MOVIES | Love in "Paris" is for the birds

Although intended to showcase six different Parisian neighborhoods, the 1965 film Six in Paris is more about its desperate characters’ everyday lives than about the city. Six French New Wave (La Nouvelle Vague) directors—Jean Douchet, Jean Rouch, Jean–Daniel Pollet, Eric Rohmer, Jean-Luc Godard, and Claude Chabrol—present stories that resonate with class and culture conflicts that are still with us today. Recently re-released on 35mm, the long-unavailable film is screening this weekend at the Oak Street Cinema in Minneapolis.

Breaking from the classical literary style of French cinema, the vignettes reveal daily life in Paris and snapshots of the culture through fluid street shots with 16mm hand-held cameras, existential themes, and often ridiculous scenarios. A raw, low-budget feeling pervades these films (likely out of necessity as much as by aesthetic choice). Many of the shots feel unedited, scene changes are often rapid, acting is improvised, and narrative is loose and disjointed—all characteristic of the New Wave movement.

six in paris, screening december 5-9 at the oak street cinema, 309 oak st. s.e., minneapolis. for information, see mnfilmarts.org/oakstreet.

In Douchet’s “Saint-Germain-des-Prés,” an American girl (Barbara Wilkin) is deceived by a French student. He shoos her out of his apartment the morning after a fling, with excuses about a trip to Mexico. With a striking opening scene detailing Parisian architecture, the segment makes a wry comment on the romantic illusions of young women and the habitual deception of young men.

Rouch’s “Gare du Nord,” its eye-catching shots illuminated by natural light, tells the story of a young woman (Nadine Ballot) who fights with her husband (Barbet Schroeder) over her dissatisfaction with their life together—their apartment is in a construction zone, they never travel, and she no longer finds him mysterious. While she is dissatisfied with their working-class status, an alluring man (Gilles Quéant) she meets in the street is even more discontented with his bourgeois life. He tempts her with material wealth, but his advance turns out to be a last-ditch effort to find meaning in his life. The stranger’s upper-class desperation feels mired in fantasy compared to the young woman’s.

A socially inept young man (Claude Melke) hires a cynical, aging prostitute (Michelline Dax) in Pollet’s “Rue Saint-Denis.” Instead of getting to the task at hand, she teases him and they eat pasta. While the story is not the most interesting of the anthology, the characters themselves are fascinating in their disenchantment with life. The director does well to shoot most of this film in one cramped space that can barely fit a small bed and table.

Rohmer’s “Place de l'Étoile” spends a lot of time showing off the city. He describes the area around the Arc de Triomphe, especially how the timing of traffic lights creates dangerous situations for pedestrians crossing the busy intersections. A men's clothing store salesman (Jean-Michel Rouzière) spends much of the film hustling these crowded streets. At one point he confronts another pedestrian, knocking him down with his umbrella. Thinking he killed the man, he dashes through the same insane intersections introduced to us at a leisurely pace earlier. While the story is simple, the well-constructed view of the neighborhood gives this piece its strength.

In Godard’s “Montparnasse-Levallois,” neurotic young Monica (Joanna Shimkus) thinks she has accidentally mixed up telegrams to her lovers. She visits each of them in their respective workshops to explain the situation, but her attempts to declare her love to the men only succeed in her getting thrown out on the street. Constantly moving camerawork in the cramped workshops mirrors the characters’ distress. The characters are constantly in motion. Monica’s first boyfriend is a metal sculptor who is constantly grabbing pieces of metal and welding. Her other lover is an auto mechanic who is equally busy fiddling with car parts. Both men pay little attention to Monica as she circles them, undressing herself. “Get out, American!” one shouts to her. “I'm Canadian,” she replies. “Same thing,” he responds.

“La Muette” by Chabrol features a young boy (Gilles Chusseau) who lashes out against the constant bickering between his parents (Stéphane Audran and Claude Chabrol) by vandalizing their house. The representation of domestic life in this piece is excruciating as well as amusing—the bickering is all too realistic, but the father’s interactions with the sexy maid are a bit over the top. The boy finds earplugs to block out his parents’ arguments, and we are suddenly in silence with him. From the boy’s point of view, we feel his desperation and isolation. In the final scene, on a crowded street, he remains utterly alone, in total silence.

In the end, we are left with the sense that relationships in Paris are in vain; we’re better off to just enjoy the beauty of the city itself.

Amy Danielson (danielson.amy@gmail.com) works full-time in public relations for the Office of the Vice President for Research at the University of Minnesota.