Alliance Française DuPage, Inc. - P.O.Box 3992 - Naperville, IL 60567 - USA
Paris pieds nus (Lost in Paris)
May 15, 2025 at 7 PM CT on Zoom
By Dominique Abel and Fiona Gordon, 2016
Chacun a son goût. This Belgian comedy has evoked a wide range of reviews (from awful to marvelous) from professional and lay reviewers alike. From a Philadelphia bookstore blog (Philebrity):
“A movie so sublime it’s both a wonder it got made at all and it’s even more of a wonder that more movies like this aren’t there to softly catch us in these terrible times. ... through the premise of a Canadian librarian going to Paris to visit her long-lost (and busily senile) aunt, writers/directors/stars Dominique Abel and Fiona Gordon wreak a kind of fun that’s simple and visual and universal. Lost In Paris plays with color in a way few movies have the guts to now … and goes all-in on a kind of elegant, sweet physical comedy that otherwise might not be present in contemporary cinema at all. Abel and Gordon are upfront that the film is an homage to Jacques Tati, but they’re also adapting so much of this stuff for today. A selfie on a bridge goes horribly awry and ends with some slapstick underwater; a homeless guy’s tent takes to dancing; a home-care hospice nurse gets fooled by the same PDA gag over and over. Meanwhile, there’s not even a lot of dialogue — so much is done with color and body movement that Lost In Paris is as much a dance performance as it is a movie. And boy, what a movie it is.”
See what you think (and feel), and come for a lively discussion.
Free on these platforms: Pluto, Plex, Kanopy if your library has Kanopy
For rent: Apple TV, Fandor, Amazon Prime
Also on dvd from some libraries
Supplementary Material
Discussion Questions
Virtual French Cinema
The Federation of Alliances Françaises USA has partnered with the Los Angeles-based COLCOA Film Festival to provide a platform of 150+ recent French films and documentaries, available for streaming in the USA. Prices start at $2.99 per rental.
Visit https://colcoa.org/virtual-cinema/ for the full listing of available movies.
