PARIS MUSEUMS MOVE TO FINANCE FILMS

In separate ventures in the next two years, the Louvre and the Musée d’Orsay will underwrite films by seven filmmakers to be shot, at least in part, inside their walls, reports the New York Times‘ Lawrence van Gelder. Among the directors are Jim Jarmusch and Tsai Ming-liang, who won a Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 1996 for The River. “Traditional financing in France is drying up for these talented auteurs,” said Catherine Derosier-Pouchous, who heads the Louvre’s audiovisual program. “We want to support their work.” As part of its twentieth anniversary, the Musée d’Orsay will work with four filmmakers: Jarmusch, Raoul Ruiz, Olivier Assayas, and Hou Hsiao-hsien. All four films, budgeted at about three million dollars each, will star Juliette Binoche.