A new exhibition opened this week at Paris City Hall celebrating Paris as seen by Hollywood.

The  free exhibition which will run until December 15 showcases fabulous movie storyboards, original drawings and wonderful original costumes worn by stars who have appeared in films set in Paris. The dresses designed for Audrey Hepburn by Givenchy, the statues created by Dante Ferre for “Hugo Cabret” by Martin Scorsese, vintage film posters and iconic photographs can all be seen.

The French capital has, over the years, appeared in around 800 American films. Ernest Lubitsch, a German American actor, screenwriter, producer and film director famously said “there’s the Paris of Paramount and MGM in Paris. And then of course the real Paris”¦ I’ve been to Paris France and I’ve been to Paris Paramount. Paris Paramount is better.”

Clearly the Paris of Hollywood as seen by such greats as Woody Allen is often times a city of fantasy more than reality but there is no smoke without a fire and it is really the cliché that is Paris that is sometimes revealed in film.

See “Paris seen by Hollywood” September 18 to December 15, 2012. Open every day except Sundays and holidays from 10h to 19h

Place de l’Hà´tel de Ville
75004 Paris
Metro: Hà´tel de Ville (line 1)
Free entrance

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLlVNqZA5H0?rel=0]

This article was originally published on The Good Life France,  an Untapped Cities partner site.