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Re: So This Is Paris (1926) - May 9 at TCMFF 2021
Posted: Mon May 10, 2021 3:38 pm
by Keatonesque
Trueblood wrote: ↑Mon May 10, 2021 1:22 pm
I actually LOVED Monte Blue's performance. I found him hilarious and just as effective as he was two years earlier in Lubitsch's THE MARRIAGE CIRCLE where he also played a "straying" physician. I've always had a crush on Patsy Ruth Miller. She, Lilyan Tashman, and Andre Beranger were all fabulous. I'll have to watch again (and again) to catch Myrna Loy and to enjoy the connections my brain makes with THE MARRIAGE CIRCLE, ONE NIGHT WITH YOU, and, strangely, LADY WINDERMERE'S FAN. Plus, the shots of the street which separates the two couples' abodes can't help but bring to mind the street separating Rollo Treadway and Betsy O'Brien in THE NAVIGATOR.
David
I couldn't agree more. I thought Monte Blue's mannerisms and facial expressions were on cue and comedically effective, almost reminiscent of the screwball kind Cary Grant would come to use from the late 30s on. If anything, I just thought what if Beranger's character had left and then reentered the home of Miller/Blue the night of the Ball dressed as the sheik. I felt that was a missed opportunity for some laughs since Miller's character was established as being infatuated with being swept off her feet by a sheik of her own. That may have played better rather than having him enter as he was which repulsed her, but just the same, it was a rather effective scene regardless, even if his repeated farewell kisses made me increasingly uncomfortable. If he had played that off as his sheik get-up, I believe it would have been all the more hilarious, and also driven home how immersed in infidelity the doctor's wife was. But Lubitsch manages to keep your attention with little subtle comedic moments that compensate for anything like that. The way he brings it full circle with the moral lesson at the end was a lovely touch.
Robert Osborne would have been so proud to see this happen.
Re: So This Is Paris (1926) - May 9 at TCMFF 2021
Posted: Mon May 10, 2021 3:53 pm
by ChristineURen
I waited for years to see this film--it played at a festival near me in 2016, but I had an unbreakable family engagement at the same time, so I couldn't go. Then it played a few times at places I could have traveled to (pre-pandemic), but I always learned about it a few days after. It's a good thing the screening was mentioned at a Silent Comedy Watch Party I went to, because I usually never hear about the TCM Festival until it's over, and I would have been SO mad to find I had missed this film again! Thank you, Ben!! The new score was great, and it compensated for having to wait so long.
Re: So This Is Paris (1926) - May 9 at TCMFF 2021
Posted: Mon May 10, 2021 7:17 pm
by drednm
Lilyan Tashman made the film for me. The night club sequence is GREAT.
Looks like Louis Armstrong to me.
Unfortunately Monte Blue's grinning kept reminding me of El Brendel.
Great music by Ben Model. One of his best.
Re: So This Is Paris (1926) - May 9 at TCMFF 2021
Posted: Mon May 10, 2021 8:18 pm
by Mike Gebert
I kept thinking he looked like either Olsen or Johnson.
Re: So This Is Paris (1926) - May 9 at TCMFF 2021
Posted: Mon May 10, 2021 9:49 pm
by buskeat
The restoration was beautiful and Ben Model’s score was, of course, marvelous. And it was great to see Myrna Loy’s face clearly for the first time in her tiny role.
Re: So This Is Paris (1926) - May 9 at TCMFF 2021
Posted: Mon May 10, 2021 11:26 pm
by Arndt
I remember seeing SO THIS IS PARIS at the Bonn festival some years ago and enjoying it tremendously. I hope I will get a chance to see it again some time, now that it has been broadcast on US TV.
Re: So This Is Paris (1926) - May 9 at TCMFF 2021
Posted: Tue May 11, 2021 6:03 pm
by Brooksie
It has one of the all-time great 1920s party sequences.
