Where Ronin was Shot
Not all news are good news, of course, and today’s update is not about a Parisian movie site that was recently found but about one that has been lost.
The stairway on which Robert DeNiro appears in Ronin, out of the blue Parisian night, is still there, connecting the Rue des Trois Freres and Rue Berthe in Montmartre, but the Irish bar run by Natasha McElhone at its bottom end, where two meetings of the “rogue Samurai” neatly bookend the film, has disappeared in a fire.
In its latest (and presumably last) incarnation, the place – while nominally a restaurant with specialties from Madagascar – had actually been a cocktail bar that had acquired some fame across Paris for the quality and low price of its drinks.
Nobody knows what caused the fire. I personally suspect that it was the work of renegade Irish Republicans under the leadership of that ghastly Jonathan Pryce.
Hello,
Just wanted to let you know that the building used in Ronin is now completely gone. If you wanted a pic for your site I have one.
Cheers
Mike
That’s a real pity. But thanks for the heads up Mike.
I live in front of this place and I just knew that it has been in a film ! this building is gone because of a fire accident but the store on the right is always the same
Thanks for the update, Kai!
Hi! Do you guys mean to say that the store has burned down or the entire building is gone? If anyone could send a picture in it’s current state, i’d apprciate it!
Sam
https://www.google.pt/maps/@48.8849683,2.3404769,3a,75y,335.17h,88.41t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sBGnZb9OGpZXs9tBCqu62pQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
Its all gone…
Hello, to support the other comments I thought it worth posting a bit of a timeline and extra info I thought interesting after I worked it out for myself.
[The following is based on Google Streetview’s Timeline Archive and my observations]
May 2008: (and just 9.5yrs after the release of the Ronin movie in November 1998) The building is in standing in place and functioning as the “Blue Sky Crepe & Cocktail Restaurant”. If you look at the building structure above the ground floor (especially around the windows on the first floor) you can clearly see its already buckling inward and has large structural cracks throughout. I suspect this particular property was already well on its way out even before the (aforementioned) fire occurred that (I understand) finally closed premises.
https://www.google.pt/maps/@48.8849738,2.3404575,3a,75y,335.29h,87.16t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sjISFX6AZF4ED3_sz1w6WQA!2e0!5s20120501T000000!7i13312!8i6656
Between May 2008 and May 2012 (4 years): The property has been closed and board-up. Although I can’t really see any extensive scorch marks from a fire (other than a blackened discolouration around one of the top floor windows) an apparent lack of roofing and industrial plastic sheeting covering that area would tend to suggest (to me) that a fire did indeed take place during this time and pretty much gutted the place.
https://www.google.pt/maps/@48.8849779,2.3404412,3a,75y,335.29h,87.16t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s8-3Euuz2-KRZkBGgp3JdTg!2e0!5s20120501T000000!7i13312!8i6656
Between May 2012 and September 2014 (2.5 year approx.): Google Streetview has four passes during this time that show the building in a continued board-up and increasingly derelict condition.
Between September 2014 to June 2015 (9 months): From this point the building (and the adjoining three or four adjoining properties) have been demolished and an empty derelict space is all that remain. This continues to be so as of August 2017. Based on the (amount of fresh) graffiti and lack of advertising posters on the green/grey boundary fencing along with the un-weathered look to some of the temporary wooden support structure propping up the gable-end on one of the adjoining properties I’d suggest that the building was demolished just a couple of months before Googles next streetview pass in June 2015 (perhaps between February and April 2015 from my observations, but certainly only in the first half of the year of 2015 by my reckoning)
https://www.google.pt/maps/@48.8849726,2.3404662,3a,75y,335.29h,87.16t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sXaqLyWzT1XsTmYhMtIHTdA!2e0!5s20150601T000000!7i13312!8i6656
All-in-all, a rather unfortunate end to what was a very understated yet iconic film location in the Ronin (1998) movie.
I wonder what’ll be built in its place?!
Amazing dedication! Thank you Jason. We lived near there till 2013 and it’s great to see how it has moved on!