# Paris 36
**Paris 36** (French: *Faubourg 36*) is a 2008 French musical drama film directed by Christophe Barratier, set in a working-class neighborhood of northern Paris in 1936, during the rise of the Popular Front government. Three unemployed show-business workers, Pigoil, Milou, and Jacky, take over the music hall that once employed them, the Chansonia, and mount a show to save it.[1](https://www.pierre-richard.fr/filmographie/faubourg-36/) • [2](https://www.offi.fr/cinema/evenement/faubourg-36-31018.html) It was Barratier's second feature film, following the international success of *Les Choristes*.[3](https://www.lemonde.fr/cinema/article/2007/10/22/prague-moteur-action_969733_3476.html)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original title | *Faubourg 36*[4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0948535/) |
| Director and writers | Christophe Barratier; screenplay and dialogue by Barratier, Julien Rappeneau, and Pierre Philippe[1](https://www.pierre-richard.fr/filmographie/faubourg-36/) |
| Music | Reinhardt Wagner[1](https://www.pierre-richard.fr/filmographie/faubourg-36/) |
| Main cast | Gérard Jugnot (Pigoil), Clovis Cornillac (Milou), Kad Merad (Jacky), Nora Arnezeder (Douce), Pierre Richard (Monsieur TSF), Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu (Galapiat)[1](https://www.pierre-richard.fr/filmographie/faubourg-36/) |
| Release and length | France, 24 September 2008; 2h00[1](https://www.pierre-richard.fr/filmographie/faubourg-36/) |
| French box office | 1,331,860 admissions[1](https://www.pierre-richard.fr/filmographie/faubourg-36/) |
| Production | Galatée Films, Pathé Production, Constantin Film, France 2 Cinéma, France 3 Cinéma, Logline Studios, Novo Arturo Films, Blue Screen Productions; distributed by Pathé Distribution[1](https://www.pierre-richard.fr/filmographie/faubourg-36/) • [2](https://www.offi.fr/cinema/evenement/faubourg-36-31018.html) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
The story opens at the end of 1935 in a working-class district of northern Paris. Dorfeuil, the owner of the Chansonia music hall, has killed himself, pressed by his debts to Galapiat, a gangster.[5](https://www.canalplus.com/cinema/faubourg-36/h/911544_40099/resume-casting/) Pigoil, the hall's stage manager, has just been left by his wife and loses his job; Jacky is a failed comedian; Milou is a technician and committed union militant. The three decide to take over the establishment themselves.[5](https://www.canalplus.com/cinema/faubourg-36/h/911544_40099/resume-casting/)
In the spring of 1936 the Popular Front comes to power, and the wave of hope it generates carries the three men into forcibly occupying the music hall that employed them months before, to stage a hit show there.[1](https://www.pierre-richard.fr/filmographie/faubourg-36/) • [2](https://www.offi.fr/cinema/evenement/faubourg-36-31018.html) The first performances fail, raising the fear that the venue will fall into the hands of Galapiat, an unscrupulous businessman. After a period of discouragement, Pigoil and his friends stage a new show with a young singer, Douce, who wins a lively success.[2](https://www.offi.fr/cinema/evenement/faubourg-36-31018.html) The enterprise proves, in the film's own synopsis, "the most ephemeral of beautiful ventures."[1](https://www.pierre-richard.fr/filmographie/faubourg-36/)
## Historical setting
The film is set against the Popular Front, the left-wing coalition of socialists, communists, and radicals that took power in France in 1936.[6](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/divers/Front_populaire/120463) The press dossier describes the spring 1936 election as sweeping aside the old political guard, while provoking a violent reaction among right-wing nationalists openly fascinated by [Benito Mussolini](https://www.edgepedia.org/benito-mussolini) in Italy and [Adolf Hitler](https://www.edgepedia.org/adolf-hitler) in Germany. That reaction is represented in the film by the S.O.C., a fascist-leaning quasi-military militia.[7](https://medias.unifrance.org/medias/62/144/36926/presse/faubourg-36-dossier-de-presse-anglais.pdf)
The neighborhood itself is an invention. Barratier drew on [Montmartre](https://www.edgepedia.org/montmartre) and Ménilmontant, two former villages annexed by Paris, to build an imaginary town where a provincial life can still be lived in its entirety. The setting nonetheless reflects a historical reality: Paris at the time had dozens of small concert venues and vaudeville music halls that drew patrons from the industrial quarters.[7](https://medias.unifrance.org/medias/62/144/36926/presse/faubourg-36-dossier-de-presse-anglais.pdf)
