Il est minuit, Paris s’eveille

From Saint-Germain-des-Prés to the Place de la Contrescarpe, after the war, a new spirit stirred on the Rive Gauche (Left Bank) and Paris came to know prodigious nights. It’s midnight, Paris awakens… Every year new venues opened, in cafés, basements, restaurant back rooms; the owners of haberdasheries and groceries transformed their shops into miniature theaters. Between 1945 and 1968, more than 200 cabarets opened in Paris: La Rose rouge, L’Ecluse, L’Echelle de Jacob, Le Cheval d’or… And it’s on these small, midnight stages that Barbara, Brel, Ferré, Mouloudji, les Frères Jacques, Catherine Sauvage, Aznavour, Gainsbourg, Anne Sylvestre, Ferrat, Brassens, Cora Vaucaire, Juliette Greco, Devos, Boby Lapointe, and Pierre Perret all started. The talents that were born in those years on the scenes on the banks of the Seine will stay in our imagination for years to come. This film invites you to rediscover the "Rive Gauche" spirit of Paris through these songs and artists who helped create our common memory.