Paris Belongs to Us

Paris Belongs to Us (Paris nous appartient) is a 1961 French mystery drama that was Jacques Rivette's feature-length directing debut and stands among the earliest works associated with the French New Wave. Shot in 1958, it reached cinemas in December 1961.

The plot centres on Anne, a university student who, through her older brother, is drawn into a circle of people unsettled by obscure tensions and by the deaths of two of its members. The film never reveals the cause of the unease hanging over the group, leaving open whether it reflects personal instability, the existential anxiety of the era, or Cold War paranoia under the threat of nuclear destruction. The title is deliberately ironic: the characters are political refugees and alienated souls who feel no sense of belonging in Paris. The cast features Jean-Claude Brialy alongside fellow New Wave filmmakers Claude Chabrol and Jacques Demy.