Full Circle

I find that in my life, the circumstances that mean the most to me are the ones that show me there is something more to life that just coincidence.

One of those instances just happened upon me, and I must share with you - whoever you may be. In my cinema class, we just finished our discussion of the American era "Hollywood-sur-Seine," in which many Hollywood-funded films were made in Paris to avoid sending massive amounts of money back to the U.S. (In other words, to avoid paying heinous taxes.) One such film is none other than An American in Paris, Vincente Minelli's chez-d'oevure musical. Those of you who have been following this blog closely will remember that I first began my Parisian experience with this very film while I was still in the U.S.

My first thought was that this was too much of a coincidence to be watching this film, albeit just a few clips, in my French cinema class. There were even several points of my own observation in our professor's analysis. Chiefly, the references to French painters during the American in Paris Ballet. However, I learned that my recognition of the paintings was limited to Toulouse Lautrec, while the ballet actually includes many great French painters from the Belle Epoque.

I continued this feeling of coincidence when I watched the most recent Woody Allen film, Midnight in Paris. Everyone it seems has had this film on their lips since I arrived, and I felt it was time to find out what all the buzz meant to me. I'm happy that the film not only lived up to the hype, but it has brought my experience in Paris full circle. There were so many moments in that film, which centers on the fantastic encounter of a 21st century screenwriter with the great American expats of the 1920s, that made me think of my life here. For example, when Gill (the screenwriter/struggling novelist) sits down with Ernest Hemingway, he confesses that he is always reticent to have other people read his work. Hemingway tells him that a writer should never fear death and is always jealous of another writer's talent.

Being a writer myself, I think that this film is the most pertinent look at the effect of romance and environment on the artistic spirit. Granted, I'm no Hemingway, and I'm certainly not the next Woody Allen. But at the same time, I felt that I could identify with this erring protagonist in that I'm always focused on my writing more than I am what's around me. Being here in Paris has given me a new sense of setting and its integral role in the action. Some of that awareness has also come from reading the greats of 19th century French literature, Balzac, Zola and Maupassant to name a few key figures. This city has impacted literature so much that it exists in mystique more than in actuality for most people.

What is Paris to me? For the moment, I hardly know how to put its role into words. I'm with Gill sometimes, who decides at the end of the film to give up his cushy job in Hollywood and move to Paris to work on his novel. Then other times, I'm a cynic. Paris is an ideal, not a physical place. I think Hemingway said it best when he called it a "moveable feast." You can take it with you wherever you go; you don't have to move here to experience it for a lifetime.

So my goal is more than just to experience something as overtly romantic as Gene Kelly in An American in Paris - falling in love with a Parisian dancer and living happily ever after - or even as sentimental as Gill in Midnight in Paris. I just want to understand what this artistic feast means to me and how that plays into my life. In the meantime, I'm enjoying how even in the big city, life is a series of recurring emotion that never ceases to overwhelm me with creative energy. I love it.