There are films that place walking at the heart of the story. Two favourites that feature characters on foot are Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise (1995), in which the main characters Celine (Julie Delpy) and Jesse (Ethan Hawke) get to know one another while walking around nocturnal Vienna, and Before Sunset (2004), when the two characters meet again and walk through Paris. These films beautifully evoke the pleasures of walking and talking. In Before Midnight (2013), the third film about the couple, they spend more time in a car and the relationship has lost the sparkle of the first two films. Coincidence?

While I’ve yet to make it to Vienna, I’ve been fortunate to be able to spend time in Paris and in 2009 I was there with a 16mm Bolex camera on a cinematic pilgrimage to visit the locations of a number of films shot in Paris, including Before Sunset. As I traced the walk taken by Celine and Jesse it soon became apparent that the distances between the locations do not make for a plausible route given the time constraints of the story – Jesse has a plane to catch – not that it affects my appreciation of the film. You can find my pilgrimage film Cinephile on Vimeo.

Cinematic pilgrimages are something I’ve done in a number of places, and the first walk recorded for Project Pedestrian was a pilgrimage my spouse Wanda and I made as we walked from our hotel in Montmartre to the grave of a filmmaker we both love, Agnés Varda, in Montparnasse.