Paris 36

Paris 36 is the kind of movie you think they don't make anymore, a joyously enchanting musical romance that is sweetly sentimental, unabashedly entertaining, and not a bit cynical about its old-fashioned charms.

Staging a New Year's Eve gala welcoming 1936, the employees of a small Parisian music hall have no idea that the place is about to be shut down by its intimidating new owner, the local gangster Galapiat (Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu). Making things worse for kindly stage manager Pigoil (Gérard Jugnot), who has worked at the place six days a week for 35 years, his singer wife Viviane (Elisabeth Vitali) announces she is leaving him and their young son Jojo (Maxence Perrin) to run off with a fellow performer.

Months later, Pigoil is still unemployed. Viviane, who has married a well-off businessman, receives sole custody of Jojo after he is picked up by the police for playing his accordion for tips. With nothing left to lose, and taking a cue from the success of France's Popular Front workers party, Pigoil joins former stagehands and performers who occupy the closed music hall to try running it themselves. Nasty Galapiat is dissuaded from evicting them by an associate, who says granting them permission will make residents think of him as "Galapiat the Beloved."

Complications ensue with the arrival of pretty small-town girl Douce (Nora Arnezeder), who hopes to launch a showbiz career. Middle-aged right-wing fascist Galapiat is smitten with her, but so is angry young leftist Milou (Clovis Cornillac), a soft-centered stagehand who likes boasting that he was with the Red Army elite corps.

Arnezeder is magnifique as the innocent but not totally naive Douce, who transforms from shy songbird to showstopping sensation her first time on stage. Whether performing a solo paean to Paris, an offbeat torch ballad, or an elaborate Busby Berkeley production number, she is a complete delight.

Although the movie's songs (by Frank Thomas and Reinhardt Wagner) are new, all of them sound convincingly classic. As director/writer Christophe Barratier put it, the duo managed to keep "the perfume of the '30s." Similarly, the movie's young lovers have a playful chemistry reminiscent of a bygone era. "You're attracted to me," Douce knowingly tells the stubbornly macho Milou early in their relationship, "and you can't bear the idea of it!"

Barratier's previous film, 2004's The Chorus, received Oscar nominations for Best Song and Best Foreign Language Film. Paris 36, which shares several cast members with that movie, is an even more impressive achievement. With tragedy, comedy, action, politics, a fantastic cast, and terrific tunes, this is sure to be remembered as one of the best films of the year.

—James Dawson
04.02.09

A star is born in a time of both celebration and instability in this historical drama with music from director Christophe Barratier. In the spring of 1936, Paris is in a state of uncertainty; while the rise of the Third Reich in Germany worries many, a leftist union-oriented candidate, Léon Blum, has been voted into power, and organized labor is feeling its new power by standing up to management. While such matters might normally seem unimportant to Germain Pigoil (Gérard Jugnot), who runs a small vaudeville house in the Faubourg district, the chaos of the city seems to be impacting his life and his work -- his wife, Viviane (Elisabeth Vitali), has run off with her lover, she demands custody of their son, Jojo (Maxence Perrin), and unscrupulous local entrepreneur Galapiat (Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu) threatens to put Germain's theater out of business. With the help of a local political organizer, Milou (Clovis Cornillac), and veteran entertainer Jacky Jacquet (Kad Merad), Germain strikes a deal with Galapiat to reopen the theater, but business is slow until a lovely young woman with a remarkable voice, Douce (Nora Arnezeder), comes looking for a spot in Germain's show. Faubourg 36 (aka Paris 36) received its North American premiere at the 2008 Montreal World Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi