france in film: part viii
part 8 of blog series in which we continue our journey to paris (& france) through cinéma… here are some french (or french-ish) films i watched recently:
love in the afternoon (1957)
starring: audrey hepburn, gary cooper, maurice chevalier
directed by: billly wilder
for some reason i didn’t take a lot of notes on this one. at the time i watched it i was pretty focused on solving a “plot” problem in my current novel-in-progress. so i was mostly seeing if my main character needed to be obsessed with audrey hepburn or not. and whether such a film (revolving around an affair and attempted murder) was appropriate for a 10 year-old to be obsessed with. deduction: even though a lot went over my head as a kid, this movie was problematic in enough ways for me to make a hard pass on everything except THE HAT. #cryptic #staytuned ;)
french about it:
this is one of the films that audrey made that was actually filmed in paris. (even if a lot of the sets and backdrops look like matte background paintings or slides.)
you may also recognize maurice chevalier (the singing narrator of gigi with leslie caron) as audrey’s private investigator father.
uh, the connotations of the title. c’est vrai français! ;D
places i recognized:
place vendome (the fancy courtyard with an obelisk in front of the ritz paris), the palais garnier (the paris opera house.)
fun about the plot:
audrey’s character is a 19 year-old sheltered cello player studying at the music conservatory in paris in 1940. through a rawther hefty case file on one of the men her dad is investigating, she fancies herself in love with the american playboy for all of his adventures and love affairs around the world. she saves the man’s life from one of her dad’s clients. who’s particularly angry and out for revenge on said american playboy—who is currently having a (parisian) affair with his wife at the ritz. (antics and humorous mishaps ensue when audrey and her cello case get involved.)
what makes it hard to watch:
the hotel neighbor who abuses her dog. (“abuse” might be a strong word, but she does smack it on the behind and put his face in the bathtub overflow when she thinks he’s wet the carpet. i don’t like it.)
the “gypsies” (a word that culture is trying to reclaim from its stereotype) who play live music every day in the american playboy’s suite as he dines and dances his latest conquest. (the music is great though and they do provide comedic relief in a number of scenes!)
the age gap between audrey and her love interest. of course, being a man, the american playboy gets to play around as much he wants. he only falls for (“gives in to”) truly “loving” audrey when she makes him jealous of her made-up lovers. (thanks to her “research” in dad’s case files.)
my thesis:
i love audrey. i love paris. i love this movie minus its problems. but it’s probably not gonna be a 10 year-old’s favourite old film. :)
the 400 blows (1959)
auteur & mise en scène: françois truffaut
french about it:
the depressing childhood of françois truffaut (it’s autobiographical in all its french bleakness of a terrible all-boys school, neglectful and fighting parents, the tiny apartment, the threat of military school, the young protagonist skipping school with his bestie only to see his mother kissing another man on the street corner, etc.)
circling the eiffel tower as a car drives the perimeter of the city as the long opening shot.
the classic breaking the fourth wall at the final shot of the movie, our hero having made it to the waterfront. and freedom. as FIN appears over a still shot of his face.
last week i finished reading hitchcock by truffaut. and like hitchcock, truffaut is terrified of the police. truffaut because to teach him a lesson, his dad had him arrested at a super young age and had him spend the night in jail. not for doing anything wrong, but to put the fear of imprisonment into him. it worked. he was traumatized for life. and that powerful scene is in this film.
the take-away:
it’s a great film to study. because it’s a classic. black and white. emotional. true to life. and indicative of the french new wave cinema: because it is true to life. because it’s not perfectly polished. because it is the director’s own story and trauma on the screen.
recommend:
both the hitchcock book by truffaut. and the documentary hitchcock/truffaut about the making of that book. (my library had the dvd which is the only reason i knew the book existed!) i loved the way the two directors dialogued about their own medium of movie-making. how to tell a story without dialogue. what makes for suspense vs. surprise, and more. my old-movie-loving cinephile heart leapt at both the book and the documentary. (i talked a bit about the documentary on this blog post here; before i bought the book at shakepeare & company in paris in march; and before i read the book in june!)
julie & julia (2009)
starring: meryl streep and amy adams
directed by: nora ephron
“based on two true stories” of two women rebuilding their lives. one (julia child) after world war ii, and one (julie powell) after 9-11 in nyc. julia child of course the infamous author and cooking show hostess behind the art of french cooking, and julie powell, who cooked her way through allllll of the recipies in julia’s book in 365 days and blogged about each one.
french about it:
julia child living in paris with her ambassador husband. “i can’t believe we get to live here!” she proclaims. the french love of food she shares. the french cooking school.
enjoyed about it:
the julia’s cookbook publishing travails. the late 1940s/1950s period piece in paris and the surrounding french countryside complete with costumes and cars of the era.
and because i’m a special-features nerd:
the fact that julia child was 8 inches taller than meryl streep and how her “frankenstein” platform shoes and raised waistlines helped create the cinematic illusion of height! (6’2” vs. 5’6!”)
