Jafar Panahi (winner of the Palme d'Or at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival) sets out to find a young woman with a golden voice that has been forbidden to sing by Iranian authorities.“Social films are inspired by the director’s “sensations” and “experiences”. These sensations/experiences erode the soul of the filmmaker until they can be released into a movie.
This is the reason why a filmmaker cannot be told to make or not make a movie. Telling them not to film will never breach their resistance; neither will it close all the paths leading to making a movie. The opposite is equally true: if they are commissioned a movie, something resists inside them and prevents them from making it!
Three years ago, when I was shooting Trois visages, I was asked to make a short-film for the Paris Opera. I felt this resistance for two years. Don’t forget that since the Islamic Revolution, the opera as we know it has disappeared in Iran and that the oldest opera house of the country, located in Tabriz and built in the European style, had to close its doors and was destroyed after the Revolution, on a decision of the city’s imam who officially described it as a mediocre place promoting corruption... This historical building was replaced by a mosque.
Since the screening of Trois visages, I’ve received many messages from movie lovers, telling me that this film reminded them strangely of their own lives and stories. After that, I came up with the idea of this short-film and I thought that, maybe, it could match the Paris Opera’s project.” Jafar Panahi, director Winner of the 2025 Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival

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Jafar Panahi (winner of the Palme d'Or at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival) sets out to find a young woman with a golden voice that has been forbidden to sing by Iranian authorities. “Social films are inspired by the director’s “sensations” and “experie

Jafar Panahi, Palme d'Or award at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival

Bringing together Michael Lonsdale, Bastien Vivès and Daniel Larrieu, film director Arnaud des Pallières dedicates a short film to Edgar Degas, a movie about dance and painting that also unveils the darker side of the artist.

Degas et moi 5 - OnP _ LFP ©Cécile Burban

Degas et moi

Bringing together Michael Lonsdale, Bastien Vivès and Daniel Larrieu, film director Arnaud des Pallières dedicates a short film to Edgar Degas, a movie about dance and painting that also unveils the darker side of the artist.       

Arnaud des Pallières

Film director Apichatpong Weerasethakul - Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2010 for his film “Uncle Boonmee, Who Can Recall His Past Lives” - joins the 3e Scène with his new work, “Blue”, filmed during 12 nights in the heart of the Thai forest. A woman lies awake at night. Nearby, a set of theatre backdrops unspools itself, unveiling two alternate landscapes. Upon the woman’s blue sheet, a flicker of light reflects and illuminates her realm of insomnia.

Blue

Film director Apichatpong Weerasethakul - Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2010 for his film “Uncle Boonmee, Who Can Recall His Past Lives” - joins the 3e Scène with his new work, “Blue”, filmed during 12 nights in the heart of the Thai fore

Apichatpong Weerasethakul

The Krump dance was born in Los Angeles ghettos after the 1995 riots. Clément Cogitore creates a battle between urban culture and Rameau’s music on the Bastille Opera stage.

INDESGALANTES_2

Les Indes galantes

The Krump dance was born in Los Angeles ghettos after the 1995 riots. Clément Cogitore creates a battle between urban culture and Rameau’s music on the Bastille Opera stage.   

Clément Cogitore

The light is in chiaroscuro. The stage is naked. The room is empty. Hallways are deserted. Two gypsies. Reals singers. Two parallel stories: the gypsy and the singers’ auditions. The combination of two worlds through opera singing. A visual and acoustic universe. No matter what the lyric say, the imagination commands.

"Magie noire" de Fanny Ardant

Magie noire

The light is in chiaroscuro.The stage is naked.The room is empty.Hallways are deserted.Two gypsies.Reals singers.Two parallel stories: the gypsy and the singers’ auditions. The combination of two worlds through opera singing. A visual and acoustic un

