Is Paris Burning?
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Movie Reviews of Is Paris Burning?
Movie Review: A Farce of a Film.
Summary: 2 Stars
Viewed: 3/08
Rate: 3
3/08: Don't be fooled by the caption, sported by Is Paris Burning?, claiming it having an "all-star cast." It is nowhere near the all-star status, not even by a mile. Is Paris Burning? is just a terribly made soap operatic film that runs too long on fumes containing far too many newsreels more than necessary. There are many overly melodramatic scenes constructed to draw sympathy from the audience, and they all come off being amateurishly thought of. Take one scene in particular involving a woman running and looking for her husband (I think) and finally finding him before he runs away and gets shot. Now, when I think about the scene as time goes on, the sillier is the usage of it. In a sense, Is Paris Burning? feels lot like an assembly of many moments into one big picture, almost never tying up together. Every time the word "Paris" is mentioned especially in the last hour of the film, it's like a magic word that can unlock the doors to the universe of truth. And how painfully corny is that? Even worse is the inclusion of Anthony Perkins. I was thinking of Norman Bates Attacks Paris and then Norman Bates Meets a Nazi or Norman Bates Could Have Met Adolf Hitler. In the end, he was pretty much useless as the screen time involving him didn't contribute much to the overall story. Although I do like the concept behind the movie, the movie is so darned predictable, so I feel like I wished the Nazis have blown Paris into smithereens every time the word "Paris" is uttered. Speaking of the "all-star" cast, Orson Welles overacts, Kirk Douglas gives his two cents and disappears after five minutes, and who else...oh yes...the star of Diabolique Simone Signoret shows up and that's it. Rene Clement, the director, shows that he is wholly incapable of directing an epic picture like Is Paris Burning? I am not even sure if I should go as far as calling the movie an epic picture, but it was far too long and silly. When I saw the men being shot without even being actually shot, The Battle of the Bulge immediately came to my mind. Especially a couple of scenes, one of them shows a jeep with several men on it ramming into a wall or a tree, they all stand up and slowly fall to the ground pathetically as if they died at the point of impact. I couldn't help but rewind that part and see it again before laughing too much. On a positive side about Is Paris Burning?, I liked some of the shots and how they were aesthetically done, and it's even probable that certain ideas from the movie were influences for Steven Spielberg before he did Schindler's List. Then again, he might have learned a lot of lessons in what to avoid. When the hammy line "In Paris we have to look our best," was uttered by the French commander, it was the death knell of the film as whole trying to be a serious war film. Anthony Perkins was probably the final nail on the coffin. My gosh, he doesn't even look like he was in a war for mere two seconds! I have to say there are a lot of editing problems throughout Is Paris Burning? because the transitions seemed to be rough and unconnected. When I found that Kirk Douglas was actually playing as General Patton, I was thinking, "Gee whiz." I actually lip-read the actors and found myself questioning if they were speaking in different languages instead of English. Maybe the movie is half-English and half-dubbed. All in all, I just wished that Paris burnt down instead of the mess I saw in Is Paris Burning? As a side mention, I actually liked Gert Frobe, who played the Nazi commander of Paris and did look familiar, in this film.
Movie Review: Lousy Movie
Summary: 2 Stars
I must not have researched this movie enough before buying the DVD. I was immediately surprised by two things: (1) it's in black & white (the colored cover is deceiving) and (2) it is a French film that is mainly spoken in French although dubbed in English. The big problem with the movie, however, is that it just doesn't flow right. It bounces around too much and is not focused enough. It's just not very interesting, although it recovers some toward the end when the allies entered Paris. My 2-star rating is based on the interesting ending (it was 1-star up until then). I must say that the black & white nature of the film allowed the film-makers to blend in historical footage of Paris during that time period. Much of the ending, for instance, was historical footage of the victorious walk down the Champs-Elysees. It's a long movie, and the wait for the moving end wasn't worth it. I'll probably not watch this again.Movie Review: Hollywood missed the point
Summary: 2 Stars
Hollywood took this incredible novel of courage and cunning and turned it into a war epic filled with famous stars who appear for a minute or two only. In the waning days of World War II, Hitler ordered the total destruction of Paris. His general in command of Paris did as little as possible to carry out this order, even advised the allies that they would be welcomed with token resistance. Direct orders to the Luftwaffe to bomb Paris were ignored as well. There was an incredible spontaneous disregard of the Fuhrer's plans to destroy Paris. And when the Allies refused to march to Paris, the French Army left for Paris against orders in the dead of night, forcing Patton to race after them. Apparently, this fantastic story was too dull for Gore Vidal and a young Francis Ford Coppola, who opted instead to write a two dimensional war story about how the Americans and British bailed out the French resistance. Read the book!Movie Review: Burned by boredom.
Summary: 1 Stars
This is an amazingly flat piece of propaganda, perhaps government-sponsored, to depict the events in the most flattering way for the French. As usual, a Jewish question is totally omitted while depicting the horrors of Nazi occupation of Paris, as the issue has never existed. I doubt one can speak truth about the war time in France ignoring this part of history. And then, as the movie proceeds, it feels more and more as a farce. The star-studded cast, acting poorly, only contributes to the overall grotesque impression on this film, which begings to feel as a play at puppet theater or a parody, and the music that is clearly plagiarized from Shostakovich Symphony #5 Leningrad makes the final point - if Shostakovich music is truthful, serious and profound, this one is caricature, vaudeville-like and stupid.
I feel it is somewhat an insult to the true events and to those French resistance movement fighters who fought and sacrificed their lives for the liberation of their country.