Ask Mick LaSalle: Recommendations for movies filmed in Paris.
Hi Mick: Could you recommend movies filmed in Paris that have exceptional cinematography, not only famous landmarks but also lesser known neighborhoods?
Marjory Finn, Mill Valley
Hi Marjory: Paris is one of the most photogenic cities in the world, with lots of distinct neighborhood character. For those planning a first trip to Paris, it’s fun to watch movies set in Paris and then compare your film impressions with your real-life experiences. Once you’re familiar with Paris, it gets even better, because every movie is a chance to recognize and relive memories. I get all wistful when I see a scene in a French train station and they play that four-note jingle that you hear before every announcement. There are some days in Paris so beautiful they make you feel like every day not spent in Paris is a waste of your life. Probably the best film overview of Paris is “Paris, je t’aime.” It’s an omnibus film that takes place in 20 of the city’s sections, or “arrondissements,” so you get a broad overview. I like “Charade” (1963), too, and also “Rendezvous in Paris” (1996), three short romantic films from Eric Rohmer. Hello Mick: If you were booking the first Anti-Fascist Film Festival, what would be your choices? We’re talking not just antiwar, or left-leaning, but specifically antifascist. I am not a film guy, so I have obvious choices: “The Great Dictator,” “Downfall,” “Schindler’s List,” “The White Rose” ...
Edward Bachmann, San Francisco Hello Edward: How odd that the thought of fascism should spring to mind. Your choices are great, and to those I would add “To Be or Not to Be” (1942), an Ernst Lubitsch comedy, set during the invasion of Poland; “Rome: Open City” (1945), an unforgettable Rossellini film, starring Anna Magnani; “It Happened Here” (1965), a counterfactual history, in which the Nazis take over Britain; “The Conformist” (1970), the Bertolucci film set during the Mussolini era; “The Garden of the Finzi Continis” (1970), De Sica’s film about an upper-class Jewish family in Fascist Italy; “Sophie Scholl” (2005), about the German anti-Nazi martyr; and “V for Vendetta” (2006), a fantasy about a plot to resist neo-fascism in a near-future London. There are plenty more. Dear Mick LaSalle: Just saw “Knight of Cups” last night. I should have known! I don’t know who is more pretentious sometimes, Terrence Malick or you.
Paul Williams, Portola Valley Dear Paul Williams: It must be me, because Malick isn’t pretentious at all. You don’t have to like his work — most people wouldn’t, probably — but there’s nothing pretentious about it. His films are full of humility and awe. When people call Malick pretentious, I assume what they really mean is that they don’t understand his films but feel that they should and believe that they would, if only Malick would stop being fancy and just come out and say what he means. But his movies don’t actually mean anything apart from the things that he’s showing and the ways he’s showing them. He’s saying this is something beautiful, and this is what it’s like to be conscious and notice things, and this is what it’s like to remember someone, and this is what it’s like to recall a conversation, and this is what it’s like to be ecstatic. He’s using cinema to replicate the experience of internal life at its most rarefied. The attempt is so enormous that there’s no room for attitude or pretense. Love them or hate them, his movies are an act of devotion. They’re not snooty. They’re humble. Hi Mick: One thing: How do you pronounce Isabelle’s last name — the phonetic French, please.
Madeline Moore, El Cerrito Hi Madeline: It’s pronounced ooPAIR. I notice lately people are asking me this question and asking about her work. Just last week, even my mother asked me, “So who is this Isabelle Huppert?” I pointed out that I wrote a book, which she’d told me she’d read, that mentioned Huppert about 150 times. So she was busted, to which she reacted by laughing for about a minute straight.