- Messages
- 17,181
- Location
- New York City
Paris Blues from 1961 starring Paul Newman, Sidney Poitier, Joanne Woodward and Diahann Carroll with a few appearances by Louis Armstrong as "Wild Man Moore" and music by Duke Ellington.
It might not have been ahead of its time, but it was surely pointing the way. For 1961, a year before the enjoyable throwback fluff A Touch of Mink was released - with sex corralled by marriage and drugs confined to a cocktail or two too many - Paris Blues has casual pre-marital sex here, there and everywhere, divorced mothers enjoying life (and sex), unflattering discussion of America's racial issues, hints at a bi-racial attraction and cocaine use and addiction shown in almost all its ugliness. The full-force of the '60s was on its way.
All of this happens in Paris where minor jazz stars Newman and Poitier live and thrive as American expats - jazz is a more respected and appreciated art form in Paris at the time. They are doing their young-men-on-the-make thing - playing jazz at night, groupies, cool apartments, aloof postures - when two young female American tourists - Woodward and Carroll - capture their attention and force reality and decisions into their good-time world.
Divorcee and mother of two Woodward comes across as the less-mature jazz groupie willing to have a fling on her vacation with Newman than the more-serious Carroll who keeps pushing Poitier (who seems to have landed in more open-minded Paris to escape America's prejudices) to face up to American racial issues and, also, what a serious relationship is about.
Set in early '60s Paris - the location shots alone make the movie worth seeing, but this is not a scrubbed up city, but one still showing the scars of WWII while also capturing the moody but energized and underground feel of the jazz community. The hippies - and hippie style - hasn't arrived yet - so the look is counterculture early '60s cool: cigarette smoke everywhere amidst tight fitting dark suits, sport coats and turtleneck with sunglasses, goatees and somber looks as accessories.
The conflict peaks as Newman is forced to decide between his Paris life and music or Woodward and America while Poitier faces a similar decision with the added burden of racial issues as Carroll demands that if he wants her, he has to join her fight against America's prejudices.
Dated as heck, it's still a powerful movie as valuable today for its storytelling as its time travel - and Armstrong and the music. My guess, the movie wasn't a big hit (outside of Greenwich Village) - America probably wasn't ready to understand it all - but that's what good art does: it pushes, it expands, it challenges in an engaging manner.
It might not have been ahead of its time, but it was surely pointing the way. For 1961, a year before the enjoyable throwback fluff A Touch of Mink was released - with sex corralled by marriage and drugs confined to a cocktail or two too many - Paris Blues has casual pre-marital sex here, there and everywhere, divorced mothers enjoying life (and sex), unflattering discussion of America's racial issues, hints at a bi-racial attraction and cocaine use and addiction shown in almost all its ugliness. The full-force of the '60s was on its way.
All of this happens in Paris where minor jazz stars Newman and Poitier live and thrive as American expats - jazz is a more respected and appreciated art form in Paris at the time. They are doing their young-men-on-the-make thing - playing jazz at night, groupies, cool apartments, aloof postures - when two young female American tourists - Woodward and Carroll - capture their attention and force reality and decisions into their good-time world.
Divorcee and mother of two Woodward comes across as the less-mature jazz groupie willing to have a fling on her vacation with Newman than the more-serious Carroll who keeps pushing Poitier (who seems to have landed in more open-minded Paris to escape America's prejudices) to face up to American racial issues and, also, what a serious relationship is about.
Set in early '60s Paris - the location shots alone make the movie worth seeing, but this is not a scrubbed up city, but one still showing the scars of WWII while also capturing the moody but energized and underground feel of the jazz community. The hippies - and hippie style - hasn't arrived yet - so the look is counterculture early '60s cool: cigarette smoke everywhere amidst tight fitting dark suits, sport coats and turtleneck with sunglasses, goatees and somber looks as accessories.
The conflict peaks as Newman is forced to decide between his Paris life and music or Woodward and America while Poitier faces a similar decision with the added burden of racial issues as Carroll demands that if he wants her, he has to join her fight against America's prejudices.
Dated as heck, it's still a powerful movie as valuable today for its storytelling as its time travel - and Armstrong and the music. My guess, the movie wasn't a big hit (outside of Greenwich Village) - America probably wasn't ready to understand it all - but that's what good art does: it pushes, it expands, it challenges in an engaging manner.