I love Paris in the springtime when it sizzles...

Having done London in the Movies (London label) our thoughts turn to Paris, particularly now that it is April, and influenced by GOODBYE AGAIN (below), here are some random Paris moments, by day and night. Rome, soon ....

There is Tony Perkins driving around Paris in 1961 in GOODBYE AGAIN; Jean Seberg driving in BONJOUR TRISTESSE in '58; Corrine Merchand in CLEO FROM 5 TO 7 (above), '61, waiting to hear her medical prognosis; Paul Newman, Joanne, Diahann Carroll again and Sidney in PARIS BLUES; Jeanne Moreau walking around Paris by night in LIFT TO THE SCAFFOLD; Charles Aznavour and Jacques Charrier driving around trying to pick up girls (like Anouk Aimee and Belinda Lee) in LES DRAGUEURS; young Jean-Pierre Leaud in THE 400 BLOWS, both '59; Sophia Loren doing the twist (it is 1962) with Perkins again in FIVE MILES TO MIDNIGHT, GIGI learning about love..., that all star cast in IS PARIS BURNING? 1966; Charlotte Rampling in PARIS BY NIGHT, Tom Hanks at the Louvre in THE DE VINCI CODE, and of course the MOULIN ROUGE and any number of movies by Truffaut (LE PEAU DEUCE), Malle (LE FEU FOLLET, ZAZIE DANS LE METRO), Demy, Varda, Chabrol et al - Gerard Philipe and Anouk Aimee in their artists' garret in LES AMANTS DE MONTPARNASSE; Gina Lollobrigida and Anthony Quinn over at Notre Dame; Monica Vitti and Maurice Ronet dining at the Eiffel Tower in THE SCARLET LADY, '69; Romy Schneider, Capucine and O'Toole heading the madcap cast of WHAT'S NEW PUSSYCAT, '65 and of course Elizabeth looking stupendous in THE LAST TIME I SAW PARIS, '54 ! Then we have Belmondo and Seberg in BREATHLESS, and (below) Brialy and Gerard Blain in Chabrol's LES COUSINS, '59, and of course Fred and Cyd in SILK STOCKINGS, and over there is that super apartment which LES GIRLS shared (Kay Kendall, Mitzi Gaynor and Taina Elg) mind you that might have been on the MGM backlot. For extensive looks at Paris in the early '60s the extras on Varda's CLEO FROM 5 TO 7 or Malle's ZAZIE are choice.

So yes there's hundreds of movies set in Paris... of course there is Hollwood Paris and the real gritty city of light, as diverse as AMELIE, GARE DU NORD, Tati's PLAYTIME, Godard's ALPHAVILLE, the cartoon GAY PURR-EE, thrillers like LA HAINE, RIFIFI, LE FLIC and Polanski's FRANTIC and THE TENANT, QUIET DAYS IN CLICHY, VICTOR/VICTORIA and of course Garbo in the mythical Paris of NINOTCHKA, and all those French noirs with Gabin, Delon, Moreau, Schneider, Signoret etc, oh and some movie with Gene Kelly...



No one though did Paris in the Movies like Audrey Hepburn - so many of her movies are set in or have visits to Paree: FUNNY FACE, her cookery school in SABRINA and she returns all elegant from her year in Paris, HOW TO STEAL A MILLION where she and O'Toole tootle around in that little car, BLOODLINE, LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON with Gary Cooper, in France at any rate in TWO FOR THE ROAD with Albie, PARIS WHEN IT SIZZLES and of course CHARADE with her fabulous Givenchy outfits for hiding on the Metro or visiting the flea-market, or dining on a bateau mouche down the Seine with Cary Grant ...
I must now play that Malcolm McLaren CD PARIS with the likes of Juliette Greco, Catherine Deneuve and Francoise Hardy vocalising, and some terrific Parisian rhythms. [I have been to Paris about 20 times over the years, its convenient from London now by Eurostar, and one of my best friends was married and living there for over a decade...]

More French flicks ....

