Phantom Laddies Over Paris
Regular Shadowplayer Paul Duane and I are in Paris for a few days — in Top Secret Shadowplay Business!
Posting will continue as abnormal, but I might be less able to take part in comments until my return (Sunday). Still, for the duration of my stay, all posts will have some sort of vaguely French theme, starting with this week’s edition of The Forgotten, at The Daily Notebook. Please comment there on the film under discussion, here on all things Parisian, including good cheap places to eat, and things to avoid eating.
February 23, 2012 at 1:54 pm
February 23, 2012 at 1:56 pm
February 23, 2012 at 1:58 pm
February 23, 2012 at 2:20 pm
What an utterly splendid film MARGUERITE is!
I would sell my soul for Yves Montand’s devil any day…
February 23, 2012 at 2:20 pm
February 23, 2012 at 2:23 pm
“Thank God the French exist” – Woody Allen
I’m currently learning French in the grand hope that in a few years I might be able to read Proust dans l’originale.
February 23, 2012 at 2:24 pm
“Everyone has two homes, their own and Paris” – Max Ophuls.
February 23, 2012 at 2:28 pm
February 23, 2012 at 2:29 pm
February 23, 2012 at 10:19 pm
Old Claude wasn’t so bad: he made a star out of Gerard Philipe (LE DiABLE AU CORPS). He was the Nouvelle Vague’s scapegoat.
February 23, 2012 at 10:33 pm
It’s his later years as a fright-wigged LePen supporter that ruined him for me, but I do prefer to think of an embittered frustrated filmmaker rather than a pure fascist.
He undoubtedly had talent though.
February 23, 2012 at 11:54 pm
What a weird 180.
Once of his last films Gloria was greatly admired by Cahiers.
February 24, 2012 at 12:28 am
don’t forget to visit the Grand Guignol..and don’t ride the Guillotine.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=st32Fb27yNc&w=420&h=315%5D
February 24, 2012 at 12:34 am
Have you ever visited The Rex? You might get a kick out of the kitschy backstage tour: http://celluloidtongue.wordpress.com/2011/06/22/paris-les-etoiles-du-rex/
February 24, 2012 at 1:25 am
Off-Topic: Todd’s Mildred.
February 24, 2012 at 1:32 am
lol..”All good americans should come here to die..”-Fred Astaire..Always liked that number from Funny Face…
love the Max Ophuls quote..
February 24, 2012 at 8:45 am
The Rex looks a must!
February 24, 2012 at 9:04 am
So is! A great-looking repertory house is just across and up the street too. Sadly, we didn’t have time to inspect it too closely.
February 24, 2012 at 10:13 am
Arthur, you will enjoy reading Proust in French.
David, apropos Paris….
February 24, 2012 at 10:20 am
Arthur, you will enjoy reading Proust in French.
David, apropos Paris…..
February 24, 2012 at 10:23 am
I sent that twice by mistake.
By the way, the cinema Accattone near the Sorbonne is worth visiting. It’s named after the Pasolini film.
February 24, 2012 at 10:27 am
Your excursion to the City of Lights, David, wouldn’t happen to have anything to do with this, I don’t suppose?: http://sunsetgun.typepad.com/sunsetgun/2012/02/over-eighty-percent-of-silent-films-are-lost-ive-always-considered-a-lost-film-as-a-narrative-with-no-known-resting-fi.html
February 24, 2012 at 10:29 am
Er, *Light. Blast these eager fingers.
February 24, 2012 at 10:44 am
The other Paris cinema I’d recommend (if it’s still in operation) is the Brady, which is run by actor-director Jean-Pierre Mocky. My partner and I went there for a double bill of PEE WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE and HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER. A typically eccentric bit of programming…although I had to watch the second film through my fingers. Oh, and don’t visit the men’s room unless you’re in search of adventure!
February 24, 2012 at 2:49 pm
Re good cheap places to eat: what part of Paris are you spending most of your time in?
February 24, 2012 at 4:10 pm
Jean-Pierry Mocky is long overdue for “Shadowplay”
Barely known at all in english-speaking countries he begins with Franju’s Le Tete Contre les Murs which he wrote and starred in, goe sthough a great number of teriffic films he wrote directed and also starred in, plus there’ Godard’s James Hadley Chase adaptation Grandeur et decadence d’un petit commerce du cinema starring Mocky and Jean-Pierre Leaud.
February 24, 2012 at 4:11 pm
February 24, 2012 at 4:12 pm
Oh hell. That was Gus’ sequence.
February 24, 2012 at 4:16 pm
February 24, 2012 at 8:13 pm
James Joyce used to dine at the restaurant Polidor, rue Monsieur-le-Prince. It’s not too far from the Accattone cinema.
I recently watched Duvivier’s Poil de carotte, the sound version from 1932. It’s a lovely film.
February 25, 2012 at 1:02 am
Love Poil de Carotte, he managed to improve on his excellent silent version.
We’re zooming around Paris, so there isn’t one area we can focus on. But we’re eating very well. Cinematheque tomorrow!
I did write about Mocky for The Forgotten once — on the very weird Litan.
February 25, 2012 at 4:10 am
February 26, 2012 at 12:38 pm
Jean-Pierre Mocky dates back well before LA TETE CONTRE LES MURS.
See him in Francesco Maselli’s1955 GLI SBANDATI (ABANDONED) as a troubled rich boy in watime Italy, with Lucia Bose as his valiant partisan girlfriend and the sublime Isa Miranda as his decadent mamma. Not a great film, perhaps, but well worth it for the cast!
February 26, 2012 at 2:24 pm
Wow. Thanks for the Heads-up!
Mocky has a walk on in Godard’s Prenom:Carmen in a scene at an asylum where he walks aroudn screaming “Y-a-t’il un Francais dans la salle?” — which was the title of his then-just-released film.
February 26, 2012 at 7:57 pm
Product placement!
Just back home and found your DVD waiting for me, David E. Many thanks!
February 27, 2012 at 11:08 am
Going on the Rex tour one day, and the Cinemathéque tour the next, was a very strange juxtaposition. One features the head of Mrs Bates. The other features the face of George Clooney poorly projected onto a balloon. Both left us giddy, in very different ways. Thanks for the heads-up, Celluloid Tongue!
February 27, 2012 at 11:22 am
More on these deeply strange and satisfying experiences soon!