The French Journal

Spending the day in Paris #2: Cinematic Paris

Over at the LA Times, Susan Spano offers us a list of the "Ten Best Films to See Paris on the Silver Screen."  Last I'd heard, Spano had relocated to China; she may have left the Paris beat, but the LAT is still squeezing these articles out of her. In any case, there's a lot on her list to quibble with, like her number one: Ratatouille? A good movie, but it's perverse to select computer-generated Paris as your best way to experience the city on fillm. And I like An American in Paris, but most of it was shot in a studio. And then you get to Is Paris Burning?, which may have the scenery, but it's a lousy movie and hell to sit through. The others on Spano's list are Love in the Afternoon, Le Divorce, Funny Face, Gigi, Breathless, Day of the Jackal, and Amélie. What? No Paris, Je T'aime?

The opening credits for Love in the Afternoon, with some good Paris scenes, heads this post. I haven't seen the movie for a long time.

Film: Claude Lelouche and Roman de Gare

For your weekend at the movies, you could try out the latest film by Claude Lelouche, Roman de Gare. A tricky little puzzle movie, the movie is graced with swoony shots of the Bordeaux area and the presence of grande dame Fanny Ardant. The movie's supporters enjoy its glossy escapism; naysayers suggest that "too many scenes outstay their welcome." The title, BTW, means "airplane read," that is, a none-too-challenging novel to kill time.

Lelouche, who became famous several decades ago with the swirling romanticism of A Man and a Woman, was profiled recently in The New York Times. After the critical drubbing of some recent films, he made Roman de Gare under a pseudonym to test whether the reaction to his movies was a kneejerk response to his name on the credits. He submitted the movie to Cannes. Lelouche says, "“They thought they had discovered a wonderful new young director."

Who is Dany Boon?

Thanks to the phenomenal success in France of the movie Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis, there is a new king of French film actors: comedian Dany Boon, who wrote, directed, and starred in the picture. As is often the case, Boon is largely unknown here in the U.S. To help remedy that situation, let me give you a few facts about him.

Daniel Hamidou was born almost 42 years ago in Armentières in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region; his stage name is derived from the American frontiersman Daniel Boone. In the early days of his career, Boon was a street performer, worked in clubs as a comic, and provided voices for cartoons. In 1993, a television personality, Patrick Sébastien, spotted him and gave him a break, which led to a series of successful one-man shows. One of them, A s'baraque et en ch'ti, uses for comic effect the ridicule that many of his countrymen express about his birthplace. (I believe the title is roughly translated as "At his place and in Ch'ti," which is a Northern dialect.) The DVD of this show sold over 600,000 copies and undoubtedly paved the way for the smashing acceptance of Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis, which uses the same theme for its story. The film is already the most successful French film of all-time in its native land, and only surpassed by Titanic, which les Ch'tis may yet overtake.

A few of Boon's movies have shown up stateside, including Joyeux Noël, La Doublure/The Valet, and most notably, Mon meilleur ami/My Best Friend, in which he bonds with star Daniel Auteuil. Following is an extract from one of Boon's comedy monologues, in which he attempts to entice visitors to the North. Needless to say, it's in French.

Allons au cinema: Amelie gets nasty, nymphettes, yet another red balloon

A few French movies, newly released in the United States, to catch up on:

• Hors de Prix/Priceless: Audrey Tautou stars in this romantic comedy about an escort who is pursued by a guy who doesn't have any money. Her co-star, Gad Elmaleh, was profiled in The International Herald Tribune. The voice on the trailer was imported from 1960.

• La Naissance des pieuvres/Water Lilies: Carla Sciamma's film won a "newcomer" award from the committee that gives out the prestigious Prix Louis Delluc for French movies. It's a "a lyrically compelling romantic tale that delves into the mysterious world of teenage girls," and it's registering an 86% favorable score on the review aggregator, Rotten Tomatoes. With its emphasis on adolescent sexuality, I'm surprised that the trailer passed the censors.

• Le Voyage du Ballon Rouge/Flight of the Red Balloon: Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien has remade the classic French short film The Red Balloon; his version stars Juliette Binoche and is four times as long. Stephanie Zarcharek at Salon says "the movie has the power to carry you outside of yourself and float you away," if you can get passed the irritating song at the end of the trailer.

The NYer talks about the New Wave

There's probably some way to embed an on-line discussion from The New Yorker in which critic Richard Brody discusses the French New Wave, in particular the film directors Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut, but I can't figure it out. Despair not, cinephiles! If you click here, you can download the conversation.

This week the newstand version of the magazine features Brody's article about the friendship of the two directors, an excerpt of a book about Godard called Everything is Cinema which will be released next month. The piece itself is not on-line, but there's a short slide show of tasty pictures of the directors and an earlier article from 2000 by Brody about Godard (this time, sans the emphasis on Truffaut).

TJF news round-up: The Tower is spared, Nouvel, Delon, another Sarko divorce?, Steves on drugs

As many updates as I can squeeze into 25 minutes:

• At least my instincts were right. Praise be to Charles Bremner, who reports that the story about the redesign of the Eiffel Tower, which I blogged last week with the header "This is a joke, right?", is indeed a joke. Now if I could only retract the nasty-gram I sent to the Eiffel Tower authorities. (HT Learn French with the Bible.)
• Nouvel news. French architect Jean Nouvel has been awarded the Pritzker Prize, one of the most prestigious recognitions in the field. Nouvel is only the second French citizen to be so honored. Christian de Portzamparc was the first. (Business Week)
• Delon-ly life. A new box of DVDs featuring the lithe and lovely Alain Delon has been released in the United States. The New York Times's review of the set concentrates on La Piscine/The Swimming Pool, a roundelay of sex and sun. Amazon is selling the set for a dirt cheap $31.00.
• Bruni/Sarko divorce? Not really, but it's April Fools Day, and I need to liven things up.
• Steves on Mont Saint Michel, plus drugs. I just wrote about Mont-Saint-Michel, sort of, last week, so I'll simply make you aware that Rick Steves has syndicated his view of its magnificence for those who can never get enuff (CNN). BTW, Steves is praised in an NYT op-ed piece today for his progressive stance on the decriminalization of marijuana. And that isn't a joke.