avenue montaigne (2007)
its french title: fauteuils d’orchestre
written by: danièle thompson
new to me:
i saw “comedie de la français” under two of the actors names in the credits; were they on loan to the studio during their residency with the in-house troupe at the theatre? i’m not sure what this means/entails or implies, but makes me think of the old hollywood studio days when a production company would loan out an actor to another studio who they had under contract.
loved:
this film is a series of intertwined stories. a middle-aged concert pianist no longer content with his life since he’s reached the pinnacle of how far any childhood prodigy could go in his career. (he also hates classical concerts because music is supposed to be for the people; not a privilege for just the wealthy to enjoy.) a young woman whose grandmother (her only family) is in a nursing home and who has nowhere to stay—she finally gets a job as a waitress at a formerly all-male-server café. a woman who is retiring from a lifetime of watching over the theatre and its performers and management. a wealthy art collector selling off the collection he accumulated over his entire lifetime in a 2-hour auction. a famous soap actress who wants to be a real acting role on stage.
close to the theatre complex, where the auction, the concert, and the play are to happen simultaneously is the “bar de thêatres”—where everyone can afford to eat. the wealthy as well as the working class. so all of our characters are at one point or more seen eating or observing, passing through, or serving there.
the action culminates at the bistro for the retirement party of the theatre matron after the auction/concert/and play performance have occurred. (the champs-elysées theatre is a block of three theatres; smaller than the lincoln center complex in nyc, but seems to be the same idea/cultural construction concept.)
french about it:
the sad piano music and the sad paris rain outside the cancer hospital.
the tradition of only hiring male waiters at the bistro.
the streets and rooftop views of paris (incl. the eiffel tower, of course.)
the “pffts” so common in french vernacular as dialogue/acceptable response in conversation.
the ennui, the love affairs. the fake red hair on the theatre matron retiree.
french about it quotes:
“people live too long now.” ~cécile’s grandma
“nobody gets what they want.”
“but you have what everybody wants.”
of brancusi’s sculpture “the kiss” : “it makes me want to be in love.”
“we all have problems! you’re no worse off than anyone. you’re not even a pianist or an actor or rich!”
“you’re my wife, my solider. i’m not at war against you.”
more of what i loved about it:
the collector, the pianist, the actress, and the theatre manager’s interwoven stories. even if they don’t all meet, they are connected through the waitress (cécile, who looks like a young, tall meg ryan), and perhaps a dash of Fate.
i loved the ethos of the pianist. that classical music should be open to those who only know pop music. (we do see waitress cécile wander in to the performance hall while he’s rehearsing and take off her headphones. powerful.)
his “final” performance is also incredibly emotional. after the finale, he disrobes down to his tee-shirt. he leaves the stage like a championship boxer, then runs from his fans on the street.
i loved the insular nature of the film director coming to the actress’ play performance and then taking her to lunch and all the schmoozing that accompanies such an interview when he asks her about her “dream role.” (particularly because the man in the role is an actual director, sydney pollock, as the american director who has taken her to lunch.)
“this film is about both chance and dissatisfaction.” ~director and author danièle thompson
“it’s human nature, i believe, to always yearn for more, or less, or something different.” ~danièle thompson
cléo de 5 a 7 (1962)
a “scénario et réalisation” written & directed by: agnès varda
(agnès varda being one of the only, if not the only, female french new wave directors; wife of jacques demy—the director of the umbrellas of cherbourg and the young girls of rochefort which we’ve already blogged about.)
cléo de 5 a 7 feels like surrealism x film noir. there are quick cuts, shaky hand cams for realism, close-ups and mirrors…and it’s one of my absolute favourite french films i’ve seen yet. (minus the gross sidewalk “carnival” acts. but they served their life/death shock value, perhaps.)
the film’s opening credits begin in color, an overhead table shot of a tarot reading. then we move to black and white for the faces. and the rest of the film.
for the next two hours, we are in the minute-by-minute life of a woman (a famous singer) about to find out if she has cancer. it revolves thematically around fate, broken mirrors, superstitions, questions of career, art, and romance.
there are time-stamps throughout as cléo in her (lucky) polka dot dress goes throughout these tenuous two hours.
intense people, and scenery, watch and wait in light of looming death. it’s melodramatic and odd in all the best kinds of french ways!
french about it (at least for the era):
the eyeliner
jaywalking*
women in heels
crazy hats
fashion*
attentive store clerks*
orologist store*
men cat-call/flirt-whistling as they pass her cab
the nude model posing for the sculpture class
gates/courtyard/narrow stairs to apartment
the fancy robe she wears to “exercise”
*still true
some of my favourite (& oh-so-french) quotes:
“please don’t cry like that. what will my customers think? i’m not a bird of bad fortune.” ~the psychic
“don’t rush away, pretty butterfly
ugliness is a kind of death…
as long as i’m beautiful, i’m alive.” ~cléo to herself in the mirror
“coffee will make you more agitated.
all right, then
a little of what you fancy…
coffee can excite you one day
and calm you down the next
what was bad for you one day
may help you the next.” ~cléo’s friend trying to console her at the café
“doctors talk you into dying.”
