Tuileries: A Slice of Paris Served by the Hand of the Coen Brothers (Video)
One of the shorts from ‘Paris je t’aime’ reflects precisely on the “postcard” character of the city of lights, and how it can also be, in reality, the complete opposite.
The works of art that convey some truth about the human nature are always unforgettable. We delight or hide behind metaphors of life as an act that mirrors us back our experience in a different light. This is the pathology that the Coen brothers used while creating their short film Tuileries, with which most of us can surely identify even if we haven’t visited the “city of lights”.
In this film, Paris is a common place that represents anything capable of selling itself as a promise of something better. It depicts the maximum disillusion of someone who got carried away by a postcard or a reputation, and it reminds us that travels are not Lonely Planets or touristic trick but something else. Potentially, “the city of love”, “the city of lights” and of aesthetic romance can be nothing more than absolute discomfort and great disillusion. As if you had travelled there to eat the best brie-cheese in the world and then became ill with it.
With the brilliant performance of Steve Buscemi, this little essay portrays a common tourist in Paris (and who better than Buscemi to represent “everyman”) who becomes tremendously disillusioned with the place. Maybe Paris is all of its epithets and common connotations, but not necessarily for you. Perhaps love and romance do happen every day, but in the arms of someone else. Thus, with the comedic intelligence that characterizes the Coen Brothers, this film disenchants —and re-enchants — the most beautiful city on Earth.
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