L’HOMME DE RIO – Back when I was 19 in 1965 I saw THAT MAN FROM RIO as a supporting feature. I have no idea now what the main movie was but I never forgot the deliciously zany French film dubbed into English, where Jean-Paul Belmondo was That Man (a soldier on leave) on the trail of his kidnapped girlfriend Francoise Dorleac and of course some stolen treasure, as the action heads from Paris to the Amazon jungles, it is surely an Indiana Jones before its time. This Philippe De Broca confection was a real movie – fun, exciting, romantic, brash, it is simply one of the best adventure capers ever made (and a perfect 60s movie), so I cannot understand how I have had to wait until now see it again (as it never shows here in the UK) and the version I now have is in French with sub-titles! There is also a great soundtrack with lots of Brazilian sounds – the bossa nova was really taking off in the mid-60s. This was filmed at just the right time just as all things South American were taking off.

The Tom Cruises and Gerard Butlers of the current filmworld should study this and see what a real caper movie is like and without those phoney-looking CGI stunts as the charismatic Belmondo goes on that rollercoaster ride from Rio to the jungles and the bright empty spaces of the new Brasilia! Belmondo is at his peak here, as is Dorleac as the capricious girlfriend who has a lovely sequence dancing on the beach - she's a carioca! There is also of course the obligatory cute streetwise kid (with an idyllic beach shack) who helps our hero evade the goons with guns, and some terrific airplane stunts ... and Adolfo Celi is splendidly over-ripe as usual. So from now on whenever I am depressed I shall play this and be flying down to Rio! No wonder there are raves on its comments page on IMDB. L'HOMME DE RIO is now officially 'A Movie I Love' and Belmondo is my new hero!


My friend Daryl has commented: How strange release patterns are: in the US, THAT MAN FROM RIO was a big deal indeed, winning the New York Film Critics Circle award for Best Foreign Film and running in the first-run art houses for almost a year!

LES AMANTS DE MONTPARNASSE – 1958 movie about the artist Modigliani, directed by Jacques Becker and dedicated to Max Ophuls. It follows the last year of Modigliani (or Modi as everyone refers to him) and is the usual story of the artist starving in a garret, set here in 1919 [in the Montparnasse area of Paris]. One does not have much patience with him though as Modi is hellbent on drinking himself to death and treats everyone – not least the women in his life – badly. Lilli Palmer is the rich Beatrice who does not mind too much, in fact she quite likes being slapped around, while young Anouk Aimee is Jeanne, the well to do girl who gives up everything for Modi, her father even locks her in her room to keep her away from him. Modi is Gerard Philipe, that pre-Delon/Belmondo heartthrob who died young in 1959.



I have only come lately to the cult of Philipe, having sought out his 1954 KNAVE OF HEARTS (MONSEIUR RIPOIS) for Joan Greenwood’s performance, and then getting Ophuls’ LA RONDE and the terrific FANFAN LA TULIPE. This builds to a chilling climax though as the ailing artist is reduced to selling his sketches to indifferent café diners, while being observed by Morel (Lino Ventura) a collector who knows that the works of a dead Modigliani will be worth more than those of a living artist. We watch fascinated as Modi finally collapses, stalked by Morel, who after the artist has died at the hospital rushes to the garret and begins buying the paintings from the unsuspecting Jeanne. We see glimpses of the paintings and that distinctive Modigliani style, it reminded me I used to have some reproductions pinned to my wall when I was a teenager. An interesting curiosity then - it is all very French, and just before that New Wave took off....



THE SLEEPING CAR MURDER - Costa-Gavras's 1965 French flick, a routine thriller, but expertly done, COMPARTIMENT TUEURS (it's original title) follows the police investigation of a murder in the sleeping car of the train. Then the other occupants are killed off one by one as weary police chief Yves Montand (with a head cold) essays all those cops who followed in tv series and movies as he tracks down the suspects. It is pretty much a family affair for the Montands as Simone Signoret has a showy role and her daughter Catherine Allegret is also on board. She gets involved with Jacques Perrin and others include Charles Denner, Michel Piccoli and Jean-Louis Trintignant. A very French affair then, but just as effective dubbed, in gleaming black and white. I have now also got Costa-Gavras's 'Z' to have another look at, I have not seen it since its release back in 1970, it was one of those prime thrillers of its era, 40 years ago, and no doubt still is very effective.

