Paris Blues (1961)

Ram Bowen and Eddie Cook are two expatriate jazz musicians living in Paris where, unlike America at the time, Jazz musicians are celebrated and racism is a non-issue. When they meet and ... See full summary »

Director:

Martin Ritt

Writers:

Jack Sher (screenplay), Irene Kamp (screenplay),

Stars:

Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Sidney Poitier

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview:
Paul Newman	...	Ram Bowen
Joanne Woodward	...	Lillian Corning
Sidney Poitier	...	Eddie Cook
Louis Armstrong	...	Wild Man Moore
Diahann Carroll	...	Connie Lampson
Barbara Laage	...	Marie Séoul
André Luguet	...	René Bernard
Marie Versini	...	Nicole
Moustache	...	Mustachio
Aaron Bridgers	...	Pianist
Guy Pedersen	...	Bass Player
Serge Reggiani	...	Michel 'Gypsy' Devigne

Storyline

Ram Bowen and Eddie Cook are two expatriate jazz musicians living in Paris where, unlike America at the time, Jazz musicians are celebrated and racism is a non-issue. When they meet and fall in love with two young American girls, Lillian and Connie, who are vacationing in France, Ram and Eddie must decide whether they should move back to America with them, or stay in Paris for the freedom it allows them. Ram, who wants to be a serious composer, finds Paris more exciting than America and is reluctant to give up his music for a relationship, and Eddie wants to stay for the city's more tolerant racial atmosphere.

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Plot Keywords:

musician | expatriate | composer | famous score | black american | 

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Taglines:

A Love So Spectacular, So Personally Exciting, You Feel It Happening To You!

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Genres:

Drama | Music | Romance

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English French

Release Date:

27 September 1961 (USA)

Also Known As:

París vive de noche

Filming Locations:

Studios de Boulogne, Avenue Jean-Baptiste Clément, Boulogne-Billancourt, Hauts-de-Seine, France

Company Credits

Production Co:

Pennebaker Productions, Diane Productions, Jason Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

98 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

it was during filming of this movie that Joanne Woodward became pregnant with Melissa, who was born the day the film opened in the USA.

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Goofs

When Louis Armstrong and his band come into the club, the patrons are clapping to the wrong beat. The clapping on the pre-recorded soundtrack is on the second and fourth beats, while the patrons are seen clapping on the first and third beats.

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Quotes

Lillian Corning: I'd like to give you a going away present. You may not like it, but I don't care. It's just this: you're never gonna forget me. You're gonna walk down the street of wherever you happen to be, you're gonna see me, even when you know I'm not there. And nobody is ever gonna be as right for you as I was for twelve days in Paris in the autumn 'cause that was your gift to me.

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Connections

Featured in Century of Black Cinema (2003)

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Soundtracks

Take The 'A' Train
(uncredited)
Music by Billy Strayhorn

User Reviews

The Indian Summer of America's honeymoon with Europe.

Within 2 years of "Paris Blues" being released the US involvement in Vietnam began to sour the relationship between America and la rive gauche. French intellectuals affected to disdain the United States and all its works;one of the few aspects of Americana that were permitted to be still admired was jazz music. Even so the myth of the American jazz musician as a god-like figure had faded by the mid sixties.Giants like Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington were still revered but the journeymen jazzers like Ram Bowen(Newman)no longer filled the clubs just because they were American. The Indian Summer of America's honeymoon with Europe peaked with "Paris Blues".

Beautifully shot in black and white in the quintessentially Parisian parts of the city where the 2 pairs of lovers could stroll hand in hand photogenically it was a love letter to the arondissements beloved of Scott Fitzgerald,Hemingway and Gertrude Stein 30 years after the affair had ended.

Paul Newman was never more charming,Sidney Poitier never more cool and self-effacing;their pairing considered quite daring at the time coming just a few years after the ground-breaking "The Defiant Ones". Duke Ellington wrote the score and his "Mood Indigo" is beautifully played by Murray McCeachern.Louis Armstrong plays himself - why his character is named Wild Man Moore one can only speculate.

I saw "Paris Blues" when I was 20 years old and my love affair with jazz was a its height. Looking at it now it doesn't seem all that special,the characters and situations have all become clichés;but perhaps that's a bit like saying "Hamlet"'s a good play but it's full of quotations.