Père-Lachaise serves as the backdrop for the film The Secret Life of a Cemetery.

The cimetière du Père-Lachaise, in the 20e arrondissement of Paris, serves as the principal backdrop for the feature film La Vie secrète d'un cimetière, currently in pre-production for a shoot scheduled from June 8 to July 24, 2026, in Paris and the Île-de-France region. Directed by Anne Le Ny, the film adapts the eponymous novel by Benoît Gallot, former caretaker of the famous Parisian cemetery, published in 2022 by Les Arènes.

The project unfolds as a romantic comedy centered on Père-Lachaise, one of the capital’s most visited heritage sites. With its tree-lined lanes, 19th-century funerary monuments, and numerous graves of French and international public figures, the cemetery offers a distinctive backdrop that’s regularly used in films and TV series shot in Paris.

The film marks the first on-screen pairing of Artus and Juliette Armanet. According to early project details, Artus will play an assistant cemetery curator, while Juliette Armanet is set to portray an ornithologist. Filming is expected to take place at several locations around the Paris region, in addition to scenes planned at Père-Lachaise.

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Anne Le Ny, a director and screenwriter, continues a career defined by films such as Ceux qui restent, Cornouaille, or Dis-moi juste que tu m'aimes. The feature film is produced by Move Movie, and its theatrical release is slated for 2027.

Benoît Gallot’s original novel draws directly on the day-to-day life of the cemetery’s caretaker and the distinctive world surrounding Paris’s iconic burial ground. Nestled on the eastern heights of the city, the Père-Lachaise cemetery attracts every year visitors, history enthusiasts, aficionados of funerary architecture, and curious souls hoping to glimpse the tombs of figures such as Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde, Édith Piaf, and Marcel Proust.

With this summer shoot, Père-Lachaise once again enters the ranks of Paris's premier film backdrops, a blend of historic heritage, urban strolls, and a romantic imagination at the heart of the capital.

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