Looking for cheap DVD shops in Paris (Left Bank)

November 8, 2009 6:37 PM

While I'm in Paris (for a short stop) I plan to buy DVDs (movies) by french new wave directors like truffaut. I have heard that there are cheap DVD shops in Paris. Do you know of any good ones in the Left Bank ? I will be staying in Montparnasse.
posted by lahersedor to Shopping (8 answers total)

Do you have a region 2 or region-free DVD player?
posted by box at 6:39 PM on November 8, 2009

You know, you can get fantastic English-language special editions of most of Godard's major films from Criterion (with the glaring exception of Weekend), with loads of supplementary material. Their Truffaut selection isn't quite as deep, but they've got Jules & Jim, and Shoot the Piano Player, and a box set of all the Antoine Doinel films. If you keep an eye on Amazon and DeepDiscount you can find sales on Criterion discs fairly regularly.

Not only will you need a region-free player for French discs, you'll need a PAL-capable display too.
posted by Merzbau at 6:51 PM on November 8, 2009

Pretty much any modern TV and DVD combination will play discs from anywhere. The region thing is a simple software hack in most cases. Google the make/model of your dvd player combined with "region hack" and you'll most likely get simple instructions on how to unlock your player with a few key presses of the remote. So says an English expat in NYC with all his Englsih and French DVD's playing nice alongside his US ones having done this.
posted by merocet at 7:05 PM on November 8, 2009 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I have a region-free DVD player. Although sometimes the european discs don't emit any sound.
posted by lahersedor at 7:10 PM on November 8, 2009

There are a couple of generic bargain DVD/CD shops along Boulevard Montparnasse between Place du 18 Juin and Place Pablo Picasso, I can't recall specific names but you'll recognise them as they usually have tables with DVD's on them well out onto the pavement, open fronts and music playing. You'll find these all over Paris, they are budget "2 for 20 Euro" type places where you'll get stuff from the 50s/60s/70's. If you want new releases, high quality box sets etc then you want FNAC. They are all over Paris, nearest to you will probably be 126 Rue de Rennes.
posted by fire&wings at 1:44 AM on November 9, 2009

Librairie Boulinier, on the boulevard Saint Michel, was always one of my favourite (cheap) haunts.
posted by idiomatika at 2:49 AM on November 9, 2009 [1 favorite]

Best answer: There are a large number of DVD shops in Paris that are selling the exact same set of maybe 2,000 movies very cheaply. There's one of these shops on Blvd Montparnasse between the Montparnasse and Vavin metro stops.

Note that there are often multiple releases of the a film (especially with new-wave stuff), so I would shop around and make sure the release you buy is the one that has all the features you want. For example, there are some releases with absolutely no features or subtitles, and some have only english or only french subtitles, etc..

I'd recommend taking a trip to the corner of St. Michel and St. Germain. Gibert Joseph (34, blvd St. Michel) has a huge selection of new and used movies, and you can get some great deals on used films (all the ones I've bought have been in excellent shape). It's my favorite place to buy films in Paris. Around the corner is "ciné corner" (picture here). It's a tiny store, but carries a lot of rare french films that you can't find elsewhere. On the same street is "Boulinier" that idiomatika mentioned, and there is a FNAC one block away. Those four shops (+ one of the generic cheap stores) should cover almost everything you could want, but if you still want to shop more, visit a Virgin Megastore.
posted by helios at 3:38 AM on November 9, 2009

The shops recommended by helios should do the trick. One more place to try is O'CD (26, rue des Ecoles). It's a short walk from the other stores.
posted by derforsher at 10:04 PM on November 10, 2009