Paris 36 at the new Alice Tully Hall

I attended the screening of Paris 36 (Faubourg 36) the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema series at the newly renovated Alice Tully Hall on Thursday night. I got the sense that perhaps this movie had been chosen as the opening night film because it had the right combination of sound and visuals to show off the high quality of the new venue. The film focuses on a theater in an unnamed neighborhood of Paris in 1930s Paris and all the people that love it and try and keep it going. The movie starts out slow and is fairly predictable but really hit its high points towards the end when there are lots of fun, classic musical numbers. In particular, newcomer Nora Arnezeder was wonderful as a young singer who comes to the theater - she had a beautiful voice which was showcased well in her musical pieces. Although her signature song is one about Paris (which Arnezeder sang live and unaccompanied for the audience before the screening), my favorite of her numbers is a more emotional piece which is featured in the middle of the trailer:



All in all, I would not say Paris 36 is a great film but it was a perfectly pleasant way to pass an evening and it certainly showed off the new projection and sound equipment at Alice Tully.

As a postscript, I also note that I attended a chamber music concert at Alice Tully yesterday and the acoustics for that were wonderful as well. It is nice to have the hall with all its improvements back.