Though I admit in my own opinion it is the most beautiful place in the world, whatever personal experiences/opinions anyone might have, it is decidedly a recurrent theme in romance films. And hey, since I've already set a rather corny mood for the entirety of the blog, I might as well homage the reason I've neglected it so: Paris.
So let us pretend we walk by la Seine in St. Michel, right in front of Notre-Dame, and we think back of all the times we saw this beautiful place in a movie. Some of my favourite film standpoints in this city:
The Audrey Hepburn SelectionsMaybe because Audrey was basically the very model of the Parisian fashion style (or heaven knows if it's for another reason), but directors just adored to have her being chic and practising her French in movies. My personal favourite is, of course, Charade (how to forget lovely Audrey walking by the river and eating ice cream next to a delighted Cary Grant?) but How to Steal a Million, Love in the Afternoon, Funny Face and Paris - When it Sizzles do the trick just the same and seem to always give you the fun, cute and endlessly romantic side of the city of lights.
Le Fabuleux Destin D'Amélie PoulainA movie that's, at least, in the top 5 of cutest films ever made, the story of Amélie's voyages inside the city while doing nice things is nothing short of adorable. A more polite and wacky view of a city that succeeds in being a fun metropolis, it shows a (surprisingly!) different side of the more Americanised version of Paris as decadent and unkind.
As the bells ringThe ultimate story of passion, madness and wild desire, Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame has indeed had many adaptations and, while Disney's is by far the least accurate one, it's the best remembered (indeed it's quite recent) and, ignoring how much crap the book had to endure in this version (a literary work that's much too passionate to be used by Disney at all), it still shows a beautiful reflection of the city, as seen by the impressionable Quasimodo: a work of art that can be bloody and kind at the same time, but never stops being magnificent.
L'Ultimo Tango a ParigiWell, a movie that has most certainly gathered many different interpretations and most of all opinions (I know many more people who loathe it than those who consider it brilliant) but, in any case, it explores in Paris a subject that's often associated with New York City: loneliness in the intimidating, great big city. Because beauty can be cruel too, specially when you and your small problems have no place in a world that moves too fast to even notice you.
Before SunsetA film that celebrates Paris almost as much as it compares reality vs. deep romanticism, it's impossible not to associate the city with the latter while watching. After nine years without hearing a word about her, Jesse bumps with Céline all of the sudden in the very capital of beauty. As we follow them through the streets, corners and on a wonderful boat ride, we fall in love with Paris almost as much as we do with love itself...
Moulin Rouge!The Paris of Moulin Rouge! has a little bit of every description: it's a city of decadence, insanity, happiness, horror, great passions, incredible stories, misery... truth, freedom, beauty and above all things, love. Besides, it explores another theme rather commonly associated with Paris, which are the so-called "creatures of the night" (should we blame Dumas fils for that cliché?) In any case, it's a "splendiferous" view of a city doomed to decadence as it sees its best moment pass by...
CasablancaI do believe, from the bottom of my heart, that the image of romance and idealisation the world has with Paris comes from this film. I don't pretend to deny that Casablanca is a full shot of anti-Nazi propaganda, but it is handled so perfectly there's no need to excuse it on the slightest: after all, it's a film that continues alive to this date for its romanticism instead of its political views. In it, we see Paris as a place of past happiness, freedom, unattachment... an idealised past with an idea of the many "what if"'s that come with a war. And, in my humble opinion, we have exactly that to thank for the current idea the world has of this beautiful and, yes, magical city.