Fanny Ardant

Can one « learn » grace? Can grace be crafted (and how)? I’ve always had these questions in me somehow or rather the desire to look for, to watch, to grasp, maybe, part of this secret if it does exist. Films are made to capture mysteries - to get a little closer to the endless complexity, the never ending beauty of what it is to be human. As an actress, I’ve often witnessed the tiniest most wonderful surprises on the faces of actors / fellow artists I had been working with once a film was over. We had gone through scenes together - many times so close to each other - our skins were touching… and yet the camera had « stolen » something of our characters that we hadn’t known was there. « Close-ups » reveal what we cannot control - a little bit of our souls I’ve only ever known « dance » as a spectator - watched dancers from a distance. They move me, impress me, fascinate me all the more for it.How does one experience - such a tangible/physical transformation - from nature to culture? How does anyone prepare for such an adventure? The central question of my film is a contradiction I’ve always cherished: all forms of art raise it but dance, I feel, exposes it more impressively, more sensationally than any of them. Is to create to master the inexplicable? A repetition of the elusive? As I observed the « dancers to be » training in the ballet school of the Opera de Paris I started dreaming of a film that would leave out of frame the bodies that these girls and boys tame everyday - that would leave out of frame what was meant to be in the spotlight - made magical by tireless countless training hours. I started dreaming of a film that would somehow only concentrate on their faces, that would put « close ups » at the service of this quest, this path towards grace - allowing an intimacy with dance that the two other scenes of the Paris Opera cannot give to their audience - I wanted to watch what happened in their eyes as they embarked on that journey hoping I’d maybe grasp just a little bit of that one mystery…

Poesy - a bouts portés

3e Scène

A bout portés

Can one « learn » grace? Can grace be crafted (and how)? I’ve always had these questions in me somehow or rather the desire to look for, to watch, to grasp, maybe, part of this secret if it does exist. Films are made to capture mysteries - to get a l

Clémence Poésy

Whether he exhibits outside on a public square in Bordeaux and in the gardens of the castle of Versailles, or in museums from Paris to Tokyo, visual artist Xavier Veilhan is a master of staging. It is therefore unsurprising that he has seized the opportunity to freely explore the two monuments of the performing arts that constitute the Paris Opera. In his film “Matching numbers”, Xavier Veilhan unites these two geographically and stylistically distant entities through a cinematographic ellipse which breaks free from spatial logic, and builds new bridges between the Opera and the outside world. To a hypnotic score by Zombie Zombie, the artist creates a dream-like universe in which unusual objects and characters enter the Opera, move about, float, run, wade, pivot, dance on bikes… Instead of focusing on the performances on stage, he captures the spectacle of the architecture, the different lights, machinery and its majestic technical games.

"Matching Numbers" de Xavier Veilhan  - 1

Matching Numbers - Xavier Veilhan

Matching numbers

 Whether he exhibits outside on a public square in Bordeaux and in the gardens of the castle of Versailles, or in museums from Paris to Tokyo, visual artist Xavier Veilhan is a master of staging. It is therefore unsurprising that he has seized the op

Xavier Veilhan

The legendary Disney animator Glen Keane, who invented characters such as Ariel, Tarzan, Pocahontas and the Beast, perfectly remembers his first encounter with the Paris Opera : as he was sitting in a nearby café, he could not stop drawing “the most beautiful building I had ever laid eyes on”. Dancing has always inspired his art which circles around the creation of movement, and he was excited to lift the curtain and enter a world which seemed even more magical than the performances on stage. His film “Nephtali”, which refers to Jacob’s blessings and Psalm 42, was born from the comparison between the grace of a dancer and that of a deer. In a choreography which Glen created with Marion Barbeau, he depicts the journey of a soul that is drawn towards a higher power, fights a struggle and is eventually liberated. By using both film and drawing, Glen Keane and Marion Barbeau manage to overcome the constraints of gravity and attain the freedom towards which a dancer’s body and spirit always aspire.

Nephtali © Glen Keane

Nephtali - Glen Keane

Nephtali

The legendary Disney animator Glen Keane, who invented characters such as Ariel, Tarzan, Pocahontas and the Beast, perfectly remembers his first encounter with the Paris Opera : as he was sitting in a nearby café, he could not stop drawing “the most 

Glen Keane

With a poetic approach, Carine Brancowitz likes to represent the grace of youth in her drawings. While she wandered through the corridors of the Palais Garnier and the Opera Bastille, which she considers to be a very apt playground for her work, she was struck by the contrast between the flamboyance and symbolic greatness of the buildings and “this youthful fauna that occupies them, works ardently, almost religiously, with absolute rigour and devotion” : the young dancers of the Paris Opera Ballet. Inspired by Greek temple friezes, Carine Brancowitz elaborated a nine-metre drawing which captures the intimacy and simple everyday life of young dancers who prepare for their morning class. This work, which is accompanied by a mixture of backstage noises and more personal creations, oscillates between reality and imagination and expresses languor, infinity, and the suspension of time.

