Ghost subway station in Paris where films come to life

About 1km further down the line, there is another 'ghost station' "Haxo".

While Porte de Lilas sees / Saw traffic, Haxo was a planned station that never opened. It's single line only, and never had any access built (no stairs, street access). Likewise, it's in part of the system that sees no active traffic.

Today it's one of the hardest places in the system to access 'illegally', as the tunnels between Porte de Lilas and Haxo have been converted to a 'layup' or 'parking' for rolling stock, replete with cameras, IR trips and a 24/7 'maitre de chien' (guard with guard dog).

For the interested, some photos: https://ninjito.com/2008-07-27

For the metro history buffs, for many years Porte de Lilas was used to stock the 'Zebulon' ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z%C3%A9bulon_(Paris_M%C3%A9t... ) MF-67 original prototype train that never saw passenger service. What made it unique was that it had a stainless steel finish.

After years of searching for the train in the system, we realised that we'd stumbled across it years prior, parked up in Porte de Lilas: https://ninjito.com/2008-05-21

Paris has an incredible system with many, many hidden secrets, second only to perhaps the London Tube, but is much more safely explored thanks to wide clearance and a generally 'laissez faire' attitude and consequences of bumping into security staff.

He wanted to shoot a scene in a Paris metro station but the costs were exorbitant. (As the linked article says, this facility is used by big budget films; Aki is indie.)

In the directors cut he shows the solution: He shot in front of an old garage in the rough part of Paris suburbs where the film is set, and did optical tricks to make it look like a train station. For example, on the garage were cast shadows from what look like train windows (seen behind the actors as they talk in a romantic goodbye scene) but were in actuality holes cut from cardboard, Aki had people shining lights through them and others moving the cardboard so the shadows would move as the “train” left the “station.”

I found a description online, drawn from an event with the actress involved in the scene:

“In once scene, there is a departure from a train station, a long goodbye. But it was too expensive to really film at the train station! Instead, they improvised: clouds of steam were provided by the staff chef boiling water in every available pot and pan. Meanwhile, shadow heads and hats in a cut-out panel sliding across the wall signals a departing train. Bizzarely enough, it works…”

Movie credits include Johnny Mnemonic.

“…up to five trains that can move about a kilometer of half a mile through a loop of tunnel.”

Reads like the author is about 20 deciliters into their gallon of wine.