Ready...Set...Action

- From Paris with love -

Woody Allen recently explained why his new blockbuster movie 'Midnight in Paris' was shot in the French capital. "Everybody in the US is brought up to love Paris; people love the city even before they ever set foot in it".  

Paris, the city of lights and endless romance has been the set for numerous movies. So many that you could almost say that the city has no secrets anymore. Every street corner, every avenue, every building, every bridge is unique and beautiful and has surely been the center of attention in a movie. It is therefore not unusual to once in a while bump into cameras on the streets. The city changes into a Hollywood movie set. Like two months ago when on a sunny Sunday morning my Montmartre metro station was covered with white fake snow carpets. Or last year when a well kept yellow old timer blocked the afternoon traffic in st germain des pres. And there are the occasional screaming paparazzi waiting outside of the glittery hotel Costes for a celebrity to finish their lunch or cocktails. I can only confirm that Paris is the absolute perfect backdrop for any given movie, the city changes character when entering another arrondissement or going from the left onto the right bank.

I love the way a movie can take you to exotic and exciting places that you have never been before and give you an instant motivation to go there. Who doesn't want to go to NYC after their first introduction to Carrie Bradshaw, while feeling the excitement and restlessness of the big apple bubbling of the screen? Or Beverly Hills on a Pretty woman shopping spree with mister perfect his credit card?  

 

And then there is the wonder of old Hollywood movies, from a decade when the movie set women were dressed in elegant and glamorous designs by the likes of Edith Head and Ceil Chapman.

When I have a hot date with my city, I know I am in for a treat when going to one of the small old-school movie theaters in the quartier Latin, where the seats are still covered in authentic red velvet and silk fabric is drapped above the movie screens. All the starlets from the Hollywood golden years come back to life on a daily basis and take you to another decade when women still dressed like women in sophisticated ensembles with matching hats and gloves. And we must surely not forget about the exquisite sequenced evening gowns in which they seduced their male antagonists.

Before coming to Paris, the only black and white movie I had ever seen was breakfast at Tiffany's. But living in a city as Paris, where nostalgia is embraced with open arms, I have evolved to loving everything old. From flea markets to vintage clothes, and from crooners music to black & white movies.

Some people say that nostalgia is for those whom are not happy in their current life, in part because they think their life would have been better when living in another era. I don't really see it that way. What is so wrong with enjoying and dreaming away with an old Hollywood classic, when real glamour was still alive?