Screening Date: Thursday, December 18, 2025, 8:00 p.m.

Director: René Clair
Screenplay: René Clair
Cast: Charles Martinelli, Louis Pré Fils, Albert Préjean, Madeleine Rodrigue, Henri Rollan, Myla Seller, Antoine Stacquet, Marcel Vallée

France / 1925 / Silent / 59 min. / Black and White / French Intertitles / Turkish Subtitles

Paris falls asleep one night and does not wake up in the morning. The Eiffel Tower’s night watchman, lighting his morning cigarette and looking down from the tower, notices something strange. Hours pass, but there is no movement in the entire city. Time and people in Paris have frozen.
René Clair handles this absurd idea with subtle elegance; through a few people wandering among the frozen moments, he reminds us of the magic of movement and gaze in cinema. Motionless bodies, bewildered smiles, and empty squares evoke a cheerful curiosity mixed with a slight sadness. This play, where the eye works and the world is put on hold, progresses with the pure visual invention of silent cinema.

Clair’s early masterpiece, Paris Asleep, delicately explores the kinship between humor and the avant-garde; everyday life becomes a testing ground. The images of 1920s Paris, combined with the camera’s playfulness, make the film shine like both a photograph of a bygone moment and a brief manifesto on the possibilities of cinema.

* Stéphane Scharlé will accompany the film with his music.

** Special thanks to Institut français Istanbul for their contributions.

*** The film will be screened within the framework of European Film Month.