On April 16, at 7:00, The Jacob Burns Film Centerwill be showing the classic film, “Paris Blues”.

Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Sidney Poitier, and Diahann Carroll – romance blossoms on the screen (as it had in real life) when two American tourists meet a pair of expatriate jazz musicians eking out a living in the Left Bank’s club scene. Filmed in luscious black and white and set to Duke Ellington’s Oscar-nominated score, this rarely screened 1961 feature captures Louis Armstrong’s virtuosic trumpet in a thrilling “battle royale jam session.

The Jacob Burnes Film Center is a nonprofit cultural arts center located in Pleasantville,  NY. It occupies a moviehouse that was for many decades known as the Rome Theater.

The center also hosts a variety of special events, including discussions with filmmakers, critics and people from the industry following some screenings. The film advisory committee for the JBFC includes a number of individuals that have starred in popular films.

Along with a diverse film selection offered every week, the Jacob Burns Film Center has developed groundbreaking education programs for children in grades 3 through 12. A new film school building opened in December, 2008.

Newman is Ram Bowen, a big draw on the jazz circuit in early 60s Paris alongside Eddie Cook (Sidney Poitier) – they’re young, they’re stylish and much-loved within the bubble of the city’s jazz and beatnik community. But all that’s about to change.

Two American tourists hit Paris to check out the scenery and the clubs, but instead Connie (Diahann Carroll) catches the eye of Cook, while Bowen falls for Lillian (Joanne Woodward). After a few idyllic days with their respective partners, it’s time for the girls to depart, but the men face a tough decision – can Cook really leave behind the racially-tolerant Parisian jazz scene for the US? And can Bowen walk away from the adulation of that same circuit for the good of his long-term career as a musician?

Effectively, it’s a love story (or two if we’re being pedantic), but with a lot more depth and style than your average boy-meets-girl tale. Style is certainly the constant here, from the cool threads of Newman and Poitier (not to mention the jazzers and beatniks who frequent the clubs) through to the period Parisian scenery and the cool jazz sounds in the background (the film was scored by Duke Ellington). Jazz fans will no doubt also appreciate a couple of walk-on parts from Louis Armstrong (under the name Wild Man Moore).

On the downside, it tries to touch on ‘issues’ like drug taking (band member Rene Bernard is battling a habit throughout) and racism, but doesn’t really tackle either with any merit – probably because neither subject really fits the overall tone of the movie. Or because neither subject would be a box office winner back in the day.

But that’s just a minor gripe. If you love jazz, you’ll love this. And if you want to check out some sharp threads in some authentic early 60s settings, you’ll get much from this movie too. But above all, if you want to check out Paul Newman at the top of his game, this is the movie to own. He’s cool, he’s stylish and his very presence dominates every scene – he may be gone, but movies like this will live on for years.

The information about this film was from:http://www.cinedelica.com/2008/10/dvd-review-pari.html

deletereply darlene57 wrote on Mar 1, ’09 ‘Paris Blues’ I’ve never seen, but I will now! Louis Armstrong a favorite of mine, Paul, too! ‘Cool’ is an awesome movie~classic!~Love the old movies~Great Post Thanks, Laurita~smilies~d~

deletereply instrumentalpavilion wrote on Mar 1, ’09 Thanks….I just posted this last week! What a great movie.

editdeletereply lauritasita wrote on Mar 1, ’09 instrumentalpavilion said Thanks….I just posted this last week! What a great movie. OMG, Fred I didn’t realize you posted this already ! I was thinking of you, LOL! I just love these old movies, don’t you ?

deletereply instrumentalpavilion wrote on Mar 1, ’09 lauritasita said OMG, Fred I didn’t realize you posted this already ! I was thinking of you, LOL! I just love these old movies, don’t you ? I do….and these guys looked like they were having a great time too! Man, I love old films.

deletereply gileson wrote on Mar 1, ’09 The local affiliate of National Public Radio plays “Mainstream” Jazz every week night starting at 10 PM and running until after dawn. Recently they have been introducing music that was written and performed back in the 1950′s and ’60′s as rock and roll (Or R&B or Doo Wop) but performed in a traditional jazz arrangement. Unfortunately, the DJ doesn’t say much about who is performing. Recently, he payed a jazz version of that old fifties Do-Wop classic “I Only Have Eyes For You.”This was performed up by a rather large group of musicians and it ran about 30 minutes …. The next night, the same program featured a different version of “Eleanor Rigby” at the top of every hour.The DJ person said, “I have to tell you I was never a fan of R&B or any ot the stuff written by Lennon and McCartney. I always thought their stuff was just a little too sophomoric … too juvenile to be taken seriously. I mean how can you talk about these people in the same breath as Basie and Ellington and  Monk? But I have to admit, I like these arrangement.” Seems like somebody said “Comparisons are odious.” I’ve been listening to Ellington and Basie and Monk and Bird and Miller and Dorsey and Sinatra and composers much older than that my entire life and enjoy them, as I do the do-wop sound of the fifties and the Lennon-McCartney songs of the 60′s. I’ve been known to cue up Iggy Stardust, Boy George, Blondie, Bono, Bach and Beethoven and Purple Rain and stuff I know you have never heard (unless you either lived in Japan or have a friend who did back in the 1960′s and who happened to buy some “Top 40″ Japanese hits of the day. As far as I am concerned they are all great, and they are all different The joy in the music is the diversity of the music. There is absolutely nothing wrong with a new interpretation of an earlier work. Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring or “Ode to Joy” found a whole new life in the1970′s. The opening bars of Beethoven’s 5th were used  by the BBC during WW II to open every broadcast because the traditional “Da-da-da Daaah” just happens to be  Morse Code for the letter “V”, which of course was meant to symbolize “Victory.” The U.S. Seventh Air Calvary had huge speaker mounted on the skids of their helicopters during Viet Nam and would come flying in out of the Sun and crank up Wagner’s “Flight of the Valkyries” I”m not sure that this was designed to “soothe the savage breast” but it did do a good job of getting everybody out into the clearing and out of their hootches, which was the idea to begin with. Much easier to spot and deal with the guys in the black pajamas that way. Jean Pierre Ramble brought to live a whole series of ancient Japanese melodies, most memorably “Sakura.” Did you happen to notice how Newman looked a lot like a young Marlon Brando in these early films?