A Holiday Affair in Paris

Image via Wikipedia

There was an unexpected ring on the doorbell after dinner on games day. It was Arthur bearing the trappings of a film night, although these more usually take place on Friday than Tuesday. I was delighted to see him anyway (only partly because he had brought with him a large pork pie and two bottles of beer).

As usual these days, we put off the main feature and the other refreshments and started with a cup of tea and another episode of the wonderful Tutti Frutti. This was a particularly dark episode as "Kettles" receives a visit from her brute of a husband (incongruously for me, played by "Ford Prefect" from the television version of HHGTTG and pictured below).

Image via Wikipedia

The only disappointment though, came from the realisation that the next episode is the last of this tremendous feast of acting, writing and black humour.

Possible Spoilers ahead!


The main feature for the evening was another of Arthur's nostalgia trips to the fifties and sixties (albeit that it was actually made in 1949 in this case): "A Holiday Affair". Unfortunately this time, for him, it didn't live up to his fond remembrances. I, however, with no particular expectations, found it enjoyable if very contrived.

Big Bob Mitchum in this case is working in the toy department of a big store trying to earn the money to buy into a friend's boat building business in California. A chance encounter with Janet Leigh (in the initially rather unsympathetic role of a "comparison shopper") gets him fired for his leniency towards her. Their paths cross several times and it is clear that they are destined to be together despite her long-standing relationship with the dogged and dependable Karl, who is a decent cove and clearly a better bet.

Holiday Affair (Image via RottenTomatoes.com)

The other key protagonist in this, give or take the odd Central Park seal, is the widowed Leigh's precocious and irritating 6 year old son. If I do have a problem with this film it is rather in the unlikely relationships between this loud, and clearly spoilt, brat and the various adults in the plot. Setting this aside though leaves a pleasant and well-acted bit of corn of the well worn type where boy meets girl who already has a boy...who after various shenanigans eventually sees common sense and simply steps aside with a philosophical smile. Yeah right, because that's exactly what would happen!


The film is interesting to me for another reason. It highlights the relative affluence of forties America over austerity Britain something which could have been irritating but I imagine was welcomed as a temporary escape into a different world.

2 Days in Paris (Deux jours à Paris) (Image via RottenTomatoes.com)

After that the evening was still fairly young and we spent some time deciding how best to fill the rest of it. I made more tea while Arthur mined my DVD collection, as usual not knowing what he wanted to watch but being pretty sure I didn't have it. In the end he plumped for a film we both admire greatly: The magnificent Julie Delpy's "2 Days in Paris". I say magnificent because she wrote, directed, edited, acted and composed. If ever there was a film justifying the term auteur this is it. The writing is extraordinarily perceptive of a relationship between a French woman and a "foreigner" and here I speak as one who knows. I feel I have met most of these people and they speak with total authenticity for me, but at the same time in a marvellously funny way. The eccentric character list is full of piquant portrayals. In particular Delpy's wonderful parents (played by her real-life parents) and a succession of dreadful taxi drivers, each one more intolerant than the last.

For me it is a gem, a masterpiece, so all the more sad then that it failed to keep the attention this time, of two sad old gits whose heads dropped half way through and who spent the rest of the night snoring in unison in their respective comfy chairs.