Preparing your trip: movies

I don’t know where to start, so many movies take place in Paris… Breathless, Frantic, Charade (and The truth about Charlie, which is not the best remake ever made), Paris je t’aime, Amelie, Children of paradise, An american in Paris (mostly filmed in Hollywood’s studio, but who cares ?), The 400 blows, Moulin Rouge, Last Tango in Paris, Ronin, La femme Nikita… and maybe hundreds more. And I should not forget Sex and the city, since Carrie follows her russian lover in Paris, which turns into a nightmare before she gets rescued by M.Big and gets a wonderful declaration « Carrie, you’re the one » on the Pont des Arts – so corny, so cliché, but still, I cried.

Everybody says Paris is soooo romantic, I’m not sure I guess why. But I definitely know that among other things, narrow streets of cobblestones (thank you Simon & Garfunkel), sunshine on Notre Dame’s gargoyles or making out on the Luxembourg’s benches is quite appealing. Even if I never make out on benches. Anyway. I apologize for my TOP 4, there are only romantic movies, but I like that. Action movies, kung-fu movies and sci-fi movies as well but most of them don’t take place in Paris neither help in understanding the French.

#4 – Amelie from Montmartre (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2001)

Even though it is going to give you a completely distorded and wrong idea of Paris, I think you have to watch this one. It got a lot of bad reviews in France: too silly, too kind, too romantic, too poetic, too nostalgic (some say this is nostalgia for Pétain’s collaborationist France…), but I’ll just say french movie critics are mostly annoying – and 32 millions people actually agree with me . Plus, the soundtrack is awesome (Yann Tiersen).

A young, solitary and quite unfriendly girl accidentally finds in her flat an old box full of someone else’s souvenirs. She decides to give it back to the owner, and if it makes him happy, she’s going to do some good to more people. In the meantime, she has to deal with her own happiness when she meets a guy who’s collecting identity pictures.

# 3- Two days in Paris (Julie Delpy, 2007)

Directed, written and played by Julie Delpy, who is perfect in this role: semi-psycho/ loony / crazy but fun and engaging french woman (and also sings quite well). She might as well be one in real life, but I kind of identify with her – which may not be so good. Two days in Paris is a little bit caricatural, but really hilarious sometimes.

A couple, she’s french, he’s american, and they get to spend two days in Paris. The poor guy won’t be spared: he’ll meet the crazy family, tons of ex boyfriends, racist taxi drivers,  discover strange french customs, tryito order a burger and so on.

# 2 – Broken english (Zoe Cassavetes, 2007)

I especially love this one because it does actually sound really « right » – the characters, the situations, the dialogues, and it does have a lot of sensibility. It’s not unforgettable, but it deserves to be watched. The soundtrack is great as well (Scratch Massive – the intro music is pure poetry).

Nora, a thirty something single new yorker, not so happy with her life, meets Julien, a cute and fun french guy. They have an affair, he goes back to France, and she decides, out of nowhere, to fly there and find him. She loses his number, meets a strange woman who thinks she’s her grand daughter and some other odd french people – but it gets better in the end.

# 1 – Before sunset (Richard Linklater, 2004)

One of my favourite romantic movies and one of the best of all times (OK, let’s not forget Casablanca, An affair to remember and hundreds more). It’s Before Sunrise’s sequel, so you have to watch it first (and then decide to go to Vienna as well). These two movies are impressive: nothing huge happens, it’s just about two people meeting, talking (for hours in real life, only for one and a half hour in the movie, so it’s perfectly bearable), and becoming intimate. Sounds boring ? Believe me, it is not, mostly because Delpy and Hawke have a real chemistry. By the way, the two trailers are really bad. But I guess if you love action movies, soccer, beer, and fighting when you’re drunk, you won’t enjoy those movies.

They met in a train, spent one day together in Vienna, kind of liked each other and were supposed to meet again on the same platform in a few months. Nine years later, he comes in Paris, meets her  « accidentally », and guess what ? Same chemistry, same intimacy, and a lot of talking and hanging around.

Coming soon: Preparing your trip: songs.

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