Also to be seen now, goodness knows when, are two Claude Chabrol box sets, 14 films in all!, along with his LA CEREMONIE. We saw a lot of Chabrols back in the late '60s and into the '70s, when he was doing that brilliant series of thrillers with his then wife, the marvellous Stephane Audran, particularly LE BOUCHER and LA FEMME INFIDELE and the brilliant THE BEAST MUST DIE etc. I liked that comic thriller in bright Greek sunlight LE ROUTE DE CORINTH (with Seberg and Ronet), Romy Schneider and Steiger in INNOCENTS WITH DIRTY HANDS (a valentine to Romy really), and that good Canadian one with Donald Sutherland BLOOD RELATIVES, so I really must find time to go back and see all those ones I missed like those with Isabelle Huppert (VIOLETTE NOZIERE, MADAME BOVARY). Chabrol was nothing if not prolific, good though to see how highly regarded he is now. The same applies to Louis Malle and Jacques Demy.

Next: I need to go back and re-visit those Malles like LIFT TO THE SCAFFOLD, ZAZIE DANS LE METRO, VIVA MARIA and my favourite back then, LE FEU FOLLET where the very under-rated Maurice Ronet gives that staggering performance. The later Demy films did not make it to London, so one shall have to seek them out, but I have covered those early ones I like so much on here, Demy label. There are also some late Truffauts to see: THE LAST METRO and VIVEMENT DIMANCHE (FINALLY SUNDAY) with the adorable Fanny Ardant, and that amusing Hitchock pastiche THE BRIDE WORE BLACK with Moreau (my favourite Truffaut though has to be THE HISTORY OF ADELE H, with Isabelle Adjani, a movie that overwhelmed me at the time, 1976).
I also want to see (and re-see) those Francois Ozon's I missed: the camp extravaganza 8 WOMEN, the grim TIME TO LEAVE, Charlotte Rampling in UNDER THE SAND, etc. And I have just discovered a Jean-Pierre Melville set of 6 (more on that later). Back though to Chabrol....



It is an absolute pleasure seeing LA FEMME INFIDELE again, that perfect late '60s setting, as the loving jealous husband Michel Bouquet begins to suspect the wife he loves so much is having an affair during her frequent trips to Paris. He soon discovers the truth and calls on the lover, Maurice Ronet (once again). It is a brilliant scene as the men talk, the lover feeling awkward and guilty, the husband not know what to do - but a casual remark of the lover suddenly leads to blind anger ... he thinks he has covered his tracks, and the ideal domestic life with their son resumes - but of course, being Chabrol, those police and detectives keep calling and finding out more details. It is all impeccably done with those lovely circular camera movements as we circle the husband and wife as they both realise the trap they are in. She finds the evidence and cooly destroys it as she is now back in love with her husband. Stephane Audran is of course so divinely cool and poised and attractive here. Classic French cinema then. And there are those Delon and Varda boxsets to explore...her CLEO FROM 5 TO 7 was one of my discoveries of last year.

2010 - best and worst .....

We are a little behind here at the Movie Projector - I only saw UNCLE BOONMEE at the cinema yesterday, and the dvd of BEACHES OF AGNES has been sitting unwatched on a shelf for the last 9 or so months, but they are both my films of the year in that they are totally unlike anything else and left one dazed and exhilerated. Cinema then in a nutshell....

One knows one is leaving usual cinema terrain as the Thai UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES unspools: a water buffalo tethered to a tree at night breaks free and trots away and then stops for a while as we examine this strange animal as it takes in the night scene being at one with nature, then its owner enters, picks up its rope and takes it back. What is the beast thinking? Is it willing to go back? Then we join Boonmee's placid sister and his nephew as they travel to his bee farm to look after him in his final days as he is dying of a kidney disease. The pace seems very slow at first with shots held for longer than usual but then one falls into it. Nobody seems surprised when Boonmee's late wife Huay who has been dead for 19 years materialises at the dinner table and they talk to her. Boonmee, who is philosophical about his impending demise as he has lived before several times, asks her how he will find her in heaven: Huay replies: "Heaven is over-rated, there's nothing there. And anyway ghosts don't associate with places, they associate with people. We'll find each other."

