Paris, Je T'aime Pictures

14e Arrondissement

Bastille

Faubourg Saint-Denis

Le Marais

Loin du 16e

Parc Monceau

Père-Lachaise

Pigalle

Place des Fetes

Place des Victoires

Porte de Choisy

Quais de Seine

Quartier de la Madeleine

Quartier des Enfants Rouges

Quartier Latin

Montmartre

Tuileries

Tour Eiffel

Here's the trailer!

Caitlin

Film Review #11- Paris, Je T'aime

Hello, and happy 2012 to all my lovely readers! One of my resolutions this year is to post more on here. I'm hoping to focus on film reviews, although I will be putting up other things, like music and book reviews (I'm hoping to FINALLY post my review of Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources soon). 

Anyway, I'll start as I mean to go on with my eleventh film review. My friend Kendra leant this DVD to me (thanks Kendra!) and when I read the back of the box, I was immediately intrigued. In case you don't know, "Paris, Je T'aime" is a film consisting of eighteen short films all on the theme of love in Paris. I was originally going to write a eighteen separate short reviews for each film, but I decided against it as, in my opinion, one of the great things about the film was the fact that at the end of each part, you get excited about what the next part is going to be about. 

Another thing I loved about it was that each segment was directed by a different director, so they all had a slightly different feel to them (this was more apparent in some of the more "odd" sections of the film). What I found really interesting was that each director had several guidelines that they had to keep to- each short film had to be around five minutes long and had to be shot in one area of Paris (each mini film is named after the area it was filmed in) in only two days. The fact that the film covered 18 different areas of Paris made me feel like I really knew the city by the end of it, yet at the same time, the fact that it dealt with individual stories in each different area kept it intimate. I've never seen a film before that has managed to do this. It was unique! Also, before I watched it, I expected that it would get boring and that only five minutes wouldn't be long enough for the audience to connect with the characters or for the individual stories to develop. I was wrong, though, each story was filmed so that it was captivating from the very beginning. It baffles me how talented each directer must be to achieve this.

As I said earlier, I'm not going to tell you about every segment of the film (although I will post photos from each part later), however, I will write a little on the parts that made the biggest impression on me.

Firstly, the part entitled "Parc Monceau" was one of my favourites- it was very simple but cleverly filmed and written. At first, it seemed (to me, at least) to be about a young married woman who is tied down by her husband and is having an affair with an older man. They walk down the street in the evening and she complains that if her "husband" wakes up and she's not there, he will be angry. However, it turns out that her "husband" is actually her baby son, who she is leaving with her dad, the older man, in order to go out for the evening with her partner. 

There were also three segments that I found really interesting, not necessarily because I enjoyed them the most, but just because the way they were filmed were so different to the others. The first, called "Porte de Choisy" seemed to be about a man trying to sell hair products especially designed for Asian hair (I couldn't say for sure though, it was a bit confusing), the second, called "Quartier de la Madeleine" was about a young man wandering through the streets of Paris at night when he comes across, and falls in love with, a vampire (yes, a vampire). The third was called "Tour Eiffel", and was about two mimes (of course) who meet in prison and fall in love, and who have a strangely normal-looking (and incredibly adorable) little boy. 

However, I think the most memorable of all eighteen films was the last one, "14e arrondissement". This was about a middle aged American woman visiting Paris for the first time, on her own. She narrates the film in a bad French accent (we find out that she is reading out something she has written about her trip to her French class), which makes it very personal- you can really feel her pain when she asks a shop assistant (in French) where a good restaurant is, and she replies (in English) "Sure! You like Chinese food?". There's a special feeling to this part of the film- it makes it really quite beautiful. The last few lines of it, I think, summarise the entire film, and the feeling that I have gotten when I've visited Paris in the past: 

"Sitting there, alone in a foreign country, far from my job and everyone I know, a feeling came over me. It was like remembering something I'd never known before or had always been waiting for, but I didn't know what. Maybe it was something I'd forgotten or something I've been missing all my life. All I can say is that I felt, at the same time, joy and sadness. But not too much sadness, because I felt alive. Yes, alive. That was the moment I fell in love with Paris. And I felt Paris fall in love with me."

I think I'll end it there. I really hope you watch this, it's brilliant. Overall,
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 
I'll put the pictures on another post (I can't seem to fit them on this one!)


Caitlin

Film Review #8- La Vie en Rose

(I normally call it La Mome, but I can't remember how to get the 'hat' on the 'o')

Just a word of warning before I begin.
I love Edith Piaf.
I love her.
I love her songs.
I love this film.
So I may go a bit crazy at some point.