Re: So This Is Paris (1926) - May 9 at TCMFF 2021
Posted: Tue May 11, 2021 7:06 pm
by drednm
The party emcee who also holds the big round microphone for the winners is Charlie Wellman, a radio announcer and station manager at KFWB, owned by Warner Bros. Wellman was also a singer and wrote a title song for the film which Lubitsch incorporated into the film's score (probably used only at big theaters).
Wellman was a popular Los Angeles personality and pioneered remote radio broadcasts. He's credited with setting up the first radio broadcast of a movie premiere (this may not be true) for John Barrymore's
Don Juan in 1926. My guess is Wellman also shows up in Hollywood newsreels of the day.
Re: So This Is Paris (1926) - May 9 at TCMFF 2021
Posted: Wed May 12, 2021 1:41 am
by dr.giraud
My fave Lubitsch silent. (Just SLIGHTLY ahead of DIE BERGKATZE.) I wore out the Grapevine VHS. Excellent restoration, great score, all around win.
Re: So This Is Paris (1926) - May 9 at TCMFF 2021
Posted: Wed May 12, 2021 8:59 pm
by oldposterho
That nightclub sequence was astounding, most interesting editing this side of the Dnieper. I'm not usually a fan of this sort of film but I completely enjoyed this one. Patsy Ruth Miller was a revelation as a comedienne.
Re: So This Is Paris (1926) - May 9 at TCMFF 2021
Posted: Wed May 12, 2021 9:16 pm
by BenModel
Yes, there is a deliberate logic or structure to the editing and sequencing of the artists ball dance sequence, although you'd think this had been set to a song with lyrics we'd all be listening to to carry everything along, as in a mid-'30s RKO musical. I had this all mapped out and tried my best to get the music to work with it and gradually build along with the visuals.
Re: So This Is Paris (1926) - May 9 at TCMFF 2021
Posted: Wed May 12, 2021 9:24 pm
by oldposterho
You nailed it, Ben. Probably one of the best scores I've heard in a long time and I'm not a huge fan of 'organ' scores.
Re: So This Is Paris (1926) - May 9 at TCMFF 2021
Posted: Thu May 13, 2021 8:46 am
by BenModel
Thanks. I try to use the instrument, in terms of the music and arrangement, like it’s an orchestra, something I learned from Lee Erwin. I don’t always hit it right, but I’m glad this score worked for you.
Ben
Re: So This Is Paris (1926) - May 9 at TCMFF 2021
Posted: Thu May 13, 2021 3:13 pm
by Brooksie
Rodney Sauer mentioned
over at this thread how Lubitsch seemed to cut the dance sequence in
The Oyster Princess (1919) correctly to the music. Given Ben's comments, I think there's a case to be made that this was deliberate. I'd love to know if someone has made a study of it.
Re: So This Is Paris (1926) - May 9 at TCMFF 2021
Posted: Fri May 14, 2021 7:00 am
by drednm
It's odd that Myrna Loy, who plays Lalle's maid BRIEFLY gets mentioned in the trades of the day but the actress who plays Giraud's maid in SEVERAL scenes gets no such mention.
Re: So This Is Paris (1926) - May 9 at TCMFF 2021
Posted: Fri May 14, 2021 8:06 am
by mwalls
Maybe Myrna had a better Agent.
Matthew
Re: So This Is Paris (1926) - May 9 at TCMFF 2021
Posted: Fri May 14, 2021 10:35 am
by R Michael Pyle
Actually, I think she was being groomed. Later in the year (1926) when "Across the Pacific" was released, Loy got some very fine reviews, and she was billed third in the cast which was led by none other than Monte Blue. Too bad it's a lost film.
Re: So This Is Paris (1926) - May 9 at TCMFF 2021
Posted: Fri May 14, 2021 2:12 pm
by Agnes
oldposterho wrote: ↑Wed May 12, 2021 9:24 pm
You nailed it, Ben. Probably one of the best scores I've heard in a long time and I'm not a huge fan of 'organ' scores.
