The Saint-Laurent-du-Var Studios were
film studios
A film studio (also known as movie studio or simply studio) is a major entertainment company or motion picture company that has its own privately owned studio facility or facilities that are used to make films, which is handled by the productio ...
located in
Saint-Laurent-du-Var
Saint-Laurent-du-Var (; Occitan: ''Sant Laurenç de Var'', Italian: ''San Lorenzo del Varo'') is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region on the French Riviera.
History
The town was founded in the ...
on the
French Riviera, in the suburbs of
Nice
Nice ( , ; Niçard dialect, Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department in France. The Nice urban unit, agg ...
. They were one of two studios in the city along with the nearby
Victorine Studio complex.
Constructed in 1920 the studios were often used by company's engaged in
location shooting
Location shooting is the shooting of a film or television production in a real-world setting rather than a sound stage or backlot. The location may be interior or exterior.
The filming location may be the same in which the story is set (for ex ...
in the area, as well as by full-scale productions. In the
silent era they were used by
Rose Pansini and the Irish director
Rex Ingram who relocated from
Hollywood to Nice. In 1926 ''
A Mother's Secret'' was shot there.
Along with Victorine, the studios were part of the CIMEX organisation headed by
André Paulvé and were part of his
co-production arrangement with Italy's
Cinecitta. In November 1942 they fell into the
Italian Zone of France, but when
Italy changed sides the city was occupied by German forces who took over the studios and ended production there. Shooting on ''
Box of Dreams'' had to be abandoned. In 1944 they were completely destroyed by an
Allied bombing raid on Nice, and were never rebuilt.
[Crisp p.117]
References
Bibliography
* Crisp, C.G. ''The Classic French Cinema, 1930-1960''. Indiana University Press, 1993.
* Powrie, Phil & Rebillard, Éric. ''Pierre Batcheff and stardom in 1920s French cinema''. Edinburgh University Press, 2009.
French film studios
{{film-studio-stub