Beth Arnold

Letter From Paris: Guetty Felin Calls All The Right Shots

Crossposted at HuffPost.com.  Comments not included here.

Paris, Winter 2008

The scene opens on the soft light of daybreak glowing over the rooftops of Paris's 20th Arrondissement. A woman's soothing voice says, "Over the past several months, an unrelenting roar has been mounting across the Atlantic, resonating all the way to Paris, my adopted city for the last 20 years. Something is happening in America. Four decades have gone by since we were last summoned to come together as a nation to search for, rethink, and dream another America. Today, a voice rises above the din challenging us anew, and for the first time in a long time, I can almost call America home again."

Soon we're seeing, Guetty Felin and her husband, Hervé Cohen, driving along an American highway with their two teenage sons. They are headed for Texas, where they will work for the Obama campaign and Guetty and Hervé will shoot this documentary film called Closer to The Dream. In the process, they'll be giving their sons a view of the heartland of America that most Americans--who don't live there--will never see. They'll also be imparting an incredible lesson in politics and bearing witness to a stunning moment of history.

A song called "Better Way" by Ben Harper is carrying them and us, the audience, along.

...What good is a man
Who won't take a stand
What good is a cynic
With no better plan
I believe in a better way...

                                                         ---Ben Harper

We, as an audience, are immediately snared into the rhythm of the movie, and we are living the dream with them.

Letter From Paris: Do You Feel The Shift?

Check out this trailer for an interesting film that's being made called The Shift:

For those who live in Paris, Moscow, New York, Sydney, London--all points around the globe--is the energy changing?  Yes or no...Do you feel the shift? 

Please let me know with your comments!

                                                        ---Beth Arnold in Paris

Letter From Paris: Saints and Girls, Superlove for All

Image via Wikipedia

"Who dat? Who dat? Who dat say dey gunna beat them Saints?"

I must congratulate the city of New Orleans and their Super-Bowl-winning Saints! (And for a little interesting history about their chant above, click here.)  Little ole me, who doesn't give a whit about sports, was rooting for you. 

What a beacon of hope the Saints have been to New Orleans...to everyone who lives in or loves this ravaged American city.  The Saints have focused the world's attention on their hometown, and their victory ensures new funds and energy will be poured into this city's regeneration.  We might as well just say this out loud, New Orleans is Paris South.  Both the French and Americans adore it.

(If you haven't seen Clint Eastwood's Invictus, go now.  The story of the South African rugby team making its countrymen proud and bringing them together in hope and the promise of a better future closely resembles what the Saints have just done for NOLA.  I didn't think I would like the film, and I was wowed.)

I see the Saints' Super Bowl win as a love letter to New Orleans, which couldn't be more appropriate a week from Valentine's Day!

Playwright Eve Ensler, best known for The Vagina Monologues, presented her own love letter to New Orleans two years ago.  (Men and boys, no clicking away.  This post is definitely meant for you, too.  If you're heterosexual, we know you love vaginas.  And if you're not, we know you love the package surrounding it.)

Letter From Paris: A French Idol and His Daughter

Image by mauren veras via Flickr

Crossposted at HuffingtonPost.com.  Comments not included her.

The biopic of Serge Gainsbourg, titled Gainsbourg (Vie Héroïque), has opened in Paris, and the French are flocking to see it like Americans used to beat it to Woody Allen movies.  (That is before Woody basically had an affair with and married his adopted daughter and became his natural born son's brother-in-law....Not to mention his films were getting a little boring.)

Unknown French actor Eric Elmosnino is playing Gainsbourg, who remains a beloved figure in France, and the actor's resemblance to the singer/actor is said to be uncanny.  The film covers Gainsbourg's entire life and is getting some criticism for the inclusion of M. Gainsbourg's alter ego (representing his insecurity about his looks) as a cartoon that speaks to him.

I haven't seen the film yet--but why not, I say?  The alter ego sounds cool to me.  I'll have to watch the film before I make my final judgment, but I can see this mixture of medias could add excitement as well as enhance the story and mood. 

Gainsbourg was a chain smoker of Gitanes, which added to his mystique and image.  The alternate movie title to go with the alter ego could be "Have Gitane Will Travel."  See movie poster below:

Letter From Paris: The Sound of American Outrage

Image via Wikipedia

Posted at HuffPost.com on October 2, 2009. Comments not included here.

Listening to this roaring American furor over Roman Polanski needing to get what he deserves reminds me of the enormous public outcry about Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" on the Super Bowl halftime show a few years ago. Ohmygod, Americans caught a glimpse of a bare breast. The horror...the horror...

There is an entry in Wikipedia to record the public atrocity.

The incident was called Nipplegate--and the outraged public, the press coverage, and the barking of the watchdogs went on and on and on. "As God as my witness," a matronly Scarlett O'Hara might have proclaimed, "America will get its decency back again."

I am rolling my eyes, while another show of Desperate Anything is played on the television.

It is most assuredly true that Roman Polanski should not have raped a 13-year-old girl. (Neither should Jerry Lee Lewis have had sex--and married--a 13-year-old who was also his first cousin once-removed. Was she the one who died and everyone thought he murdered?) It is also true that justice should've been served a long time ago.

But who is seeking justice here--and why--and why now? There is plenty of speculation about this, and I doubt the most accurate reason is any of those being publicly touted. The law is the law is the law. Oh, really? Many people believe O.J. Simpson murdered his wife and Ron Goldman, and he walked out of an American courtroom scot-free.

