee des Beaux Arts, Nice, Beaulieu Casino, and Villefranche, where the Hotel Welcome is renamed Le Sainte Pierre

Hollywood cant match the extravagence of the Baroness Rothschild's Villa Ephrussi and its magnificent gardens on Cap Ferrat, so they just pop it in the background. The view here is from the private 1st floor balcony not normally open to the public .

Lashings of Villefranche and interiors of the Casino of Beaulieu delight the eye, but some of the locations are hard to pin down - I suspect a rented villa somewhere in the golden triangle on Cap Ferrat- Beaulieu - Villefranche.

Cine-astes and Riviera-lovers would do well to heed the squeals of delight from Mrs Nicelife on spotting another location. There is much pleasure to be had for hardened Riviera-fans in these three films, over and above the usual box-office shenanigans.

Mr Bean's Holiday (2007)

Fifty years on from "To Catch a Thief", Rowan Atkinson's "Mr Bean's Holiday" picks up the Hollywood Riviera mantle. The hopeless Mr Bean and chirpy Emma du Caunes are not exactly Cary Grant and Grace Kelly, but perhaps in the era of the common man, we are - as they say - where we are. Perhaps the French see Mr Bean in the great French comic tradition of Mr Hulot's Holiday. Flattered by imitation.

His agonising trip across France comes to a head in arriving at the Cannes Film Festival, to have his own travel video camera footage accidentally screened before the grand audience of the Palais des Festivals.

The best moment in the film must be the end - not just for the obvious reason. After enduring the existentialist piffle of a pretentious self-absorbed "American Director - Carson Clay" (William Dafoe), we have Bean's final exit from the roof of the Palais des Festivals, stepping seamlessly down a "staircase" of ever more diminutive vehicles until stepping on to the beach, to the rousing chanson francais "La Mer". Perfect pure comedy.

Atkinson's take on the Film Festival is harmless slapstick. Somewhere should be a more intelligent look at a Festival which in recent years has feted directors like Bush-hating Michael Moore and British champagne socialist Ken Loach. In France the spirit of May 1968 lives on, more comfortable with the old villains than the new dangers of the world we live in today. But enough of politics...Hollywood may try to preach but ultimately it just entertains the paying customer, which is no more nor less than it should.