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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.
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