french media pre*paris blog vi
so i’ve watched one more truffaut film (love on the run). i may add it later. but i really need to paint something before my plane takes off next week. so for now, please enjoy these three films!
let me know if you’ve seen or enjoyed any of these! and if you know of any playing in theatres in france right now, PLEASE tell me that, too! i can’t wait to experience le ciné!!
until soon and from paree,
*hallie :)
paris, je t’aime (2007)
directed by: a cinematic short story collection comprised of 20 unique 5-minute films by 20 different directors! (only 3 films were directed by women; one by a man/woman duo. sigh.)
each director (or pair) was given a neighborhood of paris in which to set a short film. they were constrained to a 2-day filming shoot and a 5-minute running time. after all, a lot can happen in five minutes!
things i was wondering as i watched:
are all of these stories going to come back around like cloud atlas, or are we left to wonder and fill in our own endings for each short story?
is this film what started the new year’s eve / mother’s day / pick-a-holiday movies where there’s like 8 superstar couples we follow cutting back and forth? :/
parisian about it: on-location filming (even if the coen brothers did pick underground in a metro station which they thought would be easier for crowd control.)
french about it: the love, the grief, the passion. lots of serious PDA.
some of the shorts were mere moments in a person’s story; some included full story arcs. it was a nice “exercise in economy” for the filmmakers. every frame and every word had to count.
overwhelming about it: how well in know the personality of nyc neighborhoods, but have much to learn about the unique personalities of the many, many corners of paris! (but hurray for journeys to learn “on the job!”)
the stories didn’t all come back around, btw, but we did see some characters form different stories greeting each other in a new setting as if they knew each other all along. a couple laughing on a bridge, a hand on the back… so some stories were given more resolution than a totally vague or open-to-interpretation final moments. but the “fill in your own ending” was kind of refreshing just the same.
i appreciated these well-known directors having to work within the constraints of five minutes of screen time and two days on-set. as christophe gans alluded to of his cgi-heavy beauty & the beast, just becasue you can do everything doesn’t mean you should. it’ll become a mess. (see my french media blog post iv here.) i’ve read a similar sentiment in twyla tharp’s creative memoir/life kit, the creative habit. constraints actually produce creativity. as one of the directors on this project said: “restrictions help the creative focus. for without boundaries, [we]’d get lost.”
“i’d love to come back to paris and film again. it’s a nice way to work.” ~elijah wood, on the civilized lunch served on set (yes, wine included, of course), and the crew’s mandatory 30 minute afternoon breaks (beer included.)
mrs. harris goes to paris (2022)
a remake of the 1957 classic starring angela lansbury which i probably haven’t seen in (forgive me) 20 years or so…? so i can’t promise this right here is a remake, persay, but the title has at least been done before.
“we need our dreams now more than ever.”
like the (gothic comedy) middle grade novel i’m currently reading and can’t shut up about (the swifts, by beth lincoln and illustrated by claire powell), it really WAS a study on identity.
no, this film wasn’t set in a crumbling house or centered around a family reunion. but “miss dior” clearly wants to be more than the face of the company—a little doll toted around to social engagements and entertaining investors at the dance clubs.
the (v. handsome, v. awkward) accountant is afraid to speak up even though he as the lone financier knows how to save the company.
and mrs. harris? well, everyone benefits from, and/or takes advantage of, her kindnesses. and yet she’s seen as “the help.” {cringe!!} she’s the simple housekeeper from london. she shakes up the dior atelier (with much joy) and the lives of those around her (to great affect), and yet the movie was making me sad sad sad… when was someone going to acknowledge her worth and value as a human and not just what she can inspire in others?! le sob.
what’s french about it: satre and philosophy references! the house of dior! [have you ever seen the documentary dior and i (2014)? that’s worth a watch if you love fashion and the creative process, too!]
“not myself today. bit of an existential crisis.”
“paris will do that to you.”
fun surprise: it took me until mid-film to place the cute, dorky accountant. et voilà! it was the cute chef from emily in paris. but as a brunette (& in glasses, PTL!). ;)
“we knew immediately that once again you had been too kind.”
so this movie DID eventually have a happy-enough ending. and had some really sweet moments and the cast was terrific. (also, obviously, the clothes! oooohhhh gosh i love looking at fashion & haute couture! especially vintage dior!!)
so i wish i’d watched it with someone who could have told me the happy ending WAS coming. but now that i know it ends well, i like it all the more. and i would happily re-watch it. :)
“your dreams fit paris very well.”
^i’ll find out for myself next week! eep! ;D
hitchcock truffaut (2016)
a film by: kent jones
“i’m never satisfied with the ordinary.” ~alfred hitchcock
in 1962, alfred hitchcock and françois truffaut got together for a week in hollywood to talk movies. specifically, truffaut interviewed hitchcock about the 40 (!!) feature films he’d directed to date. one x one. unknown to me until i checked out this documentary from my library (hello, library! i love you!!), truffaut published these conversations, with extensive stills and storyboards from hitchcock’s films, as a book in 1966.
yes, this book (hitchcock/truffaut) is now on my wishlist. so until you and i both have time to order and read that one somewhere amidst the towering fortresses of my TBR stacks, this dvd was a great place to start.
infamous directors (scorcese, kurosawa, wes anderson, etc.), all of whom were greatly influenced by both of these men’s filmographies— and particularly truffaut’s book on hitchcock as their filmmaking bible —are interviewed intermittently throughout the documentary, which added a nice modern lens to the enduring genius of hitchcock’s ouevre.
truffaut, only three films into his own directing career when he wrote a moving letter requesting the director legend, hitchcock to chat on the record. his attention legitimized hitchcock as not just a great entertainer, but as a true artist in the eyes of the critics.
alfred’s mastery of craft, to me, is unparalleled. his great love of the silent film era (he started, after his engineering degree, by making the painted title cards for a silent film studio in britain!) meant hitchcock mostly rendered dialogue (that came with “the talkies”) unnecessary. why say it when you can show it with a look, a glance of the eyes, or a close-up on the edge of a knife?
hitchcock’s compositions, his use of space within the frame, his playing with contracting and expanding time in any given moment— how did people ever doubt what he was doing was art?
well, it goes back to the old argument of “if it’s popular, can it actually be good art?” ah, the discussions we continue having today.
“there’s no such thing as a face. it’s non-existent until the light hits it. there’s no such thing as a line, it’s just light and shade. the function of true cinema, as we know, is placing two or three pieces of film together to create a single idea.” ~alfred hitchcock
so thank you, auteur (one of the “authors who wrote with a camera”) françois truffaut for calling hitchcock out as a true artist and not “just an entertainer.” hitchcock, who, like you, and the rest of the new wave french cinema filmmakers, put his fears, obsessions, fascinations, and stories up on screen for audiences to be terrified and fascinated right alongside him.
it makes me miss the day when it wasn’t the stars who made the movie with their character’s choices, but the director’s complete vision. pure storytelling. maybe someday we can find the balance again.
“logic is dull.” ~alfred hitchcock
i hope you enjoyed all of my library (& my own collection) dvd raids for my fresh exploration of these sorta-french media pieces, mes amies!
until i get on another research kick, you can support me in the crayon box (my author-illustrator patreon) for all sorts of PARIS trip bonus things (see “march scribbles” here and join today!), collect “theodore goes to paris” merch in my redbubble shop here, and follow me on instagram (@halthegal_storyart) for allll of the parisienne adventures this march!
merci!!
*hallie :)