Carine Brancowitz - Intermezzo

intermezzo

Intermezzo

With a poetic approach, Carine Brancowitz likes to represent the grace of youth in her drawings. While she wandered through the corridors of the Palais Garnier and the Opera Bastille, which she considers to be a very apt playground for her work, she 

Carine Brancowitz

The film Patterns of Life by Julien Prévieux has been produced by the Galerie Jousse Entreprise, Paris. (Coproduction: Anna Sanders Films, 3éme Scène de l'Opéra national de Paris, Nanterre-Amandiers / Centre dramatique national). This film was made for Julien Previeux's solo show at the Centre Georges Pompidou, from 22 September 2015 to I February 2016.Whichever medium he uses, Julien Prévieux, laureate of the Marcel Duchamp Prize 2014, has been interested in movement for a certain time. In his film “What shall we do next ?”, gestures that have been copyrighted by companies, especially for the use of future electronic devices, are interpreted like choreographic instructions.The Paris Opera’s invitation to participate in the “3e Scène” allowed him to pursue this train of thought with a group of exceptional dancers. His film “Patterns of life” deals with the ways in which movements have been recorded and measured since the photographs which visualised human motion in the late 19th century, with the help of points of light that were attached to the body. In six different settings, five dancers of the Paris Opera Ballet execute choreographies starting from protocols and scientific results, while a voice-over alludes to the economic, military and political context of each experience.

Julien Prévieux - Film

Patterns of life

The film Patterns of Life by Julien Prévieux has been produced by the Galerie Jousse Entreprise, Paris. (Coproduction: Anna Sanders Films, 3éme Scène de l'Opéra national de Paris, Nanterre-Amandiers / Centre dramatique national). This film was made f

Julien  Prévieux

The film director Wendy Morgan has shot numerous videos for well-known musicians and clients in which dance, an art form that she loves, plays an important role. The Paris Opera’s proposal to contribute to the “3e Scène” has given her the exciting opportunity to work again with the American dancer Lil Buck. In “Étoiles, I see you”, Wendy Morgan transposed this star of “street dance”, who is famous for his adaptation of “The Dying Swan”, into one of the most history-laden temples of classical ballet worldwide. Thanks to his commanding presence, this extraordinary performer not only stands his ground there, but the artworks of the past seem to communicate with him. His movements, look and style find unexpected counterparts in the sculptures and paintings of the Palais Garnier. Wendy Morgan’s film captures the beauty of these different art forms which transcends time, but it also conserves a note of lightness and humour that corresponds to her subject’s personality.

Wendy Morgan  - Etoiles, I see you

Etoiles, I see you

The film director Wendy Morgan has shot numerous videos for well-known musicians and clients in which dance, an art form that she loves, plays an important role. The Paris Opera’s proposal to contribute to the “3e Scène” has given her the exciting op

Wendy Morgan

Loren Denis, film director, photographer and fashion model, likes to find herself on both sides of the camera. For her, the Paris Opera has always been a magical, prestigious and appealing place, and dance is the incarnation of some kind of “ultimate poetry”. When she was invited to participate in the “3e Scène”, she jumped at this occasion to go through the looking glass: she wished to explore the hidden corners of the Palais Garnier and Opéra Bastille and bring together these two buildings which, in spite of their different aesthetic, have a common soul. In cooperation with her co-screenwriter Anthony Vibert, she invented a poetic reverse alphabet, tongue-in-cheek and with a hint of humour, an unusual entry point into the universe of the Opera. It allows the spectator to discover dancers, singers, musicians, but also people and places that are invisible to the audience, such as the numerous workshops where sets, costumes and props are manufactured with exceptional craftsmanship.