Boomnee it seems has the ability to range over his past lives as he comes to the end of his current one, aided by the spirits of the forest who also include his son Boonsong who has changed into a weird creature with red eyes [from having mated with monkey spirits]. Then we come to the mesermising sequence with the Princess and the catfish, set against a stunning waterfall which one could sit and watch for hours - as the Princess disrobes and enters the water where the catfish is waiting for her... perhaps the water buffalo or the princess or the catfish are also past (or future) lives of Boonmee? - as apparantly his other lives can be male or female, human or animal.... (the connectedness of things?)



People who are not prepared for it will be left confounded but others will leave the cinema stunned at the experience of it all. It is therefore an experience rather than a conventional movie. Apichatpong Weerasethakul tells a story that doesn't ask or need to be understood. As he awaits his death, Boonmee, Huay, Jen, and Tong visit a cave with white sand floors where Boonmee reveals that this was the place he was first born. He then dies there. For me maybe the movie should have stopped here - there is a coda showing their life afterwards as they sit around a hotel room and the monk Tong takes a shower, but this really, after what went before, is rather like watching paint dry and seems superfluous. Apart from that its depiction of the enduring relationship between Boonmee and Huay, and the in images of a dying man comforted by family and friends, the film offers an experience of the permanence of love.

The permanence of love is also really what THE BEACHES OF AGNES is all about, as Fench director Agnes Varda now in her 80s makes the most unusual documentary ever about looking back over one's life and work. Her fascination with beaches comes to the fore as she and her friends (like Jane Birkin) arrange mirrors on the beaches as she recollects her parents and childhood and early career and her marriage to Jacques Demy and the films they made and the actors and friends they knew. At the end she is surrounded by her children and grand-children and she and they are the most delightful company. This is the most perfect way to get old and still remain fascinating and interested in everything. We experience the loss of Demy [who like Boonmee was nursed by loved ones], the courtyard where he and Agnes worked on their projects, clips from their movies, that New Wave era, their time at the centre of the counterculture in California in the late '60s (where they discovered Harrison Ford, but couldn't use him in Jacques' MODEL SHOP as he was not considered actor material by the studio!; Agnes was making LIONS LOVE with Viva and the HAIR creators).

As IMDB puts it: "Agnès Varda explores her memory - growing up in Belgium, living in Sète, Paris, and Noirmoutier, discovering photography, making a film, being part of the New Wave, raising children with Jacques Demy, losing him, and growing old. She explores her memory using photographs, film clips, home movies, contemporary interviews, and set pieces she designs to capture a feeling, a time, or a frame. Shining through each scene are her impish charm, inventiveness, and natural empathy. How do people grow old, how does loss stay with them, can they remain creative, and what do they remember?" (I have already written extensively here, as per French label, on Demy and Varda).

I saw Varda's LE BONHEUR when I was 19 in '65 and it was one of those films that made a very strong impression, so its been good to finally see it again now that there are Varda box-sets, and to finally discover her CLEO FROM 5 TO 7, with its delightful picture of Paris in the early 60s. That is one of my discoveries of the year, as below:

The 2000s label covers my other films of 2010 as per reviews of A SINGLE MAN, THE GHOST, I LOVE YOU PHILIP MORRIS, THE HURT LOCKER, INGLORIOUS BASTERDS etc. I shall be turning to I AM LOVE and TOY STORY 3 shortly, 44 INCH CHEST remains a terrific comedy ensemble piece of Winstone, Hurt, McShane, Wilkinson; IT'S COMPLICATED and LETTERS TO JULIET are the best of the romcoms; disappointment of the year has to be NINE and disaster of the year SEX AND THE CITY 2 (which is not worth mentioning). Polanski's GHOST is thriller of the year but surely the East Coast of America is not as bleak as depicted here (shot as it was in Europe) while McGregor (for his brilliance in the Carrey movie) and Colin Firth are actors of the year; actress = Tilda Swinton. Firth is no longer a lightweight actor and after also finally seeing McGregor in Greenaway's THE PILLOW BOOK one has to be amazed at his daring and taking of risks.

Of the late 2010 releases as we go into 2011 I shall be looking forward to catching THE KING'S SPEECH (with that great cast including Claire Bloom), Mike Leigh's return with ANOTHER YEAR, 127 HOURS, THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT etc.