“everything suits me.
trying things on intoxicates me.” ~cléo in the hat shoppe
“never wear new clothes on a tuesday—you’re asking for trouble.”
“never even carry new things on tuesdays.” ~cléo’s assistant
“if i died, he wouldn’t be upset.
he’d be surprised.” ~cléo
“what are you thinking about?”
“people die easily nowadays.
especially artists.”
“everyone spoils me. no one loves me.” ~cléo
paris when it sizzles (1964)
starring: william holden and audrey hepburn
(they also starred together in sabrina which we talked about briefly in my second french film blog post linked right there for ya!)
amazing:
okay. so i might have a favourite audrey hepburn movie. this one is silly and delightful and a wee bit completely absurd.
william holden is a screenwriter who’s wiled away his paid writing time (and advance) wooing women across the most beautiful vacation spots across europe. meanwhile, his producer sends daily telegrams from the french coast (while complaining of the rigors of being in hollywood) to check in on his progress. the producer has sent a girl from the typing agency to holden’s paris hotel room so that upon his arrival in paris in three days, he can retrieve the guaranteed-to-be-a-hit script.
audrey arrives to william’s hotel room, typewriter case in hand (and in custom givenchy, of course) only to discover this famous screenwriter hasn’t written a word.
over the course of the next few days, leading up to the city-wide street party that is bastille day, we, the audience, are treated to a movie-within -a-movie as the two collaborate (and star within) all the nonsense that this thriller (“the girl who stole the eiffel tower”) could be.
the dialogue is snappy, the banter charming, and (both scripts) full of hollywood making fun of its own industry of movie-making. and the writing process itself.
paris when it sizzles is also the silliest, most sensual and slightly suggestive and the absolute most goofy i’ve ever seen audrey—which was a bit off-putting at first watch. we’re so used to her elegance and serious tone, right? but audrey crouched on the floor of the taxi on the way to the costume party at the eiffel tower because her medieval cone hat was too tall to fit inside the car? worth it.
(also, for some odd reason, between his fake tan and haircut and wardrobe, william holden looks JUST like tom hanks in so many shots! bizarre!)
cringe-y:
there is the lingering gaze of the producer into the cleavage of a curvy, bikini-clad french girl in the opening sequence to contend with. (how #metoo producer-like, no?) but otherwise i find the movie perfect in its absurdity. and i always love to see hollywood make fun of itself. this movie (within-a-movie) is in on the joke.
i also appreciated:
released seven years after funny face (the paris/fashion musical starring audrey & fred astaire), one of the songs sung on the soundtrack is fred astaire singing “that face.”
in addition to a breakfast at tiffany’s call out (starring audrey, 1961), there’s also a pygmalion / my fair lady reference. (audrey, 1964): “i don’t see how frankenstein and my fair lady are the same…”
there’s a mention of asbury park, new jersey. (where i attended elementary school for a few years!)
french about it:
it’s full of the greatest number of parisian exteriors i’ve ever seen in one of audrey’s paris films. (at least for the establishing shots; not sure how many street or restaurant scenes were filmed elsewhere or on studio/soundstage territory.)
while most of paris when it sizzles happens within the hotel room where she’s typing as he (finally) writes the script, there are oodles of familiar paris monuments and buildings—and a fair number of places i missed myself while i was over there this march! return pilgrimage trip required! :D
for example: are those fountains on the other side of the eiffel tower real?! there was fencing around the base on the one side of the tower i got closest to when i was there most recently so i never saw them. but i also didn’t walk the entire perimeter.
some favourite quotes:
“…with the almost lunatic narcissism peculiar to his curious calling…” ~william holden in voice-over as tony curtis as a method actor within the movie-within-a-movie approaches audrey as her paramour
“i’m sorry, but some of these days i just feel like what’s-his-name in les miserables.”
“jean val jean.”
“i suppose so.”
“don’t editorialize. just start typing.”
“unfortunately, miss simpson, we are not writing a musical!”
“how can the sensors object? we dissolved, didn’t we?”
“and now, darling, [they] make their way to the elevator which will carry them, and us, to the inevitable party scene—so dear to the hearts of movie directors everywhere. it’s summer time and the vita is dolce, the breakfast is at tiffany’s, and everybody is high.”
“and now that the director has distracted the audience with these totally extraneous vignettes, he reluctantly returns to the plot.”
“you are a third policeman—you shouldn’t have any lines at all. so shut up and drive!”
“you’re merely a literary convenience.”
okay. so i haven’t stopped watching french films.
but i will {probably/peut-être} stop blogging about them for your sake...? ;D
so if you want to talk about françois truffaut’s day to night or jules and jim—or perhaps jacques rivette’s céline and julie go boating or godard’s masculin féminin… i guess we can chat.
but until then, i’ll be watching the criterion bonus features and discovering new quirky films that had yet to cross my radar! suggestions welcome in the comments below! (& fingers crossed the library has them!) :D