Movie summary of the movie Paris 36 by Michael The Moviegoer.
PARIS 36 = ***
“All That Dazzle”
Christophe Barratier’s follow-up to his Oscar-nominated “The Chorus” is a joyous treat about a Paris music hall in the mid-1930s struggling with a “the show must go on” mentality even as pre-war fear and anti-semitism begin to grow throughout France.
Nora Arnezeder plays the hall’s main attraction, a showgirl who’s singing voice mesmerizes the audience as if they were seeing Edith Piaf perform. Arnezeder is a fresh-faced beauty with a fun, plucky personality. If she can speak English, she’ll certainly have a career outside of France. Hollywood, take note.
The bright and dazzling musical production numbers promised in the film’s trailer don’t come until the last 30 minutes, which only made me wish there were more of them. But the period is lovingly re-created with Prague standing in for the Paris of the 1930s. The stories, characters and subplots are all genuinely heartfelt, though maybe a bit too sentimental at times. “Paris 36” wants to be a French music hall version of the Italian film “Cinema Paradiso” and it nearly succeeds.
DVD Watch: Stories about theaters are usually never as good as the stories which are presented upon their stages. But a few years ago, British director Stephen Frears made a howlingly funny film called “Mrs. Henderson Presents” about London’s famous Windmill Theatre, the city’s first to introduce live nudity on stage in the mid-1930s. Judi Dench and Bob Hoskins star in this hilarious fact-based film set during the same period portrayed in “Paris 36”.
Michael The Moviegoer