## Production
**Origins.** Barratier traced the project to a musical-comedy proposal brought to Galatée Films more than ten years earlier by Reinhardt Wagner, Frank Thomas, and Jean-Michel Derenne, who were looking for a screenwriter and a director. With the producer Jacques Perrin, several treatments were written at the time but the project went no further; the rights were simply renewed regularly. After the worldwide promotion of *Les Choristes* took more than a year, Barratier devoted himself to *Faubourg 36* from the summer of 2005, working alone on the script and undertaking extensive historical and artistic documentation in novels, period films, photographs, and painting.[8](https://medias.unifrance.org/medias/75/135/34635/presse/faubourg-36-dossier-de-presse-francais.pdf)
**Sets.** A corner of Paris was rebuilt in the open countryside near Prague, from cobblestoned streets and weathered facades to gutters and pigeons perched on lampposts.[9](https://www.lorientlejour.com/article/571349/CINEMA_-_%253C%253C%2BFaubourg_36%2B%253E%253E%252C_un_nouveau_film_musical_de_Christophe_BarratierUn_petit_coin_de_Paris..._au_milieu_de_la_campagne_tcheque.html) Barratier had finished shooting there by October 2007.[3](https://www.lemonde.fr/cinema/article/2007/10/22/prague-moteur-action_969733_3476.html)
## Reception
*Le Monde*'s review described the film as a retro musical, a homage to the poets of old Paris (Carné, Prévert, René Clair, Brassaï, Ronis) with a nod to the American Busby Berkeley and his revue dancers, carrying a love story, a temptation of betrayal, and a melodrama between a father and his son over an accordion backdrop; the critic highlighted [Nora Arnezeder](https://www.edgepedia.org/nora-arnezeder) as the revelation of the film.[10](https://www.lemonde.fr/cinema/article/2008/09/23/faubourg-36-un-eloge-de-la-solidarite-en-chantant-et-en-dansant_1098576_3476.html) [The Canadian](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-canadian) site Cinoche.com judged the direction effective and the art direction impressive, while finding the film too long and its songs less memorable than those of *Les Choristes*.[11](https://www.cinoche.com/films/faubourg-36/critiques/vous-chantiez-dancez-maintenant) Chronicart's review was sharply negative, rating it one out of five and criticizing what it saw as a sanitized, nostalgic picture of the Popular Front era.[12](https://www.chronicart.com/cinema/faubourg-36/) The film appeared in the official catalog of the 34th César ceremony (February 2009).[13](https://www.academie-cinema.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/catalogue-officiel-cesar-2009.pdf)
## References
1. [Faubourg 36, Pierre Richard official site (filmography)](https://www.pierre-richard.fr/filmographie/faubourg-36/)
2. [Faubourg 36, L'Officiel des spectacles](https://www.offi.fr/cinema/evenement/faubourg-36-31018.html)
3. [Prague : "Moteur... action !", Le Monde (22 October 2007)](https://www.lemonde.fr/cinema/article/2007/10/22/prague-moteur-action_969733_3476.html)
4. [Paris 36 (2008), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0948535/)
5. [Résumé et casting Faubourg 36, CANAL+](https://www.canalplus.com/cinema/faubourg-36/h/911544_40099/resume-casting/)
6. [Front populaire, Larousse encyclopedia](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/divers/Front_populaire/120463)
7. [Faubourg 36 press dossier (English), Uni France](https://medias.unifrance.org/medias/62/144/36926/presse/faubourg-36-dossier-de-presse-anglais.pdf)
8. [Faubourg 36 press dossier (French), Uni France](https://medias.unifrance.org/medias/75/135/34635/presse/faubourg-36-dossier-de-presse-francais.pdf)
9. [« Faubourg 36 », un nouveau film musical de Christophe Barratier, L'Orient-Le Jour](https://www.lorientlejour.com/article/571349/CINEMA_-_%253C%253C%2BFaubourg_36%2B%253E%253E%252C_un_nouveau_film_musical_de_Christophe_BarratierUn_petit_coin_de_Paris..._au_milieu_de_la_campagne_tcheque.html)
10. ["Faubourg 36" : un éloge de la solidarité en chantant et en dansant, Le Monde (23 September 2008)](https://www.lemonde.fr/cinema/article/2008/09/23/faubourg-36-un-eloge-de-la-solidarite-en-chantant-et-en-dansant_1098576_3476.html)
11. [Critique du film Faubourg 36, Cinoche.com](https://www.cinoche.com/films/faubourg-36/critiques/vous-chantiez-dancez-maintenant)
12. [Faubourg 36, Chronicart](https://www.chronicart.com/cinema/faubourg-36/)
13. [Catalogue officiel, 34e cérémonie des César (2009), Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma](https://www.academie-cinema.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/catalogue-officiel-cesar-2009.pdf)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Musical and music films (individual works) › Musical films of the 1990s and 2000s*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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