Movie stuff: Méliès, Heartbeat Detector, and fest news

Movie updates:

• Out on DVD this week is five disc set of films by French pioneer Georges Méliès, whose early movies like A Trip to the Moon explored trick photography. The New York Times's Dave Kehr gives the compliation a thorough examination: "The five-disc box set, with more than 170 titles and a total running time of 13 hours, includes prints patiently pieced together from incomplete sources all over the world. Among the highlights are hand-colored versions of several of Méliès’s spectaculars, some presented for the first time accompanied by the detailed narrations that he wrote for their public showings...It is his universe of nearly complete artificiality, built out of painted flats and camera tricks, that has come to dominate the aesthetic of popular film in the digital age."
• Heartbeat Detector/La Question Humaine, opening this week, mixes corporate intrigue and neo-Nazism. The film stars Mathieu Almaric, who won his second "Best Actor" César this year for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Rotten Tomatoes, the movie review aggregator, pegs it at 71%; a sample blurb: "A chilling corporate thriller with an intriguing mystery on the surface and a deeply troubling idea at its dark core." (Ken Fox, TV Guide)
• One of the coolest French Film Festivals in the United States is coming up next weekend in Richmond, Virginia. Featured flicks include Un secret; Ensemble, c'est tout; Dialogues avec mon jardinier, and Michou D'Auber. Director Jean Becker and actor Thierry Lhermitte are among the many special guests.
• Frequent TFJ visitor rspring has noted that the French smash hit Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis will have its stateside premier in April at Los Angeles's City of Light/City of Angels French Film Festival. There are murmurs of an American remake in the offing. (Bloomberg)

Cinema of The (New York) Times #2: Treating you to "Contempt"

I never got around to pointing readers to an article in last Sunday's NYT about Jean-Luc Godard's Contempt/ Le Mépris. Notable for being one of the innovative director's few flirtations with mainstream cinema, the movie tells the story of a filmmaker who...ah...er...flirts with mainstream cinema. Shot in Cinemascope, major scenery is provided by Brigitte Bardot at the height of her popularity. Even so, it ain't an easy movie.

A trailer heads the post. The movie is available on DVD.

Cinema of The (New York) Times #1: Louis Garrel

Tomorrow's news today. The New York Time's Sunday edition profiles French actor Louis Garrel, "an all-purpose heart throb." The headline refers to recent roles of Garrel's in which he played the love object of women, men, his (cinematic) sister, and his (cinematic) mother. I wrote a lot about Garrel last spring, when a series of his films hit these shores. Words to describe him are "nubile" (if a 24-year-old man can be such) and simply "sensual"; he's a French boy-toy fantasy. This week sees the release of Love Songs/Les chansons d'amour, Garrel's latest collaboration with director Christophe Honoré. It'a musical, apparently with almost as many amorous combinations as are possible with four people. The trailer heads this post.

If you speak French, try out the website Louis Garrel Addict for more of the goods. If you don't speak French, there are always the pictures.

La Grande Vadrouille

A few weeks ago, when I listed the most popular films of all time in France, I was surprised by many of the movies, but none more so than that in the top slot: La Grande Vadrouille. The chief reason for my astonishment: I'd never heard of it before, and I pay attention to these things. The movie is almost completely unknown in the United States; it's not available on DVD.

Fortunately, TV5 had the movie in its rotation about the time I made my discovery. Directed by Gérard Oury, La Grande Vadrouille, which can be roughly translated as "the great scramble," was made in 1966 and stars two of the top French comics of the time, Bourvil and Louis de Funès. The duo play French citizens during the Occupation who become involved in the rescue of some downed English airmen (one of whom is the gap-toothed British actor Terry-Thomas, a familiar face to many). It was released in English speaking countries with the inelegant title Don't Look Now, We're Being Shot At.

Watching the movie, my husband kept saying, "It's very American." The movie's production values are absurdly slick; as one example, an auberge which plays an important role in the latter part of the movie is modern and upscale, with decor that belongs more to the swinging London of the era than France. Much of its look can probably be attributed to the great cinematographer, Claude Renoir, who also did some work in the past with his uncle Jean.

Criticizing the film for its unrealistic representation of World War II is pretty much beside the point. Why? It's a very funny movie, relentlessly paced. A few scenes feel like classics, like one in which the French men attempt to rendezvous with one of the airman in a Turkish bath by whistling Tea for Two, or another with de Funès accidently in bed with a snoring German. La Grande Vadrouille may not rank with the best of French cinema, but as commercial efforts go, it's not an embarrassment. Great scenes at the Opéra Garnier, BTW.

In researching this post, I've discovered that the movie is available online at Veoh, which is a YouTube type provider with more traditional content such as films and TV shows. I'm not certain if the film is subtitled. My research suggests that Veoh is legit (former Disney head Michael Eisner is on the board), however, my pointing you in that direction should not be construed as an endorsement. You must download some software in order to watch the film.