The person who might possibly like for justice to be served the most is the victim herself, but here was her reaction in January. From the MailOnline:

Samantha Geimer, now 45, lashed out at prosecutors in LA, accusing them of victimising her again with their focus on the lurid details of her ordeal.

Yesterday she filed a legal declaration asking that the charge against Polanski be dismissed in the interest of saving her from further trauma as the case is publicised anew.

'True as they may be, the continued publication of those details causes harm to me, my beloved husband, my three children and my mother,' she said. 'I have become a victim of the actions of the district attorney.'

....Ms Geimer said she believes prosecutors are reciting sexually explicit details of the case to distract from their office's own failure to handle the case properly 31 years ago.

Apparently, Ms. Geimer wants shed of the angry mob that wants Polanski publicly hung. But if there's one thing Americans like, it's the sound of their moral outrage.

October 4th Update: A must read: The Polanski Case--in The New York Times by Ronald Sokol.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/beth-arnold/letter-from-paris-the-sou_b_308184.html

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Letter From Paris: Inglourious Basterds & Glorious Murals

Note: Obamarifix is taking a holiday while Beth is searching for a new apartment, but she's looking forward to getting back into the health care fray and delving into the minds of those misguided and misinformed Americans who are calling the people who are trying to help them Nazis.

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Speaking of Nazis, go to your neighborhood cinema to see:  Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds. Tarantino is no filmmaking god to me--Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction showed his talent--and then he flopped.  But Basterds is a terrific picture and a whale of a ride!  (So why was it considered a turkey at Cannes?)  Brad Pitt is pure mountain Southern, and Diane Kruger shows starry acting chops.  Inspired performances all the way around.  The whole film is terrifically well done.  The audience we were part of stood up and clapped after it ended.

And now for Paris. 

One of the great pleasures of Paris is walking, and we've been beating the streets in search of apartments.  Along rue L'Agent Bailly in the 9th Arrondissement, I spied this mural:

Letter From Paris: Johnny Depp on Himself

Everyone who lives in Paris wishes for a sighting of Johnny Depp, and some people get lucky. One hears the fabled story of a friend of a friend who happened upon the actor--caught a glimpse of the star somewhere.

I thought I saw Depp once. Well, a girl can dream...

Love the Depp attitude about himself...about watching himself! I call that confident and composed--a man knowing what he wants and trusting what he needs to do.

From iPhone/Orange Smackdown to Mickey Rourke Does Paris

Image via CrunchBase

This column first appeared on HuffingtonPost.com.  Comments not included here.

As we all know, American culture is taking over the world. France is no exception, although it has its ups and downs here. While the America of George W. Bush was heartily rebuffed--not just in France but across the globe--the Obama era has ushered in a renewed French love affair with us. Every front page in France, including the first seven pages of Le Figaro, were devoted to the Obama Inauguration, and Obama's actions are closely followed. The Sarkozys are hot, but the Obamas are smokin'. Barack and Michelle are the new Jack and Jackie Kennedy, as much as some here might like to claim Carla Bruni Sarkozy as the inheritor of Jackie's stylish legacy.

Obamas or not, if there's anything the French take seriously, it's their culture. In the centuries that the Gallic cauldron has been brewing historical events, the country's arts, sciences, fashion, gastronomy, language, and more have cooked up a feast. The French may be prim and proper, but they're decadently sensual, which is one prime reason everybody in the world loves to come here--eat, drink, see, touch, man, woman, wine, and French lingerie... Feel free to add what I've left out.

What the World Needs Now Is More Men Like Paul Newman

This column first appeared on HuffingtonPost.com.  Comments not included here.

by Beth Arnold

The sad news comes that Paul Newman died. Men and women all over this earth mourn for him. It is because we have all looked into his electric blue eyes and seen his humanity -- whether it was in the characters he nailed in his powerful films, or the man who lived and breathed outside them. Whether he was bringing Tennessee Williams's words to sizzling life in Cat on A Hot Tin Roof or Sweet Bird of Youth, whether he was skipping across the screen in Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid or making us face our own compassion in The Verdict. He scorched the screen with his handsome face and brilliant performances. More than that: In presenting these characters, he showed us part of him. Paul Newman was genius enough to let us all in. He made our hearts beat faster. He made our worlds grow wider. He made us feel ourselves.

Where Art and Reality Collide

The truth about 'The Diving Bell and the Butterfly'

Family and friends of Jean-Dominique Bauby speak out about how Julian Schnabel's Oscar-nominated film honors and defames Bauby's real story.

By Beth Arnold

The quietly stunning film of Jean-Dominique Bauby's phenomenal memoir, "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," is nominated for four Oscars this year. They include directing by Julian Schnabel -- an honor he won for the film at the Cannes Film Festival and Golden Globes -- and best adapted screenplay by Ronald Harwood, who won an Oscar in 2002 for his adaptation "The Pianist." "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" is also nominated for cinematography and editing, and has won numerous awards in film festivals across the world.

There is every reason for the film's success. It recounts the remarkable life of Bauby, the debonair editor of French Elle magazine who in 1995 suffered a massive stroke. He slipped into a coma that lasted 20 days and awoke to find himself paralyzed from head to toe. He was diagnosed with a rare neurological disorder called locked-in syndrome.