132 - Place de la Republique, 1974, France. Dir. Louis Malle.

Friday, May 12, 2017

132 - Place de la Republique, 1974, France. Dir. Louis Malle.

One Paris street corner.

Ten days.

Two cameras.

Lots of people.

Louis Malle.

An elderly gentleman walks through the Place without knowing Malle has been filming him for fifteen minutes.

A woman walks quickly past him, thinking he is trying to pick her up.

A woman refuses to believe they are filming her because in order to make a movie you must have actors.  And she is not an actress.  They talk to her.  She is a happy person.

A woman sells wigs on the street corner.  She shows him.  She describes it.  The people try them on.  They select one.  She places it on their heads.  She cuts and styles it.  They pay.  They walk away wearing it.

Men too?

Yes, men too.

They are not embarrassed?

No.

If they are balding?

Not only that.  Sometimes for a change of color.  Sometimes as a joke.  Also the men who perform at Madame Arthur's place.  They come buy wigs twice a year.

The wig saleswoman is from Israel.  Her friends invited her to visit Paris.  She liked it.  She stayed.  She has been here ten years.

A elderly woman sings!  Margot.

"One morning in the gutter in Montparnasse / Where for the first time I opened the door"

These lyrics are interesting!  What happens next?

We do not find out.

She moves immediately into "Yes, Sir, that's my baby / No, Sir, I don't mean maybe . . ."

Then she tells us she is out here hustling.

"I console suffering humanity."

She shows off her legs.

"You laugh like I'm crazy, but I'm not.  My mind's as clear as ever.  But I'll go home like a real sucker and have a good cry.  My poor husband died three months ago.  Throat cancer.  He breathed through a tube through his neck. . . . Thirty-eight years together.  But the bus rolls on.  What do you expect me to do?"

A man carries pictures in his pocket.  He wants to make them bigger.  He wants enlargements.  He is looking for the store that makes enlargements.

A woman talks about how she puts up foreigners in her home.

A man sits on a bench playing the violin.  Born in 1882.  He shows his identification card to prove it.  He is 92.

A woman sells lottery tickets.

A girl recently won 15 francs.  She says you need 110,000 francs a month these days to make it.

A street cleaner recently won a million.

You sell a lot of winning tickets?

No.  Never.

A woman worked in the metalworking industry.  They retired me because they couldn't fire me.  Not at my age.

A young woman is drawn to the camera.  She wants to promote her mother-in-law.

Her mother-in-law is an aspiring actress.  She is famous throughout Paris.  She works at the Chatelet Theatre.  She started there at age 13.  She has done television.

Do we know her?

You will soon!

Her name is Gloria France.

I think I worked with her once.

Louis Malle did work with Gloria France once.  She appeared in his 1962 film A Very Private Affair, 12 years ago.

A woman says her ideal of happiness is for a man to take care of her.  He goes to work.  She stays home.  He comes home and she takes care of him.

Louis Malle says some women do not want that these days.

She says, That is because they do not like housework.  They want to get out of the house.  I want a man to take care of me.  I want to take care of him.  That is happiness.

A man fights with a police officer about being double parked.

A Jewish man from Poland tells his story.  He used to wear the yellow star.  He used to hide.  Now he lives freely in France.  He loves France.

A man talks about growing up Catholic on a farm.  What his life was like.  Awakening early.  Feeding animals.  Going to church.

We watch construction workers work on the street.  A woman setting up umbrellas on the patio of her café.  A woman holding her hand in front of her face so as not to be seen.  The wig woman again.

A man who works on the fire hydrants explains that he has the authority to give parking tickets if necessary.  He is not with the police, but he has the authority to give tickets if people are illegally parked and preventing him from doing his job.

A woman tells Louis Malle about Jesus.

She is 76 years old.  She speaks to Him.  He counsels her.  Louis Malle asks, How?  Does He talk to you?  No.  But we receive His message in our hearts.

Louis Malle listens.

She had cataracts in both her eyes.  She prayed and she was healed.  She was short-sighted and wore glasses for 54 years.  Last Easter she stopped wearing them.  Thank you, Lord.

She has passed out 100,000 tracts in two years.

Sometimes people are cruel to her.  But it does not touch her.

Louis Malle talks to another man handing out tracts.

The man says policemen and police chiefs are returning to the Bible, returning to Jesus Christ.  He has a job, as a welder, at night.  He hands out tracts during the day.  He sleeps in the afternoon and evening.

Malle talks to a 51-year old construction worker looking for work.  The man says they hire temps now.

He talks to another woman who sells lottery tickets.  She says you make a lot of friends selling lottery tickets.  They come by on a regular basis and talk to you.

A woman tells him a man just stole her purse.

Another woman sits and counts her money.

Some men play dominoes.  Sometimes they play cards.

A 92-year old woman comes to feed the birds.

A child rides on a ride.

A man is on disability.

An alcoholic brags that he is a ladies' man.

"Love lasts six months or a year."

He knows.  He is an expert.

Another man says his wife is silly.  Stubborn.  She thinks she is always right.

They let a pretty girl hold the camera.  Listen to the headphones.  They put her to work.

She starts interviewing for them.

She asks a man if he has ever cheated on his wife.  He says he is divorced.  He claims to have had 400 girlfriends.  And to have had the clap five or six times.  And syphilis once.  She laughs.  Back when he was 45, his midlife crisis hit full force.  He tells her he was really in love.  And she loved him.  But money problems got in the way.  Money problems killed the marriage.  It is always money.

The girl offers to walk with him.  He says he does not have any money.  She says not like that.  But to talk.  His face lights up.  He will be the envy of the sidewalk.  All the men will be jealous.  He says she will enjoy his company.  He explains that older men are smarter than younger men.  Because of their experience.  After younger men have had 1,500 women like he has, then they will understand.

Wait.

It was 400 women a minute ago.  Now it is 1,500.  He sure works fast.

Louis Malle ends by talking to a cross-eye German woman with the bicycle.  He had spoken with her before.

She talks about Hitler.  And how difficult he had made life for them in Paris.  Back during the war.

Louis Malle is a good listener.  He has spent ten days talking to many people.  Openly.  Curiously.  Without judgment.

He ends with a quotation.

"Why," he said, "should one not tolerate this life, when so little suffices to deprive one of it." - Raymond Queneau.

Louis Malle seems to be a good guy.