Our Journey through the City of Paris at Night

Beginning in the mid-1980’s, a number of efforts were initiated to bring awareness and enlightenment to the actual tragedy of AIDS. Two films that evolved out of these awareness campaigns were the documentaries “Paris Is Burning” and “How to Survive a Plague” . Both films, although in significantly diverse ways, provide a window into the alternative lifestyles of LGBT people of the times and the problems and issues they faced. A comparison of these two documentaries demonstrates the initial fears of the public and affected people and the beginnings of acceptance or at least tolerance of these alternative lifestyles.

Martha Graham’s production of Night Journey is a unique and symbolic contemporary dance work. Graham bases many of her dance pieces on Greek myths and this is seen in her work Night Journey. Graham has manipulated elements of contemporary dance to communicate the emotion of the main character, Jocasta. Graham’s previous work focuses on depicting both the power and struggle of female idols in history. Graham has choreographed Night Journey to explore the perspective of Queen Jocasta, the main protagonist in the piece rather than the story of Oedipus. (Mueller, 2007) Graham has skilfully choreographed significant symbols and motifs to convey Jocasta’s emotions of grief, pain confusion and love through the manipulation of motifs and

The final element in The Café Terrace on the Place du Forum, Arles, At Night that demonstrates time is the stars and darkness that represent nighttime. The deep colors in the background, compared with the

The star-studded romantic comedy Midnight in Paris is one of Woody Allen’s most recent films which he did both, wrote and directed. It is a film about a man named Gil (Owen Wilson) who travels to Paris with his fiancée’s parents in order to expand his imagination and he ends up embarking on a journey to the 1920s while walking the streets of Paris at night. Not only is this film engaging and witty, but it also manages to provide both, overt and covert examples of postmodernism in film. By analyzing Woody Allen’s 2011film Midnight in Paris, we can identify the presence of many underlying motifs in both the narrative and the characterization of the film when using some of Frederic Jameson and Jean Baudrillard’s concepts on postmodernism.

We recently watched the film Paris is Burning, a documentary about black drag queens in Harlem and their culture surrounding balls. Directly related we also read two feminist critiques, Gender is Burning: Questions of Appropriation and Subversion by Judith Butler and Is Paris Burning by bell hooks. Two areas of critique I focus on and question are the critiques regarding the filmmaker, audience and drag queens and how they participate to reinforce a heterosexual racist patriarchy. Furthermore I ask if this line of investigation is the most beneficial way to view and understand the film and its various participants.

As part of McGill’s Community Engagement Day, I went on a walking tour of Montréal’s historical Red Light District presented by Karen Herland, professor and specialist in the history of prostitution. Her historical analysis (personal communication, October 2, 2015) of the neighbourhood gave great insights on morality and legislation issues regarding sex work, specifically about the relationship between authorities and prostitution as well as some of the impacts that these laws and other attitudes that regulate sex work have on women. Her astute reports lead us to the following proposition: the dynamics between authorities and sex work indicates that under the guise of “morality”, the laws in place and their application did not actually oppose sex work, they rather worked to limit women’s emancipation.

When you hear the words “romance films”, Woody Allen instantly pops up in your mind. He is a director known for being cheesy and creative. His movies can be absolutely moving or heart-breaking. Anyways, they always have a charming touch.

Poetic Realism was a film movement in France during the 1930’s that combined qualities of both Impressionism and Surrealism to create a unique way to tell stories through narratives, long, continuous shots, and sets that took a slice of reality and made it their own. The various techniques used to create shots “more real than life itself” were groundbreaking for this time period. In the past, sets of films were unrealistic and exaggerated; they were telling stories outside of reality, so their sets were not attempting to immerse their viewer in the film’s location. The 1920 film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari used very simplistic sets to tell its story, but the filmmakers did not expect or want the audience to take them as reality. They were entirely aware that the walls

Human nature can be analyzed through feelings, characteristics, and behavior. Humans are capable of expressing different emotions such as hate, frustration, remorse, happiness and other emotions depending on the situation they are encountering.Various aspects of human nature can be observed through many forms of media. Often times humans are portrayed in a negative way, however there are certain cases where they are portrayed positively, like in the memoir Night by Elie Wiesel. Evil acts, discrimination towards others, and perseverance for survival, are all apart of human nature.

