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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La Môme
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Film
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/ Drama
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Created on Tuesday, 13 February 2007 23:00
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Published on Sunday, 22 February 2009 21:45
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Written by Tom Ridgway
No Regrets
Marion Cotillard owns this film from first shot to last.
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The problem with many biopics is that they treat art as an accident of genius. Think of Ed Harris in Pollock, with Jackson “discovering” drip painting one day while drunk. Art, in biopic language, comes not from hard work and talent, but moments of almost childlike genius, which us poor mortals could never hope for. There are some biopics, however, that take a more intelligent tack. Thankfully, Olivier Dahan’s La Môme, which opened this year’s Berlin Film Festival, is such a film.
La Môme (its English title is La Vie en Rose) is a smartly constructed, intelligent and insightful look at the life of legendary French chanteuse Edith Piaf and is crowned by Marion Cotillard’s astonishingly real and powerful title performance.
The first intelligent directorial decision was to treat Piaf’s life in non-chronological order; the film moves between periods of her life in what at first seems a random fashion, but which reveals itself to be carefully planned.
Watching La Môme is rather like delving into Piaf’s mind as she lies dying. Scenes from different eras come flooding back, linked together by internal associations and her songs. It’s a great way of approaching a biopic – Clint Eastwood did the same thing in Bird – because it resembles memory, that seemingly random jumble of thoughts, fears, sadness and happiness, ordered and remixed by experience. It works brilliantly here: After some initial confusion (“Which part of her life am I seeing now?”) you begin to follow this random logic, and by the end of the film you feel as if you have gained real insight into what made this creation called Piaf tick.
Because Piaf was created. Her name was given to her by one impresario (“piaf” was old Parisian slang for “sparrow”), and her vocal style was honed and rounded by another, who also suggested (if the film is to be believed) her hand movements on stage. It is this construction that Marion Cotillard so brilliantly brings to the screen.
While the rest of the cast is great – especially Sylvie Testud as Piaf’s street friend – Cotillard owns this film from first shot to last. She inhabits the character, living it, dragging you into Piaf’s world, just as Piaf appears to have done to all those around her. (The film depicts her as a terrible diva, throwing tantrums and hissy fits. When one associate says that she should be less demanding and difficult, her wonderful reply is, “If I can’t be like this, then what’s the point of being Edith Piaf?”)
In every part of the character’s life, from her rough-and-tumble beginnings on the street to her gradual acceptance by French and New York audiences, and her lonely death in Switzerland, Cotillard brings a humanity and a sense of helplessness to this fragile/strong woman.
It’s a performance you won’t forget in a long time. I walked out of the screening here in Berlin surprised not just by how good Dahan’s film had turned out to be, but also at how Piaf’s voice and songs had hit me so hard in the solar plexus. I’ve always found her strange intonations and old-school accent nothing less than annoying, but when La Môme gave me a fourth goosebumpy, tears-in-the-eyes moment I finally realized just why Piaf remains the most famous singer France has ever produced. Her pain, her talent and her life are in every song she ever sang – and when you listen to them, she invites you to live it all with her, note by note.
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Tom Rigway
© 2007 Paris Update
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