Paris Blues (1961)

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Blistering performances.

Imagine. You're schoolteachers on vacation in Paris and meet and fall in love with Paul Newman and Sidney Poitier, and night after night, you sit in a Parisian club listening to them play jazz. Have you died and gone to heaven? Well, if you're Joanne Woodward and Diahann Carroll, you are in heaven, at least until you get a slap of reality. But man, that's the vacation of a lifetime.Woodward and Carroll are Lillian and Connie from the U.S., on vacation in Paris. The first day, Lillian recognizes jazz musician Ram Bowen (Newman), who is trying to pick up Connie. He invites them to see him play at the club some time. Of course they don't waste any time getting over there. There Connie meets Eddie (Poitier), part of the group. They pair up - Ram/Lillian and Eddie/Connie. For Ram, it's an affair; for the straightforward, honest Lillian, she's hoping for more. For Eddie and Connie, it seems to be the real thing.Connie, as a young black woman, is also an activist, and she feels that Eddie has run away to Paris instead facing the conditions for blacks at home and working to make them better. In Paris, of course, he's freer and accepted. He loves the city, but he also loves Connie. Her home is the U.S. Ram is ambitious for his music -- he has written a serious piece and wants to see how far he can go with his talent.This is a wonderful film, far more than a romance, accompanied by some amazing music played by Louis Armstrong and and other musicians and composed by Duke Ellington. The movie beautifully captures the Paris of the early '60s in black and white, its smoky clubs, the people who live in the night, and the love Parisians had for American jazz, which would be fading soon.Poitier and Newman have great chemistry together, as do both male/female couples. Newman is hot, sexy, and egocentric, Carroll is drop-dead gorgeous and intelligent, Poitier is thoughtful and handsome, Woodward forthright and aggressive. They are all wonderful.See this film. It might actually convince you that for a while, like Lillian and Connie, you were in heaven.

Handsomely shot on location in Paris, Sidney Poitier appears as second player to Paul Newman's tense jazz musician Ram Bowen. Like a jazz piece, the film meanders at times, content to get where it's going without overt dramatic flourish, something which both helps and harms the film. Containing relatively sophisticated themes for Hollywood cinema, it nevertheless falls into the trap of being a serviceable film rather than a great one, a string of incidents in need of a more rigid plot.The tagline for the film promised "A love-spectacular so exciting you feel it's personally happening to you", whereas the reality is, you'll probably just think it's happening to Newman and Poitier, who both had more significant and historically lasting films that same year. (The Hustler/A Raisin In the Sun). All this said, the cinematography by Christian Matras is beautiful, Louis Armstrong adds fun playing Louis Armstrong (called "Wild Man Moore") and Newman-Poitier is a pretty good screen pairing, even if Sidney does tower over the film's top billed star by five inches. Amusement can be gleaned by the film's conclusion, which sees both dump their girlfriends to be with each other.

Grabbing a bite at lunch time I clicked the remote control to my digital TV (our last kitchen appliance!) the TV was on "gem" channel 90, one of the recent channels added to Australia free to air TV that more or less has grown from 5 to may be 15 such channels... Ah yes Paris Blue! So the TV splashed a black and white movie... Oh well, but then there was that Trombone player with such a familiar face, Paul Newman! One of my favourite actor and one I can't think has done any lousy movie. Then what? at the other end of that shinny saxo, Sydney Potier, and a glimpse of Louis Armstrong! I'd swear I also seen JC Vandam pushing a cart in the market scene. Thank you IMDb for being the vehicle to remind me J Woodward was P Newman real wife, I had forgotten. I'm not a jazz aficionado but enjoy it just the same, I love romance and take racial discrimination at heart. I also found the dilemma career vs love a worthwhile exploration. But being born in Paris and having lived 27 years there, that I really took for granted, gave me a different outlook on what other people see in it.Movies can be criticised to kingdom come for their artistic and professional quality, but often I think they should be evaluated to what they have to offer an audience. In this film I was in the company of elements I liked a lot. Paris, good actors, enjoyable music, I don't know about you but this was good for me!

I tried to comment on this good film when it was on TCM a couple of days ago. I liked all of the comments except the derisive remarks regarding Ellington, and Strayhorn's relationship, but I digress. Queencheryl, You are right to wonder about the love affairs presented to us in the film. I've read (Music Is My Mistress) that Ellington was primarily interested in the project because the film WAS to have Ms. Carroll and Mr. Newman's characters "getting together" as the main story, and was very disappointed to find out after he...and Strayhorn had written and, worked the scoring, the producers chickened out and changed the screenplay. The music and the on screen appearances of Armstrong are the stars for me. Walking in Paris is cliché, but not doing that there, is like not going to Fisherman's wharf when visiting here. AND WHAT CITY TO HAVE WALKED IN!