Television (here in the UK at any rate) served up some treats: classy drama (or 'heritage tv') is back with Maggie Smith leading the ensemble in DOWNTON ABBEY, the revived UPSTAIRS DOWNSTAIRS with a splendid Eileen Atkins taking charge, classy thrillers like SPOOKS and SHERLOCK and the splendid film of Nigel Slater's food memoir TOAST, while Tom Hollander scored with his comedy series REV and Rufus Sewell as the Italian detective ZEN.



My discoveries of the year are: Visconti's 1965 SANDRA (or OF A THOUSAND DELIGHTS), Clements 1957 THE SEA WALL (THIS ANGRY AGE) (I shall be seeing the recent version shortly), BLONDE IN BLACK LEATHER (a throwaway 1975 Italian comedy for the domestic market with Vitti and Cardinale having fun) - see Italian label, Ozon's UNDER THE SAND with Charlotte Rampling (to be reviewed), Varda's CLEO FROM 5 TO 7 and a brace of early Dirk Bogarde's: APPOINTMENT IN LONDON and CAST A DARK SHADOW where he is delightfully spivvy bumping off older wife Mona Washboure and having designs on wicked lady Margaret Lockwood and splendid Kay Walsh!

2011's revivals will include that early Fellini boxset and all those Chabrols to revisit (2 boxsets!), and Gerard Philipe (as Modigliani) in LES AMANTS DE MONTPARNASSE with Anouk Aimee and Lilli Palmer, as well as some other yet-unseen Romy Schneider films.

(Previous years' discoveries here at the Projector included Cukor's THE CHAPMAN REPORT, Jean Seberg in MOMENT TO MOMENT, Lana's LOVE HAS MANY FACES, Sarah Miles in I WAS HAPPY HERE, Lilli Palmer and Jean Sorel in ADORABLE JULIA, Demy's LES DEMOISELLES DE ROCHEFORT (on dvd and on the big screen), THE OPPOSITE SEX, ALL FALL DOWN, early Loren in TOO BAD SHE'S BAD and WOMAN OF THE RIVER, ABDULLA THE GREAT (Kay Kendall's missing 1955 film), Mangano in MAMBO and THE TEMPEST, Minnelli treats DESIGNING WOMAN and THE RELUCTANT DEBUTANTE, Linda Darnell in THIS IS MY LOVE (1954) and the 1954 KNAVE OF HEARTS as per reviews.
Right: I WAS HAPPY HERE, 1966 / below: ADORABLE JULIA: Jean Sorel and Lilli Palmer in Trafalgar Square, 1962

The magical movies of Jacques Demy

French director Jacques Demy [1931-1990] who had some very popular successes during the 60s but, while remaining popular in France, somehow seemed to slip off the radar here in the UK (and maybe elsewhere) as several of his later films never surfaced here at all, while the likes of Truffaut, Malle, Chabrol etc continued to be lionised. (One could say the same for another French director Claude Lelouch). The early films include 2 New Wave classics in glittering monochrome, 2 candy-coloured musicals, 2 fairy tales and a counterculture late 60s classic with great roles for the likes of Aimee, Moreau, Deneuve, Dorleac, Seyrig etc. and of course those sailors in white ...

His first movie in 1961 is the beauty that is LOLA, Jacques Demy’s valentine to the movies with Anouk Aimee at her most vibrant and animated in perhaps the most likeable film of the French new wave. Demy’s magical story shows that one person's happy ending is often another's missed possibility of happiness. Raoul Coutard's lovingly shot black and white widescreen photography of the French atlantic port of Nantes is a plus, as Lola sings and dances and waits for her lover to return, in what was a key movie for both Demy and Aimee.



BAY OF ANGELS – this 1963 drama is a perfect companion piece to his LOLA - making two of the most enjoyable, accessible New Wave classics. Here the images of Jean Rabier, Michel Legrand's music, Jeanne Moreau at her most magnetic with silver blonde hair and a Cardin wardrobe (all in black and white), all wrapped up in 79 minutes in the story of compulsive gamblers in Nice and Monte Carlo whom it seems Demy observes for a time. The film ends with them continuing their gambling - will they stay together? we don't know.... Moreau is at her peak here as the woman for whom gambling is everything having lost her husband, child, jewellery etc. Claude Mann is the rather dull bank clerk who gets the gambling urge (Paul Guers as his gambling friend Caron would be more interesting and attractive in this role) and he and Moreau are soon a team as he brings her luck but he is falling in love... There is the astonishing scene where Moreau reveals what gambling means to her and how money means nothing, as they win, lose, win again ... Moreau didn't care for the "French Bette Davis" tag but it rather applies here. I love the look of this one and the previous LOLA: that widescreen black and white and the lovely theme by Legrand. A French classic indeed.


