Complete movie: ‘Paris Blues’, with Paul Newman and Sidney Poitier
A special treat on the jazzpages YouTube channel today: The complete motion picture ‘Paris Blues’.
The (thin) story is about two American jazzmen in Paris. Ram, played by Paul Newman, is a jazz musician who wants to be a composer, and his fellow musician Eddie (Sidney Poitier) has escaped from America’s racism to a more liberal Paris. One day they meet and fall in love with Lillian and Connie, two American girls who come to Paris on vacation. Ram and Eddie face the dilemma of whether to stay in Paris or go back to America.
The big pluses are a wonderful score by Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong’s amazing rendition of ‘Battle Royal’, a nicely used version of Ellington’s ‘Mood Indigo’, Christian Matras‘s luminous black and white cinemaphotography and a perless cast that brings to the project the needed bite that the script may occasionally lack.