Trains and film: an enduring love affair
Trains and film have always shared strong emotional ties. From the Lumière brothers to Netflix, we shine a spotlight on this legendary couple.
Inseparable worlds
Ever since Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat—cinema pioneer Louis Lumière’s first film in 1895—the world of rail has been inseparable from the world of cinema.
Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat (1895)
Murder on the Orient Express
When he filmed Agatha Christie’s mystery novel in 1974, director Sidney Lumet brought some of the world’s greatest actors aboard, including Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, Sean Connery and Anthony Perkins. A new version with an equally prestigious cast was released to cinemas in 2017, with Kenneth Branagh directing and playing the lead role as the famous detective Hercule Poirot.
Cult films and iconic scenes
Catherine Deneuve’s heart-breaking farewell scene in The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. Tom Cruise clinging to the roof of a TGV in Mission Impossible. A shattered Humphrey Bogart, abandoned on a crowded Paris platform in Casablanca. All of us can picture a famous scene filmed aboard a train or on a platform. Of the thousands of feature films shot in railway settings, some of our favourites would have to be Jean Renoir’s La Bête humaine, Jacques Tati’s Monsieur Hulot's Holiday, Claude Lelouch’s A Man and a Woman, Patrice Chéreau’s Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train, and Martin Scorsese’s Hugo.
One in three French films
On average, one in three French films includes a scene in a rail setting—which is why SNCF hosts more film shoots than any other company in France.
13 films in 1
Reunions, new beginnings, chase scenes—our stations, platforms and trains have been the backdrop for some of the most moving and thrilling moments in cinema in recent years. Director Yannis Dubois-Paquelier brings them all together with scenes from 13 films1.
A love affair: coming soon
Working with professionals
Our Cinéma & Tournages unit receives around 60 film shoot requests every year. We examine each and every one—to rent a coach, add 4 carriages to a train, set a scene in a mashalling yard or station—to offer directors and set designers the best solution for their project and budget.
Beyond the silver screen
In addition to filmmakers, our Cinéma & Tournages unit works with TV, advertising and fashion shoots. Recent examples include:
- Film: Saint Omer, The Specials, The Green Perfume, and Notre-Dame on Fire
- TV series: Lupin, Killing Eve, Emily in Paris, Baron noir, and Reign Supreme
- Ads and fashion shoots: Chanel, Monabanq, Lacoste, Lidl, Givenchy, and Veuve Cliquot