The Beauty of St Tropez Captured on Film

The cemetery at St Tropez is on the headland just outside the town centre. It’s a beautiful location, permanently captured in celluloid in two movies. And God Created Woman in 1956 (“Et Dieu… Crea La Femme“) and La Piscine (The Swimming Pool) in 1969.La Piscine was a movie with Romy Schneider, Alain Delon and Jane Birkin. This classic tells the story of a couple in St Tropez, Jean-Paul and Marianne, who are visited by another man, Harry and his teenage daughter, Penelope. During the course of their stay it becomes clear that Harry is a former lover of Marianne and they begin to rekindle a relationship. Meanwhile Jean-Paul and the teenage daughter spend a day at the beach and become romantically close. The drama reaches a conclusion when both men find out.The film was released in English and French and became a cult classic. It was remade to critical acclaim in the 2015 film, A Bigger Splash, with Tilda Swinton and Ralph Fiennes. Scenes of both films were shot at the cemetery and what’s more, the Director of And God Created Woman, Roger Vadim now lives there permanently – he was buried there upon his death in 2000.

The Troops of St Tropez (“Les Gendarmes de St Tropez“) was the highest grossing film in France in 1964. It’s a comedy featuring Louis de Funès, who plays a “gendarme” (policeman) called Ludovic Cruchot, who is reassigned to St Tropez from a small village.He has two problems – his runaway teenage daughter and a group of persistent nudists who are threatening to disturb the seaside town. The film features many locations in town, but most pertinently, the old police station. This beautiful building now houses the quirky Musée de la Gendarmerie et du Cinéma, which celebrates the town’s relationship with films and the Police. The film was huge and spawned a number of different movies, including The Policeman & Creatures From Outer Space.