Parisian Love (1925)

With a plot line that is as convoluted as a ball of yarn, PARISIAN LOVE barely manages to escape ignominy due to the presence of Clara Bow, who with her huge eyes, expressive face, and earthy beauty just dying to burst out of its confines manages to transcend well beyond the material she was handed (which tended to be unremarkable, as she wasn't considered glamorous enough to garner or carry that sort of film). Even so, PARISIAN LOVE is an odd movie, one that starts out as a dance-duel between partners, evolves into an adventure, and then turns into a revenge drama where Bow's character decides to go after Armand (Donald Keith) after believing he has betrayed her love for him in a rather implausible way. All in all, it's an okay movie, for completists of Bow's cinematography only, but for anyone looking for true acting and in a timeless style, the preferred movie to view would be IT.

Spoilers herein.Usually when I comment on a film, it is in the context of ideas. I root myself in the notion that ideas can have power, including emotional effect. Further, I suppose that many of these ideas come from thinking filmmakers.That sets me apart from others that look for dramatic engagement and credit actors with great influence.But my reaction to this film is different than both. In this case, I am reminded that some things in life take on their own identity and do what is necessary to promulgate. Things like musical tunes can be thought of as living, selfish entities that adapt so that they stick in your mind and induce you to hum or play them so that they can similarly stick in someone else's mind.Ideas like equality and justice and god are in this class which is generally called `memes.'Powerful films are full of memes, many of which aren't known at the time. Some of these we notice after the fact. Here, we have a few phases in the language of eyes. This was a new language in 1920, just when movies were inheriting the soul of our culture, that place where we collectively develop our imaginations. And Clara Bow was the first great artist of sculpting emotions with her eyes.And once those eye-phrases are captured, they do what they need to to survive and promulgate. Their expression in this film is secure, as it is now on DVD and thoroughly distributed throughout the planet. Not even a dinosaur-sized asteroid could kill that now. But the more effective promulgation is that now some of Clara's phrases have entered the music of everyday sexual dialog.See this as one of the better vehicles for various opportunities she has to play her eyes, probably better than most of the others easily available. Otherwise the film is a waste, except for recalling a time when it made movie sense to portray a man of culture as a French scientist. That's a meme that is dead.Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

The first thing I noticed about Clara Bow is her huge eyes which she uses to great effect when words won't do. As portrayed by her, Marie is not a nice girl at all, she's scheming, she's common (interesting question - if she's a street girl, an 'Apache', where did she learn to dance?), she's not good enough for little Armand (the boy thief who is even prettier than her) or for Marcel (who is far more interested in Armand anyway, or at least that seems to be the way Lou Tellegen is playing the role - perhaps unintentionally, but ...). Clocking in at just over an hour, this is a small film which feels rushed towards the end after a very long-winded beginning. However, it manages to combine humour, a slightly ridiculous script, and peripheral characters who are there for a few seconds then disappear. I liked the boozy 'Madame' who is stealing all the drinks at the party (who has previously broken bottles over her slow-moving husband's head). Donald Keith as Armand has too little to do except look cute. Worth watching for Bow and Tellegen and for the gorgeous tinting on the restored print.

Am I just deluded or is this the tale of a woman driven to extremes of jealousy, when her boyfriend becomes the lover of another man? The story goes like this: A handsome young robber is caught while robbing a wealthy man. Instead of handing him over to the police, the man claims that the robber is an old friend, and then nurses his wounds in his own bed. He insists that the young man live with him or he will turn him in. Meanwhile the robber's girlfriend finds out what's going on and, while the robber is away on a business trip for his "friend", she decides to seduce the wealthy man and trap him into marrying her. This she describes as revenge for him stealing her lover from her. A title reads: "All of Paris whispered when Pierre Marcel was married - he had been so aloof from love". Mmm. Well if anyone could "convert" a gay man it would have to be the wondrous CLARA BOW.