For those of you who don't know, La Vie en Rose is a "biopic" (I believe that's what they're called) about the life of Edith Piaf. It was made in 2007 and was directed by Olivier Dahan, starring Marion Cotillard as Edith.

I suppose the most interesting thing about this film is that it's not in chronological order, so it doesn't "plod" along. In fact, the first scene is set (I think) in 1959, which was towards the end of her life. For me, this is important because you can connect the older woman to the young child (and, believe me, she changes a lot). The contrast between the young and old Edith, in fact, is so great that it makes the film even more moving. I found the last part of the film particularly sad (both me and mum were blubbing along to the music; even my dad looked a bit upset), when the singer is dying and we are shown a clip of her younger self in the middle of a field, if I remember correctly. Writing this now, it doesn't sound, even to me, particularly upsetting, but it really is when you watch it. 

Another thing I found interesting was Dahan's portrayal of Edith. I've heard (although I'm not sure if this is true or not) that he was not particularly a fan of the singer, and he certainly does not portray her as someone you'd want to be friends with. I think the audience is meant to feel sympathy for the younger Edith, but otherwise, she is not the most amiable of characters. In one scene, for example, she is in a restaurant with some friends, and demands that she is given a gift, either a diamond ring or free champagne. She's also often shown taking drugs, and drinking alcohol regularly. I like that about this film, though. It makes it more real, and if Dahan had wanted to portray her in a positive light, it would be too clichéd in my opinion
 

As I may have mentioned before, we discussed this film at my Monday film course (which is tonight, woopee!). I think the main issue that people had with it was that it completely missed out the war period. I'd never noticed this before, and now that I have, it's really annoying! This would, I think, be my only criticism of an otherwise amazing film. Even though Edith herself wouldn't have been very involved in the Second World War, it was still, obviously, a big part of life then, so I don't understand why Dahan hasn't included it.

Despite that, however, I still think that this film deserves
★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Caitlin

Film Review #7- Amélie

An old film, for a change. I've already seen this one, I guess most people will have. If you haven't, watch it. It is sensational. It's funny, clever, well-made and just the cutest and most uplifting film ever!

"Amélie", directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, is a comedy film, I suppose. It begins with a narrator who announces the small events that happened at the exact time that Amélie was conceived. It's a strange opening, but it's nice, and I like the narrator as well because it makes the film even more unique. 

Essentially, the film is about Amélie falling in love with Nino, a collector of discarded photo booth photos. It doesn't happen conventionally, in fact he doesn't know who she is until the end.

However, it's also about Amélie anonymously helping people- she sets up two people at the café where she works, fashions a fake letter in order to convince her landlady that her late husband really did love her (a few similarities to Beautiful Lies, perhaps?), and also teachers a mean shopkeeper a lesson.

There's also a mystery in the film, just to add another genre to it. In Nino's album of discarded photos, the same man appears twelve times. Amélie believes he's a ghost- a man scared of being forgotten (which, it turns out, is not the case). When we do find out the identity of the mysterious man, it's a bit of an anticlimax, I think. In some ways, though, it kind of makes the film better, and more like real life.

The way this is filmed is just amazing. It has an almost nostalgic feel to it, and it's so bright, you could almost imagine it as a children's film. The way that film and photos are used in the movie are also very clever; in one instance, Amélie imagines watching a documentary about her own death on TV, explaining how she died of exhaustion, trying to help as many people as she could. At another point, Nino is in bed, when one of his photos talks to him, and tells him about Amélie.

Luncheon of the Boating Party- Renoir

The characters in the film are all really unique, like everything else in this film. Every major character is introduced by the narrator: "This is... He/she likes... He/she doesn't like...". For example, Amélie's father dislikes peeing next to someone else and clingy wet swimming trunks, and likes emptying his tool box, cleaning it out, and putting everything back. There's also "The Glass Man" who was born with bones as brittle as glass, and who spends his life in his flat replicating Renoir's "Luncheon of the Boating Party". However, my favourite character has to be Amélie. My parents say I'm a bit like her, so maybe that's why.
Overall, I think Amélie is truly inspiring. It's one of those rare films you get every now and again which are so beautiful and uplifting, and put your faith back in life when you think you no longer have any.

So, it's my first (for a film, anyway)
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ (and it more than deserves it)

Caitlin

Book Review #1- 'La Peste' by Albert Camus

Yes, I finally finished yesterday. I would've posted this straight away but it's one of those books that you have to think carefully about before you understand it properly. Even after sleeping on it, I still doubt I understand it fully. I suppose that's the best thing about books- you can interpret it in your own way.