I agree completely. And I generally prefer piano scores.....but this one was perfect. It hit the right mood in every scene( though given it was a Ben Model score, I am happy but not surprised)
Re: So This Is Paris (1926) - May 9 at TCMFF 2021
Posted: Fri May 14, 2021 3:40 pm
by boblipton
You folks need to hear more of Ben’s organ scores!
Bob
Re: So This Is Paris (1926) - May 9 at TCMFF 2021
Posted: Fri May 14, 2021 4:05 pm
by Frame Rate
boblipton wrote: ↑Fri May 14, 2021 3:40 pm
You folks need to hear more of Ben’s organ scores!
Bob
I know Ben's mighty busy these days, but it would sure be nice, whenever he can spare the time and effort, if he could post, for our downloading, a few "generic" piano or Miditzer scores (well, not quite as uneventful and repetitive as the "accu-speed" Hammond organ scores of Video Yesteryear yesteryear
) to use with all those mute silents that so many of us have in our collections.
... or maybe he could offer them, on compact disc, as a bonus/incentive for ordering Undercrank DVDs!
Re: So This Is Paris (1926) - May 9 at TCMFF 2021
Posted: Fri May 14, 2021 8:49 pm
by BenModel
Frame Rate,
I used to do that, back in the iPod and just-before-smartphones days, I think it was 2008-2013, with a site called altscore dot com. People loved the idea, but there really weren't that many sales, and so I took the service offline. You could download mp3s to play back or burn to a CD for playback.
You can see the site courtesy of the Wayback Machine in a 2012 iteration
here.
Ben
Re: So This Is Paris (1926) - May 9 at TCMFF 2021
Posted: Tue May 18, 2021 12:19 pm
by Harlett O'Dowd
drednm wrote: ↑Mon May 10, 2021 7:17 pm
Unfortunately Monte Blue's grinning kept reminding me of El Brendel.
Oh good (?) I'm not the only one
Re: So This Is Paris (1926) - May 9 at TCMFF 2021
Posted: Tue May 18, 2021 1:20 pm
by Jim Roots
Harlett O'Dowd wrote: ↑Tue May 18, 2021 12:19 pm
drednm wrote: ↑Mon May 10, 2021 7:17 pm
Unfortunately Monte Blue's grinning kept reminding me of El Brendel.
Oh good (?) I'm not the only one
Not the only El Brendel fan, you mean?
Jim
Re: So This Is Paris (1926) - May 9 at TCMFF 2021
Posted: Sun Jul 11, 2021 6:20 am
by Rick Lanham
So This is Paris is scheduled for tonight's (July 11/12) Silent Sunday Nights.
Rick Lanham
Re: So This Is Paris (1926) - May 9 at TCMFF 2021
Posted: Sun Jul 11, 2021 6:31 am
by DavidWelling
BenModel wrote: ↑Thu Apr 15, 2021 11:51 am
My new score for the film is a culmination of efforts I've been making on and off – going all the way back to something Ron Hutchinson helped me out with in 2014 – to see if there wasn't some way to work something out with TCM for them to commission new scores for the unscored silents in the Turner/MGM/WB catalog. This may never happen again, and the wormhole that opened up may just be a one-shot, but at least it's happened. The film will be presented in a new 2K scan off the studio nitrate; my score was done on my virtual Wurlitzer theatre organ.
From the TCMFF 2021 website:
So This is Paris (1926) - 1h 8m (TV-PG)
May 9 at 8:00pm EDT
World premiere restoration featuring a new score by composer Ben Model. A married doctor falls for a dancer while his wife develops an attraction to the dancer’s husband.
Thanks.
Ben
Ben, This is exciting. It brings up question regarding the Turner back catalog. For years, I heard the rumor of THE FIRE BRIGADE being a part of their catalog but I have never seen it show up in any form. The only segment I have see is the wonderful sequence in Brownlow’s Hollywood series. Do you know anything about it?
Re: So This Is Paris (1926) - TCM Silent Sunday, 7/11/21
Posted: Sun Jul 11, 2021 10:27 am
by Big Silent Fan
According to my cable guide, TCM will play this again tonight, July 11,2021.