Originally Published in Print, April 2022.
My name is Eve and I was looking forward to season two of Emily in Paris. There. I said it. The first season came out when I was in the hospital and I thought “for what this is: this is okay”. Their slick Paris set filled with good bread, hot chefs and a bank account not teetering on the minuses, felt like a world where nothing could go wrong. By the time I was back home, the Parisians had already descended with their pitchforks. It was tasteless, ignorant, Americana. The return of Darren Star’s stellar series makes for comforting TV, but churns up a lot of questions about making an uninformed cartoon out of a culture. For those craving the buttery comfort of Paris without the exoticised filling: I’ve got you covered.
Eden (2014)
In this film, director Mia Hansen-Love asks “what happens once everyone has gone home from the party?” As she tracks the parallel early rise of Daft Punk and her DJ brother, Paul (Felix de Givry) the film steams up with the immersive heat of summertime Paris as the sticky sweetness of too many untethered nights rubs off. The film follows the highs of Paul’s pursuit of musical success, as well as the love he let fall away as a result. His spending catches up with him as his audience shrinks and he comes to terms with a once acceptable but now untenable coke habit. One to watch if you want to get in your feels to the tune of some late 2000s raving bops.
Breathless (1960)
Typical of Jean-Luc Godard, Breathless is a sexually charged will-they won’t-they tale of no-good Jean-Paul Belmondo’s Michel and his vigorous pursuit of an American reporter named Patricia (Jean Seberg). Michel is on the run and the two roam the streets of Paris as he tries to convince Patricia to come with him. For a film that opens with a police chase, Breathless’s tension in large part comes from the two characters’ professional-level back and forth teasing. It remains dynamic and engaging, and finds time to touch on systematic sexism in the arts industry.
Gagarine (2020)
A dreamlike magical realist tale, Gagarine tells the story of the explosive impact when councils refuse to sustain their community’s housing. After falling out with friends and his mum refusing to let him live with her, Youri (Alseni Bathily) hides out alone in his childhood, soon-to-be-demolished apartment. From such a sad premise comes a burst of creativity by Youri, who, based on extensive research, turns the crumbling place into an outer space, self-sustaining oasis. Along the way comes a touching romance with a Romani girl, Diana (Lyna Khoudri) who is also being corralled out of her home and the humour of a harmless drug dealer who has nowhere else to go. The film recounts the finding of hope when you’ve been dealt an absolutely rubbish hand.
120bpm (2019)
It is clear from the sheer smorgasbord of characters that director Robin Campillo is qualified to tell the story of 120bpm. The film recounts the work of Parisian AIDS activists campaigning around the time of the 1991 hospital-infected blood scandal. As the sexism and hierarchy of power within the community is fleshed out; humour and power are found in a time of justifiably deep anger and darkness. The spectre of the declining T-cell count in the AIDS positive characters looms larger as the film goes on, reaching a climax as deaths start to snowball. The wilting spirit of Sean (Nahuel Perez Biscayart) falling into sickness hammers home the magnitude of losing even one person to a disease that’s been systematically ignored.
Diva (1981)
A young mail carrier, Jules (Frederic Andrei), becomes embroiled in a sinister plot by corrupt cops after a compromising tape accidentally falls into his hands in this indulgent tale. He becomes obsessed with American singer Cynthia (Wilhelmenia Fernandez) and follows her around like a lost puppy. The film can drag at times, not helped by the minimal musical score and the especially feeble motivations of the female characters, but there’s something equally calming about watching a character narrowly escape death again and again, particularly at the hands of cartoon-like villains. Watch for twilight-lit real estate of times past, impeccable 80s overcoats and a remarkably skilled moped-chase down the steps of the Parisian Metro.
Water Lilies (2007)
Water Lillies navigates awkward teenage desire and sex-shaming through the story of gangly Marie (Pauline Acquart), who, attending her friend’s thrashed-out version of synchronised swimming, finds her eye wandering to the elegant leader of the older team: Floriane (Adele Haenel). Like many of Sciamma’s films, Water Lilies contains flashes of the metro, but we never see the characters get above ground in the city; suburbia seems to perpetually suck them back. Although most of the film takes place in the functional architecture of a municipal swimming pool, Water Lilies elevates the everyday life of French teenagers into the electric through Adele Haenel’s magnetic performance.
3 days in Paris (2007)
Created along the lines of her break-out success in Richard Linklater’s ‘Before’ trilogy, Julie Delpy brings us a Parisian romance all grown up. Summer butterflies are traded in for grappling with what it takes to find common ground in a long-term relationship. Quietly brilliant, it fits the bill of a cosy tourist film as the couple wander the beautiful streets. Native Parisian Delpy brings to the fore France’s cultural quirks as well as jostling over the country’s endemic problem with race in one of the film’s most giggle-inducing scenes.
Boy meets Girl (1984)
Boy meets Girl opens with freshly jilted hopeful filmmaker Alex (Dennis Lavant) trying to strangle his best friend on the bank of the Seine and apart from, as the title suggests, his meeting and becoming obsessed with the equally miserable Mireille (Mireille Perrier), the plot wavers thereafter. Revelling in hormone-driven emotions; the film pulls on the optimism of romance. Come for Leo Carax’s unexpectedly refined early style and stay for the charismatic black and white Parisian streets and Elfin-faced Alex’s compelling character.
L’Ami de Mon Amie (1987)
Set in the Brutalist post-war builds of a recently constructed suburb of Paris, L’Amie de mon Amie carries the vague summer air of having nowhere you need to be. Charismatic Lea (Sophie Renoir) befriends frumpy Blanche (Emmanuelle Chaulet) and the pair traverse summer love in this 1987 classic. The most likeable storyline is Blanche’s, as she stumbles into understanding that she is worth being loved. Director Éric Rohmer took artistic direction from painter Nicolas de Stail which manifests itself as engaging and chromatically-pleasing frames. If you can stand action man Alexandre (Francois-Eric Gendron)’s sick smirk and Blanche’s squirming smooches, this is a film to make you smile.
All Hands on Deck (2020)
Guillaume Brac’s engaging, summer-soaked film charts the escapades of two young guys following the seasonal exodus of Parisians out of the city. The film opens with Felix (Eric Nantchouang)’s flirty encounter with Alma (Asma Messaoudene) at sunrise on the bank of the Seine. She soon takes off to her cushy second home on the Cote d’Azur and things go awry when the guys follow suit to surprise her. The tone stays light without frivolity and touches on the intersecting but often undiscussed issues in France of class, race and sexism. Romantic conflict is masterfully handled and lets us know that ultimately, everything turns out alright in the end.
