Passementaries

Following up on my Saturday-morning post about Valentine's Day, I kept hitting the remote and discovered the TCM channel was running a marathon of old French-inspired movies. I kept thinking, "Okay, watch this and then go find something to do... " The line-up was Casablanca, Midnight in Paris, GiGi, and Charade. I love all four of these movies for different reasons. Like, who else wants to stand up and sing La Marseillaise and drown out the tune of the Germans in Casablanca? This movie is more than Rick and Ilsa. I think the moments when Rick gives the band a nod to change the music and the French stand up to sing are the greatest scenes in cinematic history. It's a fun journey as screenwriter Gil Pender meets Hemingway, Cole Porter, Gertrude Stein, and Scott and Zelda in 21st-century Paris in Midnight in Paris. Gil is sitting at the steps of the Church of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont when an old Peugeot limo picks him up and whisks him away. I also sat on those same ste...