For all fan of the 7th art, you’ll probably be surprised you can discover the richest cinema museum in France, managed by passionate people. This museum, located in the Vieux Lyon, will make you discover the behind the scenes of famous movies like Terminator, Alien, Men in Black and many more through real props and accessories used in their dedicated movie!
From outside, this museum looks like an old French apartment in a cute little street, but once inside you will dive into another dimension. The museum is divided in two permanent exhibitions and sometimes, non permanent ones.
Cinema accessories and special effects exhibition
Through several floors, you will have the possibility to watch your favorite movies from another point of view. This entire part of the museum is a gathering of official props, accessories, dress from famous movies that you’ve probably watched! If you have already dreamt to see a real Mogwai, check the hand of C3PO or say “Sarah Connor” in front of the T-800 from Terminator, it is possible. The museum is also famous for its 3 meters high Alien Queen from Alien but this is of course only a few examples of what you can see.
This exhibition is really interesting and this is an amazing occasion to discover the cinema’s universe by enjoying the different props, reading some history and fun facts about movies.
Miniature exhibition
If you’ve decided to do the first main exhibition about cinema, going to this museum is a good occasion to visit the second one about the world of miniature. The last floor of the building consists of lots of different tiny scenes designed by great artists. By mixing the art of model making and scenography, artists have made ultra realistic scene and rooms that can almost fit in a shoe box !
I recommend you visit this exhibition as well because all the scenes are really incredible and look so real by the lights ambient and all the details. This art is also related with the cinema art and special effects before the development of 3D digital effects, when some movies scenes were designed in real life by artists to create models or landscape paintings as a background with the Matte Painting technique.
What else?
If you want to visit this museum, the price for the entire museum is only €7.50 for students and €9.50 for adults. The museum is located at 60 Rue Saint-Jean, 69005 Lyon, which is inside the Vieux Lyon, and this is also a good opportunity to visit and explore around this beautiful quarter!