Skip to main content

Paris Can Wait - film review


Wonderful picture.  Part documentary, part 90 minutes with the luscious Diane Lane on a two lane highway in France.  The movie meanders much like I digress writing my blogs.  It starts as a trip from Cannes to Paris by car but ends up in detours to see uniquely enchanting places along the way, courtesy an eccentric Frenchman.

The film moves like a food and travel show taking us from the south coast of France or Cote d Azure and the Provence region through Burgundy into Paris by way of Lyon, on a two day road trip collapsed into 90 minutes of watching the sultry and naturally beautiful Diane Lane.  There is some (actor never before heard of) charming French bohemian who drives her north on this trip while her producer husband played by Alec Baldwin has to work and disappears from the scene after the opening shot.

Just as well.  The film has amazing photography, scenic captures along with a bit of history interspersed with did I mention Diane Lane?  Total delight in its simplicity the film has no primary story line other than to take the viewers on this romantic and comical journey.  I have seen Lane's movies for the past twenty years.  While she does not seem to appear in a lot the role is always classy.  I also found her to be an under appreciated actor.

Directed by the wife of Francis Ford Coppola (Eleanor) who I did not know was into films this is a very easy to watch enjoyable experience.

There are short dialogs which makes for some interesting cinema.  The driver's character calls young tartlets circling him in Cannes as Pop Tarts while referring to Diane's character as the complex yet delightful Creme Brulee.  From then on he refers to her as Brulee in the film.  While extolling the virtue of fresh, food from the French countryside where he grew up, he asks what she ate in America.  She says she grew up in Cleveland.  To further impress that American's tend to eat boxed food she confirms that her meals were mashed potatoes and frozen peas.

While there are parts that portray a certain hubris about the French manners and food the film tries to identify the human condition in America as being too money minded and rushed with some hypocrisy built in when it comes to being faithful to a partner.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

On the go(zay masta) in Japan again

Cool cat the Japanese are Tokyo at dusk  My second visit to this land of the rising sun after almost a decade. Back then clearly I was wet behind the ears product manager and likely didn’t pay attention to all (efficient) things Japanese. But today I did and of course continue to be impressed. It is as much the obvious stuff like on time travel that is both clean and comfortable and all that which makes it possible. The impressive landmark and landscapes that these humans have put together despite their cramped (or because of it) surroundings and precarious geological conditions could amaze a novice architect among us. But it’s also the little things that someone had to think about which have a phenomenal impact on day to day lives that make the Japanese stand apart. Below are few random examples- 1. Providing a very fine machined wooden toothpick in every packet of wooden chopsticks. The said chapsticks are simply set on the To Go counter of any food vendor/ convenience store wher...
Post a Comment
Read more

Presumptive Society

Today's world is hyper connected.  I am not so sure what it means but you hear it a lot.  It is probably hyper but not sure how connected it is.  Sugar (fermented or not) is available in many ways than before and so getting hyper is easy.  It is probably more a threat than cocaine since it is sold legally. And what is this connected stuff?  Most people I encounter seem disconnected from reality.  So going back to this assumption that we are connected there are subtle and no so subtle instances of how brands and companies and middle men try to portray someone - A linkedin profile for somebody working for X years at a place advertises to the connected network that so and so is CELEBRATING X years @ Such and Such Inc. Do we know if (s)he is celebrating or cringing?  Perhaps a better way to portray will be - So and So LASTED X years @ such & such inc. Then it exhorts the readership to go ahead and congratulate them for this lasting effe...
2 comments
Read more

Greasy Dra'ch'ma

With all the furor in the media around Greece for the past couple of years I thought it would be good to list all things Greek that people use in common parlance - 1. Some of us are familiar with Greek history as being where the world's largest organized scam was born - called the Olympics. At the time this courier delivered a message by running a large number of miles and that got converted into a spectator sport. Nobody thought about what this implied? Fedex does not use any of the marathon runners instead relying on bio diesel trucks so not sure where we went from courier delivery to extracting money for tickets to watch people balance themselves on a pommel horse - which by the way is quite different from a Trojan Horse - 2. which brings me to the next invention from Greek mythology that finds use today - except used in the computer virus arena. This innocuos program is accepted by a computer since it looks friendly only to unleash undesirable effects leading to loss of s...
2 comments
Read more