PARIS BLUES
US, 1961, 98 minutes, Black-and-white.
Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Sidney Poitier, Diahann Carroll, Louis Armstrong, Barbara Laage, Serge Reggiani.
Directed by Martin Ritt.
Martin Rittt was a director of solid dramas during the 1950s and 1960s. He had some experience of the black list and was later to make the film about those times, with Woody Allen, The Front.
He made a number of films with Paul Newman including Hemingway’s Adventures of a Young Man, Hud, Hombre. He had worked with Sidney Poitier earlier in Edge of the City/A Man is Ten Feet Tall.
Microphone off or The film was somewhat risky in its time, especially the discussions about Civil Rights prior to 1963 and Martin Luther King. Sidney Poitier had played in The Defiant Ones, handcuffed to Tony Curtis, something of a breakthrough film in 1958. Here he is paired with Paul Newman, already a significant star. He was to continue to be for another 40 years, winning his Oscar in 1976 for The Colour of Money. This was one of his many films with his wife, Joanne Woodward.
The two men portray musicians in Paris, on the Left Bank, not the travelogue area of Paris but in the tradition of literature and music. They encounter two tourists from the United States, Joanne Woodward and Diahann Carroll, another black and white pairing. While there is some romance, there is not an easy resolution with Paul Newman wanting to stay in Paris and compose while Joanne Woodward wants him to return home. The black couple discuss civil rights but Sidney Poitier wants to stay in Paris where he has peace and respect.
The musical score was nominated for an Oscar, written by Duke Wellington. And Louis Armstrong is an added jazz bonus.
1. A film of the early 1960s?
2. The Paris settings, the Left Bank, black-and-white photography? Authentic feel of literary and music?
3. The cast, status at this time? The friendship between the black and white characters? Civil rights discussion in the early 1960s?
4. Expatriates, the men living in Paris, musicians, their ambitions, composing, playing? For the black man to live in Paris without racial disputes?
5. The importance of jazz, the planning, performance, Louis Armstrong? Duke Ellington and his Oscar-nominated score?
6. Paul Newman as Ram, personality, character, performance, goals? Eddie, away from the United States, away from racism, living with some respect? The friendship between the two men?
7. Lillian and Connie, travelling to France, to Paris, the holidays? Lillian, strong character, white? Connie, strong character, blank? The friendship in films of this time?
8. The interaction between the men and women, dating, talking, the music, the jazz, the different moods?
9. Ram, performing in the bar, Marie as proprietor, fostering the jazz? The affair with Ram?
10. The character of the gypsy, music, narcotics?
11. The development of the relationships? The travelogue touches? Enjoying time in Paris?
12. Crisis, decisions? Ram wanting to stay in Paris, Lillian wanting him to return? His reasons, the discussion scene between them, his hardening his
attitude? Connie, talking civil rights with Eddie, wanting him to return, his wanting to stay?
13. Realistic drama? Issues of the period? Jazz?