Then in 1964 his biggest commercial success and still often revived today, the candy-coloured musical THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG, which is entirely sung by the cast, music by Michel Legrand, and it is just sheer perfection. The young Catherine Deneuve and Nino Castelnuovo as the lovers separated by the war, and that marvellous bittersweet climax at the garage in the snow. The colour and backgrounds are now even better than ever on dvd.

There followed his second musical in 1967, THE YOUNG GIRLS OF ROCHEFORT which was bliss to see again recently, to see it in colour and widescreen is magical. It is another all singing musical with great colour and sets – the whole town of Rochefort seems to be dancing at one stage. The sisters Catherine Deneuve and Francoise Dorleac star, with hoofers an older Gene Kelly, George Chakiris and a blonde Jacques Perrin as a lovelorn sailor. It all works perfectly now and I urge anyone who has not seen it to seek it out on dvd, as it is not as well known as the more famous Cherbourg film, it is in fact a perfect 60s film, which I have written about here several times already.

I saw his 1969 film THE MODEL SHOP on release but it had vanished until now and was not appreciated at the time. This made in America film is a love letter to Los Angeles and the lost souls driving the freeways. Anouk Aimee is again Lola here adrift in Los Angeles working as a glamour model to be photographed in a rather seedy studio (it would of course be a sex shop now) and who gets involved with drifter Gary Lockwood waiting to be shipped off to Vietnam. Its a perfect late 60s L A film

The fascinating thing about this film is that Demy and his wife director Agnes Varda had wanted the young Harrison Ford for this role but he was not considered important enough, whereas the rather dull Lockwood had just come off shooting Kubrick’s 2001 A SPACE ODYSSEY.



Next up are two fairy tales, unseen here maybe but big hits in Europe at the time. PEAU D’ANE (DONKEY SKIN) is a perfect 1970 visualisation of the Perrault fairy tale, with Deneuve as the princess who dresses in the donkey skin to escape her father who wants to marry her. Jean Marais is the King, Jacques Perrin the prince and Delphine Seyrig shines as a rather eccentric fairy godmother. It’s a great pleasure to see now.

1972’s THE PIED PIPER is finally on dvd and scenes from it are available in the film THE WORLD OF JACQUES DEMY, a film made by his wife, director Agnes Varda. Pop singer of the time Donovan is the piper and it has a good cast of English regulars including Donald Pleasance and Diana Dors, and it has a nice medieval feel set in Hamelin where rats and plague reign.

His following films do not appear to have been screened in the UK at all and include 1973’s THE SLIGHTLY PREGNANT MAN with Mastroianni and Deneuve (where it is he who is pregnant…), 1979’s LADY OSCAR, UN CHAMBRE EN VILLE (A Room In Town) in 1982 [Dominique Sanda naked under a fur coat!] or 3 PLACES FOR THE 26TH starring Yves Montand in one of his last roles as an older singer/entertainer returning to his home town for a concert.

Agnes Varda, Demy’s wife, is of course a well-regarded director in her own right with films like CLEO FROM 5 TO 7 (reviewed separately here) and LE BONHEUR. I am very pleased to have her 90 minute film THE WORLD OF JACQUES DEMY included in the 2 disk version of UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG and what a delight it is, covering all these films which star the cream of French cinema who all appear here discussing their work with Demy and how much they appreciated him, as well as contributions from Varda and their son. It is now fascinating to see their footage of the very young Harrison Ford in the late 60s, he is also interviewed here as the star he later became.

Varda also made a film herself JACQUET DE NANTES about the childhood of Jacques in Nantes in France, including reference to and scenes from his films, which is also available in the box sets on her films. Her documentary on the making of LES DEMOISELLES and its 25th anniversary reunion is included in it's BFI dvd release.

In all, Jacques Demy would appear to be as well regarded and loved as Francois Truffaut or Louis Malle and for anyone with the least interest in international or European cinema his films are not only wonderfully entertaining in themselves but also key works of the last 40 years.