January 11, 2013 by Tory Hoen
Is there anyone more radiant than a young Catherine Deneuve? The answer, my friends, is no. I confirmed this fact upon re-watching Belle de Jour, Luis Buñuel’s 1967 film in which Mme. Deneuve deftly juggles her housewifely duties with her day job (as a prostitute), all while looking like the classiest broad to have ever strolled/worked the streets of Paris.
In addition to the ridiculously awesome premise, this has got to be one of the most subtly stylish films of all time. There’s something about the integrity of Deneuve’s uniform—exquisitely tailored coats, simple shift dresses, polished pumps—that makes me pine for the days of visible sartorial effort, when putting yourself together meant you actually ended up looking like you cared—and that wasn’t a shameful thing. Continue Reading »
Posted in Fashion | 9 Comments »
June 4, 2012 by Erin Dahl
Fête de la Musique
June 21 brings the Fete de la Musique back for its 31st year. This year the festival celebrates 50 years of pop, and with a full lineup of gratuit concerts, there is certainly something for every taste.
Musique
June 5: Magnificat: Polychoral music at Notre-Dame de Paris. An extraordinary opportunity to enjoy a concert in one of the world’s most famous cathedrals. This show celebrates the works of famed composers Michael Praetorius and Giovanni Gabrieli, who drastically shaped the transition from Renaissance to Baroque music in Europe.
June 6: Brooklyn synth pop duo Chairlift is playing at La Gaîté lyrique. If ethereal harmonies (and the Apple ad featuring their 2008 “Bruises”) is your thing, this is your show. Continue Reading »
Posted in Events, Parisian Living | 2 Comments »
June 9, 2011 by Tory Hoen
Woody Allen’s latest film, Midnight in Paris, is about – what else? Midnight in Paris! Inspired by her recent run-in with the director himself, Tory reminisces about how living the romantic, literary dream also means taking stock of the realities of life in the city of lights… -Geneviève
“I don’t deliberately make a film a year, but that seems to be what happens,” Woody Allen told me when I caught up with him at an event last December in New York. “Eventually I will stop working or keel over, but so far everything’s been going along fine.”
At the time, he had just wrapped Midnight in Paris, which headlined this year’s Cannes Film Festival in May (and is now in theaters in France and the United States). I had been anticipating this film ever since my friend caught a glimpse of the crew shooting on one of the quais last fall, and I was curious to see how Allen would interpret (or misinterpret) Paris.
In short, Midnight in Paris follows Owen Wilson’s character, an earnest American novelist, as he is unexpectedly lured into a magical world, populated by the likes of Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Picasso, Gertrude Stein, Dalí, Luis Buñuel, Man Ray, T. S. Eliot, and the list goes on. Late in the film, a spin through the Belle Epoque has Wilson rubbing shoulders with Gauguin, Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec.
Like many of Allen’s films, the whole thing was pretty far-fetched, but I must admit, it totally captivated me in the watching. More importantly, it made me laugh at myself—if only because it played with so many of the stereotypes that lure starry-eyed Americans (myself included) to Paris. Owen Wilson’s literary-inspired naïveté struck a serious chord with me. It’s no coincidence that when I first arrived, I named my blog A Moveable Beast in honor of the bohemian, writer-ly existence I planned to cultivate. Continue Reading »
Posted in Arts | 16 Comments »
