MRS ’ARRIS GOES TO PARIS
UK, 1992, 92 minutes, Colour.
Angela Lansbury, Diana Rigg, Lothaire Bluteau, John Savident, Leila Kaye, Tamara Gorsky, Omar Sharif.
Directed by Anthony Pullen Shaw.
Mrs ’Arris Goes to Paris is adapted from a 1950s novel by Paul Gallico (The Snow Goose, Poseidon). The film is an exercise in nostalgia for the home audience who enjoy watching this kind of television movie with sentiment.
Angela Lansbury is a charwoman in London in the 1950s, sees a Christian Dior dress and decides she would like to have one. She fills in the Pools, wins some money, adds to her savings and takes a trip to Paris in order to buy the dress. However, she encourages not only the French and their styles, so different from the English, but a very anti-English snob played by John Savident and a rather strict proprietor of the House of Dior, played by Diana Rigg. However, Mrs Harris persists and Madame Colbert helps her to get fittings for her dress. In the meantime, she encounters a number of people and changes their lives, especially the shy accountant played by Lothaire Bluteau (Jesus of Montreal, Black Robe) and Tamara Gorsky. She also encounters a marquis (Omar Sharif) who is estranged from his daughter. Needless to say, Mrs Harris effects a reconciliation.
This is very much a film which women will identify with and enjoy, especially older women who admire Angela Lansbury not only from her films and musicals but from Murder She Wrote. It is also a pleasure to see Diana Rigg, Omar Sharif and Lothaire Bluteau.
The film was directed by Anthony Pullen Shaw who is, in fact, Angela Lansbury’s son.
1.A feelgood film? A film about doing good?
2.The work of Paul Gallico, his fairy tales – and this real-life fairy tale?
3.1953, the London atmosphere, the buses and streets, the pubs, the class differences, the receptions? Playing the Pools? The vision of a Christian Dior dress? The musical score?
4.Ada and Violet, their life and their work, getting the bus, chatting, going to the pub, filling in the Pools, the bus conductor? Lady Dent and the reception, the choice of the dresses, Mrs Harris’s opinion?
5.Ada Harris as a widow, her age, nice, her friends, expectations of life, the limits of life? Her decision about the dress? Violet against it? The collage of work? The Pools? The host and the twenty-five?
6.Violet and her type, her advice? Ada going to the airport? Arrival in Paris, delight, the taxi, her pleasantness? Her observation of French manners and styles? Going to the Dior shop?
7.Madame Colbert, her manner, her work, managing the shop? Mr Armont?, his snobbery, his criticism of the English? Andre, his work as an accountant, shy? His attraction towards Natasha? The set-up for the romance?
8.Ada, in the corridors, avoiding Madame Colbert? Asking about the dress, the problem, her appeal? Having to get back to London? Her motives? The steps, the chair? The snobbish woman?
9.Madame Colbert and her change of heart, the appeal to the philosophy of Dior? Her arranging the fittings, avoiding Mr Armont? Ada, the fittings, her delight? Looking at the dresses? The range of dresses available? Her encounter with Andre, talking with him, listening, Natasha? Bringing them together? Her encounter with the marquis, his charm? Their chatting, the situation with his daughter?
10.The character of Andre, his work in the shop, shy, ideas, the approach to Natasha? Natasha, her work, the encounters with Andre? Mrs Harris? as a kind of fairy godmother?
11.The marquis, his personal anguish, watching his daughter, the children? Mrs Harris sharing with him? His relenting? Going to meet his daughter, the happy reconciliation?
12.The preparation for the dress, the staff and their collaboration? The fittings? The completion of the dress and Mrs Harris achieving her ambitions?
13.Mrs Harris going home, the questions at Customs, her being able to get her dress back into England without the tax? Her dismay at the news about the tax?
14.A pleasant old-world film? A working-class fairy tale?
