Lincoln Center's newly renovated Alice Tully Hall features a sound and projection system so state-of-the-art, the opening night movie of the annual Rendez-vous with French Cinema, seemed to pop off the screen. Then again, the film-to open on April 3-- an exuberant musical fairy tale called “Paris 36” with a score of original French tunes--by Reinhardt Wagner and Frank Thomas-- starring 19 year old newcomer, Nora Arnezeder, and a cast of French eccentrics--led by comedian Gerard Jugnot-is sure to delight American audiences in any venue. The story is simple: set in 1936 and beyond, in a working-class area of Paris, show business workers attempt to save their local music hall, the Chansonia, from the greedy hands of developers. The director/ screenwriter Christophe Barratier wrote his original script after the music had been composed, an amazing feat for a tale with political and social ramifications, and a nod to musicals of old including a frothy Busby Berkeley number. On opening night last week, blond beauty Nora Arnezeder was so nervous about speaking to the New York crowd, she introduced the movie with a song. Just last year, Rendez-Vous's opening night film was “La Vie en Rose” starring Marion Cotillard who went on to win Best Actress Oscar for her turn as Edith Piaf. You could say that Arnezeder's voice is as sweet as her onscreen name Douce, no Piaf-esque edge. Appropriately, at the reception in Alice Tully's newly refurbished lobby, a riot of sweets graced the festivities. Arnezeder told me she loves New York and wants to live here; in fact, she dreams of joining a Woody Allen ensemble. Unifrance's John Kochman exulted, “The audience is over the moon with this movie.” And Sony Pictures Classic's Michael Barker replied, “Alice Tully Hall is the perfect place for this opening about the reopening of a theater in desperate times.”
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