LOST IN PARIS/ PARIS PIEDS NUS

Belgium, 2016, 84 minutes, Colour.
Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon, Emmanuelle Riva, Pierre Richard.
Directed by Abel and Gordon.

Dominique Abel and Fiona Gordon are something of a cinema treasure and, like much treasure, has not been open to the public. A great pity. They made some short films but their features, Rumba and The Fairy, would go on many audiences lists after they see Lost in Paris – the French title more evocative, Barefoot in Paris.

The two have been married since the 1980s, meeting through their love of the Circus. Belgium is their base. However, Fiona Gordon is actually Canadian but was born in Australia. She is obviously proudly Canadian because Canada and her character as a Canadian feature strongly in Lost in Paris.

The film is a droll comedy. However, audiences searching for raucous comedies should not look here. These films are much more subtle even when a lot of the action is slapstick. It is as if they were paying homage to the silent comedies and the type of comic performances from the time of Chaplin and Buster Keaton. The acting is quite stylised, quite a lot of mime, comic postures, exaggerated situations (early in the piece, a door is opened to an office during a blizzard and everybody performs in mime being blown at precarious angles on their chairs by the blizzard, covered in snow, resuming normal positions when the door is finally able to be shut).

There are words in the film and there is a reliance on music, from Shostakovich to Erik Satie and more contemporary songs. However, the delight is in the stylised performances, not only of the central characters, of so many of the others during the action. They include a Canadian Mountie in Paris whom Fiona keeps encountering, her aunt’s exasperated neighbour at the laundromat looking for his socks, and a nurse caring for the elderly, a group of diners in fashionable restaurant (who keep bouncing in their seats as the sound system booms).

Fiona comes from Canada to seek her aunt in Paris, goes through an extraordinary number of adventures including falling into the River Seine, twice. Her aunt is played by veteran actress Emmanuelle Riva (Hiroshima Mon Amour, Leon Morin Priest and, Oscar-nominated in her 80s for Amour). She enters vigorously into the character of the ageing lady, not quite with it. At one stage she meets Norman, played by veteran French comic actor, Pierre Richard. There is a delightful interlude when they are sitting on a park bench, the music starts, and the focus is on the pair of feet tapping in time to the music and an entertaining choreography.

Speaking of choreography, there is also a delightful dance sequence in the fashionable restaurant showing that while Dominique and Fiona can do very awkward comedy, their dancing and movement has great finesse.

Dom lives on the street, in the tent, scrounging garbage bins, coming across some of Fiona’s goods and backpack, surfacing on the Seine, and, by chance, encounters her at the restaurant. They are attracted but not willing to acknowledge it. They have a number of adventures, especially getting to the aunt’s funeral – only to find that it is not the aunt. So, the destination of the film, though they are lost in Paris in some ways, is to find the aunt and a happy, if comic ending.

One of the best things about the screenplay is that small details at various times become very important in the later development of the plot.

Most of the action seems to take place on the Right Bank of the Seine – but, Fiona gives more meaning to the word gauche in her character.

1. The title in English? And the characters being lost, especially Fiona? The nuances in the French title, barefoot in Paris?

2. Audiences and their love for Paris, seeing Paris on screen, the Right bank, the Eiffel Tower, the streets, buildings, apartments? The musical score? The songs? From Shostakovich to Satie?

3. Fiona and Dominique, bringing their real-life relationship to the screen, as actors, as writers, as directors? Their comic tone?

4. The use of mime, posture, the tribute to the comic traditions from the silent era? Yet, with words?

5. Fiona, as a little girl, her aunt? Canada, growing up, the aunt going to Paris? In the village, her age, at work at her desk, the door opening, the blizzard and the characters bent with the wind and snow? Then the door shut? The decision to leave, the group farewelling her? Her hopes, Paris, finding her aunt?

6. The irony of aunt Martha, getting old, writing the letter, putting it in the garbage bin instead of the post? And her being upset at getting no reply?

7. Fiona, the travel, her backpack, her awkward manner, at the airport, the pack getting stuck in the metro? The encounter with the Mountie, his help, the escalator, seeing him on the station? And his recurring presence? Her aunt not at home, sitting at the door, going on the tour, the bridge, the photo, falling into the River, losing her phone and the photographer running to try to catch her? Surfacing from the river, losing the pack, on the boat? The going to the authorities, the issue of the passport, her aunt, the food voucher?

8. Don, living in the tent, pissing into the river, the people passing by, the dog and the food, the capsicum from the restaurant garbage, his chasing it? Finding the pack, ransacking it, keeping the sweater, keeping the purse? The money, going to Maxims for the meal? His table next to the toilet door and his being banged? The comedy with fixing up the loudspeaker, the music, the boom and his bouncing, the other people in the restaurant all bouncing in time with the boom? Wanting to dance, finding Fiona, the elegance and gliding of their dance performance?

9. Martha, her age, being a dancer, absent? The encounter with M. Martin and the kiss at the door? The nurse running up and down the stairs? Her wandering, looking in the garbage, the Statue of Liberty?

10. Fiona and her search, going to the bar, Dom following, looking through the cigarette holes in the paper? Information about the funeral? A bad sense of direction, Dom miming the directions, arrival at the cemetery?

11. The group, Dom and his elaborate speech about Martha’s character? His catching his tie, in the elevator, the director, freeing him, the drink? Fiona with the ashes, in two piles, thinking one was Dom?

12. Dom, the memories of the encounter with Martha, comparing the photo with the dead woman? The issue of the clothes, the tent, the champagne bottles that he lost in the river? Drinking with Martha, toasting the Statue of Liberty?

13. The interlude in the park, Martha meeting Norman, the past relationship, sitting on the bench, the choreography of their dancing feet?

14. M. Martin, the laundry, the kisses, his concern about his socks? Collecting clothes in Martha’s room?

15. Fiona, getting into the apartment, the authorities? The phone call, the search?

16. The Mountie and his help?

17. Martha, Dom, the encounter in the tent, the Eiffel Tower, her climbing it? Dom and Fiona following it, going up, the slapstick with the detached ladder on the girders?

18. Finding Martha on top, in the television dish, all sitting on the top?

19. Martha’s death, the ashes, the biodegradable urn, the rain, and into the river again?

20. Fiona deciding to stay with Dom?