Movies
May 25th, 2006
Under The Roofs Of Paris
There’s a character in Under The Roofs Of Paris
This charming little movie from the 1930’s is one of the early “talkies” and it’s interesting to see how it still retains much of the conventions of silent film, whilst seeming to be a little uncertain what to do with this new fangled sound thing. Consequently music is featured prominently. Not a musical, per se, but many of the scenes focus around groups of people singing a song as this must have seemed like the most obvious thing to do with the new technology.
The story revolves around a song selling Frenchman and his pursuit of a beautiful young woman who is being pursued by the evil John Cleese look alike. Complications ensue. It’s most worth watching for the glimpses of Parisian life and cityscapes from the early part of the 20th century. Fun movie.
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May 5th, 2006
Blue
There’s a scene in Blue
Binoche plays Julie Vignon, the wife of France’s most celebrated composer. The movie opens with a car accident that claims the life of her husband and child and leaves Vignon in the hospital. When she recovers she decides to start her life over, selling her house and all her possessions and moving into a small Paris apartment.
The plot revolves around her attempts to get her life together and various outsiders attempts to her husbands final composition which was almost complete at the time of his death. By the end of the movie we’re not entirely sure that it wasn’t in fact Vignon herself who was responsible for her husbands music.
It’s a beautiful film, and I highly recommend it. It is the first in the Three Colors Trilogy
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Apr 19th, 2006
Cinèma Trail
Cinèma Trail is a new website produced by PDIF.com, the official tourist website for Paris, to coincide with their new promotion campaign “Paris au Cinèma”. Here is an article from the New York Time about it.
I must say I love the idea behind the promotion, but the web site is a bit flawed in the execution. For instance there is a section called Wanders and Walks. Now a title like that would lead one to believe that is contained walking tours of locations used in various films, but not really. It instead offers general descriptions of films shot at in a particular location without providing details.
I was hoping for something more along the lines of the Rick Steves walking tours. In particular, a map with spots marked off and a short description of what was shot there and when.
I think this is still a good idea, and perhaps someone will come up with something along these lines sometime.
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Mar 28th, 2006
A Single Girl
Virginie Ledoyen
I’ll warn you right up front that this movie is not for everyone. There’s not much plot and nothing major really happens, it is rather, what French films do so well and American films don’t, a slice of life drama.
The action centers around a young woman who just found out she is pregnant, is starting a new job, and is breaking up with her boyfriend all on the same day. A lot of the film takes place in real time as she goes about her new job as a room service waitress at a posh hotel, and chronicles her interactions with her coworkers and the hotel guests, most of whom are insane.
If you like quite and thoughtful films, this is a good one with good performances all around. If, however you are just looking for mindless action, look elsewhere.
Virginie Ledoyen also starred in another fun French film that I would recommend called 8 Women
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Mar 27th, 2006
Movie Suggestions
I’m going to add a new category to the left sidebar for movies about Paris.
The first one I’m going to recommend is Amélie
It’s a charming heart-warming movie you can’t help but enjoy. As a reviewer for The Stranger noted: You don’t have to be an asshole to not like this film, but it helps (or something like that, I’m quoting from memory).
Update: These have been moved onto the country/city resource pages.
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