NYC = 19th c. Paris. (version 2.0)

Well if this Radar article about 'Hipster Hookers' doesn't confirm that 21st century New York is actually 18th century Paris, in disguise, then I don't know what will. Sure, the article is under charges of fraud (which frankly seems absurd when put in context next to magazines such as The National Enquirer, or even The Guardian Weekend at its low points). I don't think that questions of authenticity detracts from the general tone, perhaps it even adds to it. If I get it together, I should whip out some Cousin Bette quotes or a touch of Zola to reiterate what I'm talking about. Even Joe Friedman talkes about it in terms of architecture. Most notably on the Upper West Side, but also in the Rockerfeller interiors now spread around the state, although 'The Moorish Room' is now in the Brooklyn Museum. 

'Le Plaisir', Max Ophuls, (1952).

'There is no joy in happiness', is the closing phrase of Max Ophuls's 'Le Plaisir'.  It is the parting words of a story which while sad, promises a marriage. This sugar lump cliche is served up as a cold comfort, by the time the story has come to its end. Such simply phrased, cruelly delivered pearls typify the atmosphere of this film. It is a world of illicit joy, pathetic failure, and uncomfortable delight brought to you by a narrator who prefers the dark to guide us through these Guy de Maupassant stories because it provides both intimacy and anonymity. Such a paradox typifies the voyeuristic pleasure in watching the three episodes of the film. Peeping through the window pains, back doors and open shutters, each segment is exquisitely told, with plenty of french lace, and ominous shadows. You are danced through the stories at a whurlwind pace,  yet can't leave the ball without feeling more than a slight chill at the company you've seen. The characters are portrayed as  over-ripe fruit: poised between a nutritious delicacy and fecund rubbish. There is nothing in here that a mature child couldn't understand, yet the love-play between pleasure, innocence and death has an eloquence which I find unmatched.