Nicolas Barreau: Favorite films that never go out of style

Nicolas Barreau's One Evening in Paris features a movie theater that shows only classic movies, so Nicolas is here with us to share some of his favorite classics.

Nicolas: There is an old French saying: All beauty fades but charm never goes out of style. I think this is how I feel about my favorite classic films — they never go out of style — meaning you can watch them forever without being bored. They will never lose their charm and that magic glow, they seem to be timeless, they will always have that "everlasting moment" we are all longing for.

When I wrote my novel One Evening in Paris, whose main protagonists are an old art movie theater and its hopelessly nostalgic owner who falls in love with a shy girl in a red coat, I thought of the many films I had seen all my life. I tried to figure out which ones I should choose for my old-fashioned Cinema Paradis in Paris. And suddenly I remembered a lot of films that really, really touched my heart for different reasons. I put a collection of my favorite romantic films at the end of my book, but of course there are many more films that I adore.

From an early age I have been fond of films — but the one that inspired me most is definitively Cinema Paradiso by Giuseppe Tornatore. It's an old film, but every time I see it I'm touched by the eternal truth about love and life. And by the bittersweet ending that makes you want to cry and to smile at the same time. That leaves you with the feeling that even if not every dream can come true, you can still go on dreaming as long as you are here on this planet. And besides — this film has the most lovable end I ever saw in a movie — showing kisses over kisses — all those "forbidden" scenes cut out and put together by the old cinema owner who leaves all these happy endings as a gift and treasure to his friend Toto (then a boy, now a famous art director himself).

I have also always been fascinated by French films. Les choses de la vie (The Things of Life) with the wonderful actress Romy Schneider is impressing and touching and very sad at the same time and it tells you a lot about the meaning of life in only a few sentences and pictures. Woody Allen does that in a more charming and humorous way and I think I never learned so much about family life and the twists and turns fate can take than in my favorite film, Hannah and Her Sisters. I saw Midnight in Paris and got out of the cinema totally bewitched, and that was maybe when I thought that it would be wonderful to write a novel set in Paris that has exactly this tempting and nostalgic view of Paris that people who living there sometimes forget.

Les Enfants du Paradis (Children of Paradise) is a very old but nevertheless great film about lost love and opportunities, and The English Patient or The Unbearable Lightness of Being are two larger-than-life films that to me are congenious with the novels they are based on.

The latest art film that I saw and really liked for its great humor, the witty dialogue and the nostalgic patina it has was The Grand Budapest Hotel. And the best comedy-thriller ever is Charade with Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant.

But there are two very old romantic comedies that will always give me that special look on the bright side of life and make me laugh out loud. Two classics I simply have to see once a year because they are so extremely funny and wise: What's Up, Doc? by Peter Bogdanovich, with the hilarious Barbra Streisand and of course Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot with Marilyn Monroe as the sweetest girl in town and the funniest "female duo" I've ever seen — Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis.

Those two I highly recommended for blue days — we all have them once in a while, haven't we?

Here's the blurb about One Evening in Paris:

Alain Bonnard, the owner of a small art cinema in Paris, is a dyed-in-the-wool nostalgic. In his Cinéma Paradis there are no buckets of popcorn, no XXL coca-colas, no Hollywood blockbusters. Not a good business plan if you want to survive, but Alain holds firm to his principles of quality. He wants to show films that create dreams, and he likes most of the people that come to his cinema. Particularly the enchanting, shy woman in the red coat who turns up every Wednesday in row 17. What could her story be? One evening, Alain plucks up courage and invites the unknown beauty to dinner. The most tender of love stories is just getting under way when something incredible happens: The Cinéma Paradis is going to be the location of Allan Woods' new film Tender Memories of Paris. Solène Avril, the famous American director's favourite actress, has known the cinema since childhood and has got it into her head that she wants the film to be shot there. Alain is totally overwhelmed when he meets her in person. Suddenly, the little cinema and its owner are the focus of public attention, and the red-plush seats are sold out every evening.

But the mystery woman Alain has just fallen in love with seems suddenly to have vanished. Is this just coincidence? In One Evening in Paris by Nicolas Barreau, Alain sets off in search of her and becomes part of a story more delightful than anything the cinema has to offer.

Find out more about Nicolas on the Macmillan website.