Loren Denis - O comme Opéra

O comme Opéra

Loren Denis, film director, photographer and fashion model, likes to find herself on both sides of the camera. For her, the Paris Opera has always been a magical, prestigious and appealing place, and dance is the incarnation of some kind of “ultimate

Loren Denis

The artist Karim Zeriahen has often filmed dance and worked with renowned choreographers. His project for the “3e Scène” is his first cooperation with the Paris Opera. His film is based on the idea that the present continuously feeds on the past. Karim Zeriahen focused on two works that were premiered by the Ballets Russes in Paris at the beginning of the 20th century. In “L’Après-midi d’un Faune”, the encounter between Rudolf Nureyev’s mythical and masterly interpretation of Nijinsky’s faun and the utterly fresh approach of François Alu, a young dancer who discovers the role for the first time, creates a new story. This sensual solo is complemented by a playful duo of muses from George Balanchine’s “Apollon Musagète” with the Paris Opera’s Étoiles Dorothée Gilbert and Myriam Ould-Braham. The films illustrate the continuity and constant renewal in the history of ballet : by learning choreographies that have been interpreted by generations of other artists, dancers create something new, personal and topical.

Karim Zeriahen - Héritages: L'après-midi d'un Faune / Apollon

L'après-midi d'un faune

The artist Karim Zeriahen has often filmed dance and worked with renowned choreographers. His project for the “3e Scène” is his first cooperation with the Paris Opera. His film is based on the idea that the present continuously feeds on the past. Kar

Karim Zeriahen

The film director Arnaud Uyttenhove has authored a documentary on the photographer Alec Soth, “Somewhere to disappear” (2011). As he felt deeply attracted to dance without really knowing this universe, he was fascinated by the idea of lingering with his camera in the historic buildings of the Paris Opera which were a source of inspiration for him. His film “Laura” tells the story of a young dancer of the Paris Opera Ballet, Laura Bachman, and of her inner conflict : even though she is part of one of the best dance companies in the world, she questions her future and her vocation to become a classical dancer. By slipping from the documentary towards a more oneiric atmosphere which comes close to the aesthetic of video clips, Arnaud Uyttenhove juxtaposes the reality of a dancer’s daily life far from the glamour of the performance on stage to the phantasm of ballet and the state of transcendence which she can attain by expressing herself through dance.

Arnaud Uyttenhove - Laura

Laura

The film director Arnaud Uyttenhove has authored a documentary on the photographer Alec Soth, “Somewhere to disappear” (2011).As he felt deeply attracted to dance without really knowing this universe, he was fascinated by the idea of lingering with h

Arnaud Uyttenhove

Matthew Clark is a Founding Partner and the Creative Director of the London-based multidisciplinary art studio United Visual Artists, which has designed the scenography of the first world premiere of the Paris Opera’s 2015/16 season, a ballet by Benjamin Millepied. The challenge of working for an institution with a rich heritage that represents the highest level of classical and contemporary opera and dance piqued the artists’ curiosity. In order to gain a deeper understanding of the art of ballet, they chose to observe it through the lens of digital technology. UVA’s film for the “3e Scène” offers a new perspective on a seemingly familiar subject: the human body in motion. It captures the dance of the ballerina Eve Grinsztajn as a three-dimensional point cloud of data, transforming her into a moving sculpture. Her movement is expressed through abstracted forms, and a story emerges. The film, which revolves around the themes of rebirth and renewal, is accompanied by a Baroque-inspired score by Mira Calix.

Metamorphosis

Matthew Clark is a Founding Partner and the Creative Director of the London-based multidisciplinary art studio United Visual Artists, which has designed the scenography of the first world premiere of the Paris Opera’s 2015/16 season, a ballet by Benj

For Manuela Dalle – sociologist and director of numerous documentaries on social and artistic subjects for television channels such as ARTE –, the Paris Opera was first of all a stronghold of French culture, a mythical, almost sacred place. More recently, she has felt the arrival of a new, modern, young spirit in this temple of excellence. As she explored the Opera with her particular look as a documentarist, Manuela Dalle was interested in the people who constitute the life of the building, artists, artisans, administrators… and the audience without whom the Opera would not exist. For her film “Je me souviens” (“I remember”), she encountered a large variety of spectators, in order to collect their memories of the Opera. By combining these accounts with images evoking past performances and the architecture of the Palais Garnier, she has created a fascinating film halfway between documentary and video art, inspired by Georges Perec’s eponymous book.

"Je me souviens" de Manuela Dalle

Manuela Dalle - Je me souviens

Je me souviens

For Manuela Dalle – sociologist and director of numerous documentaries on social and artistic subjects for television channels such as ARTE –, the Paris Opera was first of all a stronghold of French culture, a mythical, almost sacred place. More rece