For this review, I'm going to quote bits from the French, then tell you what it means in English using the English version my mum downloaded on her Kindle.



This was the version of the book I read.

I truly don't know where to start. I suppose firstly I'll say that this was an amazing book. I admit that at the start I was thinking "Where is this going?" and "How much can he write about a plague?", but by the time I had read the first part, I was loving it. 
'La Peste' or 'The Plague' is set in the 1940's in Oran, an Algerian town. The main character, Bernard Rieux, is a doctor who at the beginning of the book steps on a dead rat outside his surgery. In the next few days, more and more dead rats appear around Oran, and eventually, this leads to a plague that lasts for almost a year.

What I found interesting is that reading this book is very unlike learning about the Black Death in history. I suppose this is obvious, but it's about how the people of Oran live life during the plague. When you learn about the Black Death or other plagues, you learn how many people died, what living conditions were like and how it spread, but you very rarely look at it like a story.

The plague has often been interpreted as a metaphor for Nazism, and this was the thing that took me a while (and the help of my mum with whom I spent about half an hour last night discussing the novel) to figure out. I think that this is particularly clear at the end of the novel:

"le bacille de la peste ne meurt ni ne disparaît jamais... il peut rester pendant des dizaines d'années endormi dans les meubles et le linge... et... peut-être, le jour viendrait où, pour le malheur et l'enseignement des hommes, la peste réveillerait ses rats et les enverrait mourir dans une cité heureuse"

(meaning "the plague bacillus never dies or disappears for good... it can lie dormant for years and years in furniture and linen-chests... and... perhaps the day would come when, for the bane and the enlightening of men, it would rouse up its rats again and send them forth to die in a happy city"). I suppose that here, plague refers to fascist ideas- they never completely disappear but hide until someone like Hitler discovers them and then "the plague" strikes again.

Of course, this is related to the metaphorical plague that Tarrou speaks of. He is opposed to the death penalty, and describes  (meaning "dirty mouths stinking of plague told a fettered man that he was going to die"). However, he can't oppose this "plague" without killing people himself, and therefore, he too has "plague". He explains to Rieux that

"des sales bouches empestées annonçaient à un homme dans les chaînes qu'il allait mourir"

"nous étions tous dans la peste"

 ("we all have plague"), and that

"nous ne pouvions pas faire un geste en ce monde sans risquer de faire mourir"

  ("we can't stir a finger in this world without the risk of bringing death to somebody"). I think this, too, refers to Nazism- perhaps the "dirty mouths" are Nazis, telling a Jew, for example (they hated Jews and many died when Hitler was in power) that he was going to die. Of course, the Allies (including the French) opposed the Nazis and fought against them. However, in order to defeat them, many Germans were killed, and so the Allies were guilty of murder as well, therefore they too had "the plague".

By the way, I might be completely wrong about this so if anyone has any other ideas please comment :)
Anyway, moving on...



A picture of Albert Camus

One of the main things I loved about this novel was the characters. They were so interesting and so well described that I felt as if I knew them myself.  I also enjoyed the mystery of the identity of the narrator, which, I have to admit, was a slight disappointment when revealed at the end of the novel, but that's only a minor criticism. A particularly interesting character, in my opinion, was Cottard, mainly because he didn't want the plague to end. This was because he had committed a crime (we never find out what it is that he has done) and feels no danger of being sent to prison during the plague because everyone is concerned with the plague itself, and not with criminals. In my opinion (going back to the metaphor for Nazism), Cottard is almost like a Nazi- he is protected by the "plague" from being punished from something which, in ordinary times, he would have been arrested for. I don't know if this argument is plausible, especially seeing as Camus does not  portray him as evil, but more as a sinister character.

Something else that I found interesting was the use of dates. At the very beginning, the dates are always stated (Rieux steps on the rat on the 16th April, etc.). However, when the plague really starts, the reader is not told the exact dates, instead, the narrator describes seasons and months. I just thought that was really interesting- it shows the time scale of the plague, and also sort of shows that no one really 'lives' any more- they drift through life not really living in the moment.

I'm not going to write any more. There's so much more I could write, but I think I've babbled on quite enough already (it's starting to become more of an essay than a review). Anyway, if you've read it and have any opinions, please share them!

Overall, I'd definitely give this novel
★ ★ ★ ★ ★

As always, please comment and share your opinions. If you haven't read 'La Peste', I would definitely recommend it!

Caitlin

P.S. I have sorted out the formatting problems :)