PARIS BLUES. (1961) BASED ON THE 1957 NOVEL BY HAROLD FLENDER. DIRECTED BY MARTIN RITT. MUSIC BY DUKE ELLINGTON. CINEMATOGRAPHY BY CHRISTIAN MATRAS.
STARRING PAUL NEWMAN, SIDNEY POITIER, JOANNE WOODWARD, DIAHANN CARROLL, BARBARA LAAGE AND LOUIS ARMSTRONG.
REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS.
Here's a riddle for you, movie fans:
Question: Why did Paul Newman throw an apple into the Seine?
Answer: Because it's in the script, silly...!
Excuse me. Just a little in-joke for folks who've seen the film, haha. Anyway, talk about the film doing exactly what it says on the tin. It's called PARIS BLUES and it's set in Paris, filmed entirely on location in Paris and it's a film about jazz musicians who totally get the blues when they meet a couple of dames who force them to think long and hard about their life choices.
Paul Newman at the height of his broody handsomeness plays Ram Bowen, a trombone-player, and Sidney Poitier a jazz saxophonist called Eddie Cook. Both men are American expatriates who've ended up living in Paris, sleeping by day and playing their hearts out by night in a smoky little jazz club called MARIE SÉOUL.
Club-owner Marie Séoul, who's a dead ringer for gorgeous HAMMER actress Barbara Shelley, is Ram's sometimes-lover but he doesn't treat her very well. He's one of these really aggravating men (all men, then, in other words!) who doesn't want to be tied down (again, all men!) and he freaks out any time a woman tries to get him to commit to so much as a chicken dinner.
Apparently, their relationship allows for Ram to have affairs with any pretty girls he happens to see around the place without worrying about Marie's feelings. Marie, undoubtedly a woman of the world, just has to bide her time and Ram will come back to her when he's all tuckered out. You can see she's dreadfully hurt by his callous behaviour, though. He's a real louse, if you ask me.
Marie's obviously madly in love with Ram but she has to play it cool or she'll lose him for good. I hate men like that. They keep their bags permanently packed and they've always got one eye on the door. Yeah, I've known guys like that...! Anyway, one day a girl arrives on the scene who may prove more problematic for poor Marie than the average one-night-stand...
Her name is Lillian Corning and she's played by Paul Newman's real-life, long-time missus, Joanne Woodward. She's a slim, pretty little blonde slip of a thing and she's come over to Paris from America for two weeks' vacation in the autumn with her friend Connie Lampson.
At first, with her soft sweet voice, innocent face and white coat, I thought Lillian was a prim, prissy little virginal type who wouldn't say boo to a goose. I was gobsmacked, therefore (I believe that that's the technical term...!), to find out that she's a deserted wife with two kids who's quite at ease with her own sexuality.
On the first night of her vacation, she beds Ram and falls head-over-heels in love with him as well, despite his repeated warnings to her regarding his fickle nature. He keeps telling her that he's married to his music and he's not the settling down type and she's only going to get hurt if she persists in her attempts to tie him down. But of course, she persists and hey, whaddya know, she gets hurt. It's a funny old world, isn't it...?
Sidney Poitier as Eddie and Diahann Carroll as Connie have their problems as a couple too. They fall genuinely in love and Eddie doesn't seem to pull any of Ram's 'don't tie me down, baby' nonsense.
But Connie, being a woman and thinking she knows what's best for everyone, thinks that Eddie's run away to Paris from the States when he really belongs back home in America, fighting for his civil rights as a black man and trying to make a go of things in the place where his home really is. Eddie's not convinced, though. He likes where he's at now, but Connie won't give up until she's persuaded him to come back to America with her...
I always prefer the male-female relationships in a film to other elements but, of course, the music in PARIS BLUES is legendary too for a number of reasons. For one thing, the famous soundtrack was composed by American pianist, composer and bandleader Duke Ellington, who was nominated for an Oscar for his work on the film.
Also, the film famously stars the wonderfully smiley Louis Armstrong as jazz virtuoso Wild Man Moore, a friend and idol of Ram's and Eddie's. There are two marvellous scenes in which he takes part. In the first, he's playing his trumpet out the window of a railway carriage to the delight of the watching crowd. In the second, he joins the lads at their club for an impromptu performance which thrills everyone who sees it.
Check out the scene at the end where Wild Man Moore's billboard serves as a metaphor for what's happening in the film. It's sad but accurate. Good or bad, life goes on. The film is black-and-white, by the way, which seems to suit it, and it's chock-full of gorgeous images of Paris streets, parks and riverside walks. In black-and-white, it's utterly stunning to look at. Much like Joanne Woodward in that gravity-defying little basque...!
This terrific film is out this October in a Dual Format Edition (DVD/Blu-Ray discs) courtesy of those lovely people at the British Film Institute. Complete with some great extra features, it forms part of their BLACK STAR season of film and television screenings, special events and home entertainment releases 'all dedicated to celebrating the range, versatility and power of black actors,' in this case obviously Sidney Poitier and Diahann Carroll.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY OF SANDRA HARRIS.
Sandra Harris is a Dublin-based novelist, film blogger and movie reviewer. She has studied Creative Writing and Film-Making. She has published a number of e-books on the following topics: horror film reviews, multi-genre film reviews, womens' fiction, erotic fiction, erotic horror fiction and erotic poetry. Several new books are currently in the pipeline. You can browse or buy any of Sandra's books by following the link below straight to her Amazon Author Page:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B015GDE5RO
You can contact Sandra at:
http://sandrafirstruleoffilmclubharris.wordpress.com
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