Paris Was a Woman (1995)

User Rating:

7.4/10   

Director:

Greta Schiller

Writer:

Andrea Weiss (writer)

Release Date:

8 November 1996 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary

Plot:

Female (many of them lesbian) artists, writers, photographers, designers, and adventurers settled in Paris between the wars...

Plot Keywords:

Colette | Paris | City Name In Title | Place Name In Title | Independent Film

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Juliet Stevenson	...	Narrator (voice)
Maureen All	...	(voice)
Gillian Hanna	...	(voice)
Margaret Robertson	...	(voice)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Shari Benstock	...	Herself (author)
John Bernard	...	Himself (Académie française) (as Prof. John Bernard)
Berthe Cleyrerque	...	Herself (housekeeper for Natalie Barney)
Janet Flanner	...	Herself (writer, Letter From Paris, New Yorker) (also archive footage)
Giselle Freund	...	Herself (photographer)
Samuel Steward	...	Himself (author)
Catharine Stimpson	...	Herself (Stein scholar)
Josephine Baker	...	Herself (performs in musical) (archive footage) (uncredited)
Colette	...	Herself (with pets) (archive footage) (uncredited)
James Joyce	...	Himself (in Paris) (archive footage) (uncredited)
Malcolm Muggeridge	...	Himself (interviews Sylvia Beach) (archive footage) (uncredited)
Pablo Picasso	...	Himself (blows kisses) (archive footage) (uncredited)
Gertrude Stein	...	Herself (reads poems about Toklas, Picasso) (archive footage) (uncredited)
Paul Valéry	...	Himself (smokes) (archive footage) (uncredited)

Directed by
Greta Schiller

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Andrea Weiss		writer

Produced by
Frances Berrigan	....	producer
Jennifer Romine	....	co-producer
Andrea Weiss	....	producer

Original Music by
Janette Mason

Cinematography by
Nurit Aviv

Film Editing by
Greta Schiller

Other crew
Giselle Freund	....	archive source (as Gisèle Freund)

Production Companies

• Cicada Films

Distributors

• Sherlock Media S.L. (Spain)
• Zeitgeist Films (1996) (USA)

Runtime:

75 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Spain:T

Company:

Cicada Films

Movie Connections:

Featured in Let It Come Down: The Life of Paul Bowles (1998)

Remembering the Paris of another time!

This DVD made me long for Paris of another era and time. It was great to hear Janet Flanner's voice and see her in person. She was an amazing writer and human being. Of course, there was Gertrude Stein and her wife Alice B. Toklas in early home videos. The director and executive producer are also partners personally and professionally. This documentary only shows just a part of their lives in Paris, France during the era of expatriates. It was nice to see Sylvia Beach and hear Adrienne Monniere's voice as well as Stein and Toklas. Of course, Natalie Clifford Barney's housekeeper who was not gay recalls her husband killing partridges and giving them to Toklas. Of course, the map idea helped show the locations. Of course, it was not always as great as it appears to be. There were problems of course not mentioned, Janet lived with Solita Solano but had a lover in the country, Noel Haskings Murphy, and when she was in New York City during the War years took another lover, Natalia Danesi Murphy. After Gertrude's death, Alice was left destitute by the Steins. Before her death, she became a Catholic and was cared for by nuns who showed no judgment regarding her sexual orientation. One of the deleted scenes is worth watching believe me especially the fact that Ernest Hemingway lived with Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas in their Paris home and was Stein's gopher. I wish there was more of Janet Flanner. I do now believe that Solita was the love of her life and constant domestic partner until she could no longer care for either herself or Janet. Djuna Barnes pronounced Juna also ended as a recluse in New York's Greenwich Village. Somehow, the documentary only shows a positive part of the Parisian life and the complicated relationships between these women and others. Of course, Janet's true love was Paris itself. Sadly, she died in New York City. I am impressed that the documentary does not focus so much on their relationships but the strive to achieve in a new foreign land where they were allowed to grow and prosper as artists.