The environment in which people live in demonstrates the societal norms and values of said culture. In Émile Zola’s The Belly of Paris, Florent, a political outcast, returns to Paris only to find that the regime has drastically changed. Napoleon III, a self-elected emperor, has torn down many of the streets of Old Paris to make room for the angular and orderly streets of New Paris as well as the new markets of Les Halles. Throughout the novel, the character’s lives revolve around the various markets in Les Halles and the streets of Paris. Zola uses descriptions of architecture and city planning as well as how people use space within Paris to demonstrate the city’s corruption, signifying that the architecture of a city is a reflection of

In Charles Rearick’s book, Paris Dreams, Paris Memories, he describes the various ways in which Paris is “represented” through various images he identifies as the City of Light, Old Paris, the Capital of Pleasures, and Paname. Rearick further writes how and why these images of Paris came of importance and how they shaped the geographical layout of the city we know today. All of these images together have likewise produced the city of Paris while also providing the framework of Parisian events and experiences.

The short fiction piece I chose to analyze was “Paris, At Night” by Sung J. Woo. The story centralizes on a man named Todd. Todd was trying to sell his belongings to obtain money for his “thirtieth wedding anniversary” with his wife, Sue. He wanted to take his wife to Paris. “For as long as he could remember,” Sue wanted to go to Paris; however, the couple had children and experienced financial issues which prolonged the trip from ever happening. In Todd’s world, there are robots who act as laborers; the robots do not have names, only a number as a form of identification. Some of the workers are a result of a bad memrip, like the character Manny in the story. A man under an alias named Richard Gibbon’s contacts Todd about completing “a painless, quick procedure” known as “memripping.” This procedure entails removing old memories to make room for new ones. In return, Todd will receive money to take his wife to Paris. “Memripping” is illegal in Todd’s world, yet Todd continued with the process anyways. The procedure took place in a dingy dentist’s office. “His personal history” and memories were removed from his brain by “the memrip machine.” The remains were “just a smidge of gray matter” in a petri dish. The short story concludes with Todd and Sue in Paris. Undoubtedly, the procedure had detrimental impacts on Todd. He no longer understood his wife. He was now filled with questions and doubts about Sue.

Gustave Caillebotte addressed at least three senses in his painting, Paris Street, Rainy Day. Cobblestones and sidewalks appeared slick with rain and water puddled in the cracks between the stones. People carried shiny umbrellas and were bundled up in coats against the chill of a rainy day with barely enough sun to cast shadows. Hunkered down beneath his umbrella, as if he wanted to get to his destination without looking at his surroundings, the man in the left center of the painting walked briskly. Only the people in the foreground appeared comfortable enough to take in their surroundings. Buildings, streets, umbrellas, even clothing appears as grey shading into black. The flesh tones of the hands and faces and the reds and greens of the

Paris today is known as a center of arts and rich culture both acclaimed and original. Famous moments pop up through the history of France’s art, such as the impressionistic artworks by Monet, the École des Beaux-Arts teachings of classicism, and the iconic Eiffel Tower by Stephen Sauvestre. Paris augments itself with numerous museums to catalog countless masterpieces and sculptures throughout France’s enduring, yet sometimes gritty, history. As a whole, Paris comprises of a mixture between historic architectural themes like rusticated brick clad, mansard roofs, striated columns, and a modern day architectural themes like engineered metalwork, and external program support machinery. The notion of classic French architecture, juxtaposed

We visited Eiffel tower. The view of the Paris from Eiffel tower is fantastic because I saw taller buildings as ants.