A piece of cinema history in Lyon — -Musée Cinéma et Miniature

In Lyon, as well as boasting lots of art and history museums, the city is a great place for quite unique cultural treats specific to Lyon, and the cinema in the Vieux Lyon, Musée Cinéma et Miniature is the unique one. I have been Lyon twice times, however, this museum still has a deep impression for me.

The native people in Lyon all know of this museum and they love it. For visitors，most them would know this cinema museum and they recommend it to their friends.

At first glance，the building looks not very big and not very attractive. However, its location is ideal and It is located in the heart of “Vieux-Lyon” (the city’s historical centre), the museum is housed in the “Maison des Avocats” (Lawyers’ House), a famed 16th century building that is now a UNESCO world heritage site. It is filled with interesting movie props，such as little model movie scene, such as star war, and it has wonderful miniatures exhibition. Several rooms are devoted to arts and crafts in miniature. To be honest, it is actually a very large place.

Today, we are very lucky because that day is not weekend and the museum is not very crowded. We can visit every part and lots of details of this museum. In the entrance of the museum， there is a monster model, which is from one famous film. Obviously, this is the start of the museum and guides visitors.

There are four floors in the museum and it mainly divides miniature collection and cinema collection. The special point of this museum is that its unique concept. The reason of why it is so unique is that the museum do not has a uniform theme，do not as usual as other art museum，the exhibition is not expensive or famous artsworks instead of interesting and special scene or modeling of movies. Dan Ohlmann, who is a miniaturist artist created.

The Musée Cinéma et Miniature presents two rare and exclusive collections. Firstly, over 100 miniature scenes exquisitely crafted by world-renowned miniaturists and reproducing daily life settings with hyperrealism; Secondly, a film exhibition, one-of-its-kind in Europe, that focuses on special effects techniques. Featuring over 300 original film props and artifacts, this educational display uncovers the magic behind the greatest film studios.

Miniature Collection

The miniature collection display is one of the most important and interesting displays in this museum. The first impression for visitors most is all miniatures are so realistic. They just like a real world or a real thing change to a mini world.

“ The hand making technique and the idea are so amazing， they look like magic.” A 45 old visitor, David said. Styles of miniatures are various, including lots of blockbuster from a film, daily life space, such as the studio， library， bleakest interesting decorations and goods, such as shoes, bags, and perfume bottles.

A guider who works in this museum, he told me the main collection presents over 100 hyperreal miniature scenes on two stories, more than mere technical achievements; these creations are mirages of their own kind. “ They use original materials, in order to make the overall atmosphere， using the subtle lighting arrangement and the painstaking replication of old textures.” The guider said.

Cinema Collection

In addition to the miniature collection， the cinema collection is another attractive and interesting part in this museum. Before we visit the cinema collection, a visitor, James told us, “No matter you are adult or child, whether you know about all films or not, you will feel attractive and enjoy it. ”

Because it is a cinema museum, the collections of film are various. For example, on the ground floor, there is a famous film scene, this is the room set for movie ‘perfume’, and the size of the leading man and scene are as the same as the film. According to a native people who working on this museum, he introduce them to us，“ Although these scene look simple and crude, a 12 people team spend about half and year to design and finish it.” He point to the perfume bottle, script， picture and the label are very delicacy and realistic.

The film sets, costumes, models, masks, prosthetic make-up, fake animals, robots, monsters and aliens of all kinds, they altogether over 300 props and objects that were used on set or during production. We found that some familiar sets or model in the film is very huge, but actually the model is a small one, such the train from ‘Hugo’, Statue of Liberty from a lot of disaster film.