Photo of the Week
Another view of the Centre Pompidou. Photo © Darren Palmer of Paris by Photo.
Wednesday, 30 May 2012 00:00
Paris Update What's New in Paris
RESTAURANT/CLUB/CAFE
Wanderlust: Finally, part of Les Docks, Cité de la Mode et Design will open to the public on June 6. Brunch on the terrace, take a yoga class, take in a concert or dance all night. 34, quai d'Austerlitz, 75013 Paris.
SHOPS
Stella Cadente: The designer of very feminine clothing and accessories has a new Paris store that's like a gold-lined tunnel. 102 boulevard Beaumarchais, 75011 Paris.
Ecolo-Chic: Pop-up store in the Marais selling ethically resourced products, from toys and design to organic wine. 90, rue des Archives, 75003 Paris.
SMOKING
A new organization, L'Union pour les Droits des Fumeurs Adultes, has been formed to lobby for the rights of French smokers
JUSTIN ON THE ROOFTOPS
Keep your eyes peeled: Justin Bieber will be filming for the Web TV program live@home in an undisclosed location on the rooftops of Paris on the evening of May 31. Click here to win a pass to the taping.
Wednesday, 30 May 2012 00:00
Paris Update Flash News
CAKE THE WAY WE LIKE IT
Goodies on display at Merce and the Muse.
Nowadays, American expatriates in Paris can easily satisfy almost all their nostalgic food cravings, from hamburgers to Reese’s peanut-butter cups or Oreo cookies. Until Merce and the Muse opened in the Upper Marais, however, it wasn’t easy to find good homemade, American-style cakes. The desserts at this homey, flea-market-furnished café are not just good, they are scrumptious and original, made from owner Merce Muse’s own recipes. The other day I shared a slice of chocolate layer cake with vanilla icing and another of pistachio cake with rose icing with a friend, but in truth I wanted to eat all of both of them. 1 bis, rue Dupuis, 75003 Paris. Tel.: 09 53 14 53 04. Open Tues.-Sun. for breakfast, lunch and coffee; brunch on Sunday. Heidi Ellison
Paris Update This Week's Events
For full details about an event, click on its name to visit the official Web site (in English when available).
 Art Saint-Germain-des-Prés
>Left Bank gallery walk. Collective opening, May 31, 6pm. May 31-June 3.
Carré Rive Gauche
>Another Left Bank gallery walk, with 120 participating galleries. June 1-June 3.
Champs-Elysées Film Festival
>A new Franco-American film festival, presided over by Lambert Wilson and Michael Madsen. Various locations, Paris, June 6-12.
Chartre en Lumières
> The town of Chartres illuminates its monuments and the cathedral with colorful light installations. Through Sept. 15.
Designer's Days
>Design shops, galleries, schools and more participate in a city-wide design event. Various locations, Paris, May 31-June 4.
Festival de l'Imaginaire
> Performances by troupes from around the world, Maison des Cultures du Monde, Paris, through June 17.
Festival de Saint Denis
> Music festival featuring both stars like Sir Colin Davis and young talents; ends with a dawn performance by horse whisperer Bartabas and oud player Mehdi Haddab, Cathedral and Legion of Honor, Saint Denis, through June 30.
Festival Extensions
> Concerts, dance, films and more, various locations, Paris and Val de Marne, through May 31.
Festival International des Jardins de Chaumont-sur-Loire
>"Gardens of delights, gardens of delirium" is the theme of this year's garden festival, Chaumont-sur-Loire, through Oct. 21.
Festival Jazz à Saint-Germain-des-Prés
>Jazz acts ranging from amateur to big names like Ahmad Jamal and Yusef Lateef (together). Various locations, Paris, Through June 3.
Le Court en Dit Long
>Festival of short films. Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles, Paris, June 4-9.
Nomades
>Cultural festival in the third arrondissement; art, poetry, concerts and more. Various locations, Paris, May 31-June 3.
Quinzaine des Réalisateurs
>The features and short subjects entered in this category at the Cannes Film Festival shown in Paris, Forum des Images, Paris, May 31-June 10
Salon du Vin de La Revue du Vin de France
>Annual wine fair. Palais Brongniart, Paris, June 2-3
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Belle Toujours
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Film
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/ Drama
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Created on Tuesday, 17 April 2007 23:00
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Published on Sunday, 22 February 2009 21:45
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Written by Heidi Ellison
The Death of Desire
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Séverine and Husson recall transgressions of yesteryear.
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“He’s an odd bird,” a waiter says of the main character at the end of this film, and the same might be said of Belle Toujours, a famous Portuguese director’s homage to a film made 40 years ago by a famous Spanish director, starring one of the original actors. Both films, set in Paris, were made in French.
The Portuguese director is the 98-year-old Manoel de Oliveira, who has made this “sequel” to Luis Buñuel’s brilliant Belle de Jour (1967), the story of a beautiful, wealthy, repressed young housewife who spends her afternoons turning tricks in a maison de rendez-vous, an extracurricular activity that enables her to fulfill her sexual fantasies and love her husband fully but leads to tragedy in the end.
Oliveira takes up the story in real time, with Michel Piccoli once again playing Husson, the lecherous playboy friend of Séverine’s husband who gave her the address of the brothel in Belle de Jour. Husson glimpses the now-widowed Séverine, here played by Bulle Ogier (Catherine Deneuve, the original Séverine, turned down the role) at a concert. He pursues his unwilling victim until she agrees to have dinner with him and discuss her murky past. In the meantime, the now-alcoholic Husson tells her story to a bartender in a plush bar (frequented by two prostitutes who act as a Greek chorus) of the sort you’d have a hard time finding in today’s Paris.
Oliveira has a strong literary bent and, like some of his other films, this one is talky, slow-moving (it seems much longer than its one hour and 10 minutes) and atmospheric. Interspersed with the music of Dvorak and long aerial shots of Paris at night, it has an old-fashioned, almost musty feel appropriate to the age and wealth of the protagonists.
It is full of references to Belle de Jour: the painting in the bar of a reclining naked woman seen from the back is similar to one in the brothel in Belle de Jour, for example, and Husson buys Séverine an evocative gift she has a great deal of trouble appreciating: a wooden box that produces the sound of a buzzing insect when opened. The latter is an in joke, since in Belle de Jour, we never find out what was in the mysterious box brought to the brothel by a Japanese client.
“Quel poète!” one spectactor said on leaving the cinema, but this film is more of a poignant essay on aging, the death of desire (Séverine says she is “a different woman” and talks about joining a convent, while Husson seems to have drowned all traces of lechery in alcohol) and, in the end, the meaningless of it all. We do not even get an answer to the question it poses – did Husson really tell Séverine’s husband the truth about her hobby – which is moot anyway, since the answer seems clear in the original film.
Belle Toujours does, however, have the felicitous effect of inspiring a strong desire to see Belle de Jour once again, a desire worth acting on.
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Heidi Ellison
© 2007 Paris Update
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