Paris Blues [VHS]
by Martin Ritt
![Paris Blues [VHS]](/images/Paris-Blues-VHS-6302923050-L.jpg)
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Product details
Actor: Diahann Carroll, Joanne Woodward, Louis Armstrong, Paul Newman, Sidney PoitierDirector: Martin Ritt
Producer: George Glass
Producer: Lee Katz
Writer: Harold Flender
Writer: Irene Kamp
Writer: Jack Sher
Writer: Lulla Rosenfeld
Writer: Walter Bernstein
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Original Language), Analog; French (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, NTSC
Running Time: 98 minutes
Release Date: 1998-09-01
Audience Rating: Unrated
Publisher: MGM (Video & DVD)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
VHS Movie Reviews of Paris Blues [VHS]
Movie Review: Paris Blues
Summary: 5 Stars
I LOVE this movie - was so happy to get it. Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward were either just married or about to get married, and so young and pretty together! Also a rare opportunity to see Diahnne Carrol(not spelled right) and Sidney Poitier so young also. Excellent jazz (Louis Armstrong plays in this movie)Great collector item.Movie Review: The film's great asset was the fascinating background music...
Summary: 3 Stars
The story is about two young jazzmen Newman and Poitier who live in Paris...Newman is after a serious musical career... Poitier enjoys the tolerant atmosphere and the freedom from U.S. racial tensions... They work at a Left Bank cub owned by Barbara Laage who is having a casual affair with Newman... Serge Raggiani a gypsy guitarist who is a narcotics addict, and Louis Armstrong a trumpeter, are among their friends... Newman and Poitier meet a couple of American tourists, Joanne Woodward and Diahann Carroll who are visiting Paris on a two-weeks vacations...
A romance develops between Poitier and Carroll... Woodward and Newman also find that a feeling is growing between them... Woodward wants him to return with her to the U. S., but Newman believes that marriage would interfere with his career, and decides to remain...
As in "The Hustler," Newman plays a man whose devotion to making his talent better than second-rate prevents love... But he was natural as the pool player, and convinced us--through his movements, dialog and expressions--of his feelings for the music...
Woodward is more aggressive than Newman... Moved by his music, she displays genuine emotion, but Newman is so defensive, egocentric and selfish that he becomes hostile, stubborn, unpleasant and offensive... Woodward is determined to make something more of it, but he remains uninfluenced--willing to show slight affection but incapable of being sincerely tender... In their final bedroom scene, the two superb1y perform a progression from spontaneous domestic affection, to growing alienation, to his indifferent rejection of her love...
Legend Louis Armstrong shines in one flamboyant jazz interlude...
Movie Review: I'd like to share it with friends
Summary: 4 Stars
This movie has a lot going on -- the music, the romance, the city of Paris, some really great actors and a really good feel. Poitier and Newman are a little seedy and very worldly, while Carroll and Woodward are naive and easy. Everyone's just looking for a good time. It made me feel as if I was the one on vacation in Paris. The plot is good and I kept trying to guess how things might end up. As always, Louis Armstrong stole the show during his scenes. I really want to share this movie with my family and friends. I can't find it to rent. I'd love to have it on DVD.Movie Review: Pleasant but uninvolving drama
Summary: 3 Stars
Paul Newman and Sidney Poitier play US expatriates ,both jazz musicians,living and working in Paris .Newman is in Paris because he feels more able to grow musically in a European environment while Poitier is escaping racial prejudice in the US .They meet two US tourists and pair off together ,Newman with Joanne Woodward and Poityier with Diahann Carroll .Cue much -frankly rather dull-discourse between the couples in bars ,cafes etc and frequent leisurely perambulations around the city in which they talk(my how they do talk!)about life ,love and the whole damned thing!Carroll devotes much time to trying to persuade Poitier to return to America,while woodward does the same with Newman.
The problem for me with this movis is twofold-the dull maundering script by Jack Sher ,Irene Kamp and Walter Bernstein which tries to put a social consciousnes spin on what is pretty standard Hollywood material ;and Martin Ritt's direction.It almost seems as if he said "okay guys we are in Paris-let's do a Nouvelle Vague" movie -you know Truffaut and those cats ".The result is a movie with gestures to a European sensibility -and using a local crew -but one which is hafway between Hollywood and the Left Bank.
Too often scenes go nowhere and the movie meanders rather than moves with a sense of purpose .On the plus side it is well acted all round ,the Ellington score is a delight and the presence of jazz luminaries like Satchmo give proceedings a shot in the arm when the action starts to sag .This will I suspect appeal mostly to jazz lovers and Francophiles I applaud its jazz theme but as a movie I found it a bit lacking in grit.
Movie Review: Great music
Summary: 4 Stars
Paul Newman and Sidney Poitier are two expatriot jazz musicians living in Paris; Newman is there to compose serious music and Poitier to escape from racial prejudice in the US. Along come Joanne Woodward and Diahann Carroll on vacation, and in a flash they're paired off and in love. Carroll wants Poitier to return to the US ("life is better there now for blacks," she says). Newman wants to go back to America with Woodward, but realizes that music is his whole life and must pursue it further in Paris on his own. Since it's a jazz movie there's the obligatory drug scene with one of the other musicians. The plot and the writing are not that strong, but Newman (in only his second featured role) is pretty good. And when things start to sag, on comes Louis Armstrong for a swinging jam session (can't beat that!). Duke Ellington is responsible for the great musical score. Murray MacEachern dubbed Newman's trombone work, and Paul Gonsalves did Poitier's tenor sax dubs.
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