When I went to Lyon, I took a break from praline and cured meat to visit the private museum that is Musée Cinéma et Miniature.
There’s something about a private museum that is so nerdy I love it!
Yes, the local authorities and historical bodies can bid for funding, create the very best visitor experiences with VR headsets, immersive tech and historical re-imaginings, and use the best museum curators in the world…
But if you want true geeky, go private.
Collector and artist Dan Ohlmann has gathered 450 legendary film props (from 30 Hollywood studios and 10 European ones) and 120 miniature scenes within the terracotta walls of a 16th century Lyonnaise house in the old town.
I saw a real actual gremlin, an animatronic gorilla head from Gorillas in the Mist, a silicon Sigourney Weaver’s chest and chest-busting alien.
I saw the actual hoverboard and baseball boots used by Michael J Fox in Back to the Future, Mary Poppins’ actual umbrella and Edward’s actual Scissorhands.
I ogled Christopher Reeve’s super-harness he used for take-off scenes and one of Mrs Doubtfire’s actual latex faces.
That’s a lot of ‘actuals’, but I need you to understand. This stuff isn’t copies. It’s actual (!) film gubbins that Ohlmann has collected over the years.
MJF touched that hoverboard and now you can too. Well, you can’t because it’s behind glass but you know what I mean….
And that’s just one part of this bonkers museum collection.
It gets even nerdier in the basement, where Ohlmann has bought the sets from Perfume: History of a Murderer (the 2006 film of Patrick Süskind’s 1985 novel* which starred Ben Whishaw and Dustin Hoffman and others) and rebuilt them faithfully. Shudder.
And there are miniatures from film sets – like the cable car tower from Grand Hotel Budapest, the tiny stop motion figures from Fantastic Mr Fox, the White House from Independence Day and many more.
And finally, the top floor exhibits astonishing miniature art.
While he was working in the theatre industry, Ohlmann often had to create miniature versions of stage sets and he soon came to think of it as an art in itself.
Because I’m a total dufus, I took a million photos of said sets but forget to capture any sense of scale. Believe me these things were TINY.
I’ve never seen so many geeky teenage movie culture buffs in one museum before. But don’t let that put you off…
*Carte to come next week on this book. I read it two years ago and I think I’m still processing it…
Such a good recommendation! I live in Lyon and yet have somehow never been. Adding to my list!
Brilliant account Rachel. X