kerouac

The city of Paris recently started a controversy unexpectedly with its new promotional video to make every potential visitor fall in love with the city. While higher end tourists and people who fantasize about Paris even if they have never been here mostly liked the pretty images, at lot of Parisians (me included) did not at all feel that it was an authentic representation of the city. I think it is perhaps the product placement that annoyed me the most.

Here is that video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnxDN5Bh4rA

So now a alternative video has been made by Parisians who feel that the city should be seen differently.

Here is the other video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_M807HAe2c

Will this start a new "living like a local" discussion?

marvelousmouse

LOL. Well, I agree with the Parisians (and you). Their version is much more attractive to me. There are a few too many wtf moments in the tourist one for me Aside from the product placement, it's a bit sad that the city was essentially boiled down to high fashion, art, and the idealized tourist skipping gaily around. Cities are about their people and how that creates a unique energy- and the other video does a lovely job of expressing that.

Dukey1

Didn't watch the first one and loved the second one. The fact that I usually stay in what some would undoubtedly consider an "overpriced" hotel, my sleeping arrangements have little to do with what the city actually is and is not.

A few moments ago we decided to add three nights in the city to our October 2017 in which London and Copenhagen have been more prominently figuring and that video has made me happy we have, too.

Askar01

I don't like the first video. Too chic for me. The second one is a little bit trashy but more to my taste.

RonZ

There is something magical about Paris shared by no other city I've visited. While tourists are jammed into museums, I'll be on a bench in the garden of the Palais Royale, reading a book and watching the children playing.

Sue_xx_yy

I'm afraid neither one grabbed me. The first I can see was more conventional and less inspired, but the second was tiring on the eyes, too many cuts. And I didn't care for the music in either one.

As for authentic, I didn't find either of them to be (nor, to be fair, did I expect it.) Unless you were a vendor of flowers or foodstuffs, or in the entertainment business, nobody in either one was shown at work in an office, school, or hospital. One emotion only prevailed, as nobody looked sad, or tired, or frustrated. Couples kiss, smile, but do not argue. Kids don't get tired and cry. Paris is in a temperate climate, but according to both videos it never gets cold there, rains, or snows. Face it: nobody wants an 'authentic' picture.

As for the skateboarders, which featured in both, well, here is the essential problem. Sure, they are a part of almost every big city's life, Paris included. But I suspect few are going to drop money to visit a city to watch skateboarders, or look at graffiti on a public monument.

denisea

As much as we love Paris, we have never found ourselves holding hands and spinning in a circle while there. The tourist office video is way too focused on selling a fantasy. I definitely like the second video because it is more "real", genuine, diverse and unsanitized, in my opinion.

Thanks for posting, kerouac.

colduphere

There certainly are a lot of cuts in that second one. And except for a couple of scenes it could be anywhere. Nicely done though.

maitaitom

To me neither was authentic because they did not show Parisian bicyclists running red lights and nearly killing unsuspecting pedestrians. Tracy and I did spin in a circle once, but I think that was due to the fact we'd had one too many glasses of vin rouge.

Dukey1

Not authentic because it doesn't show a WHOLE BUNCH of people standing outside of every "office" type building and others<B>SMOKING</B>? Yeah, well there is that.

Macross

Agree with cold, it could have been almost anywhere. My video would have been churches, graveyards, food markets, pastries, cheese and wine. Not that fish though. That would be like eating something out of our inlets.

nukesafe

Liked the second one much better than the first, but found both much to high energy; almost frenetic, for my expectations of Paris. The quiet, contemplative experience that I find most lovable about the city is entirely missing from both videos.

WoinParis

First one is rubbish - like those ads selling perfumes.

As for being authentic by showing people arguing then we should ask the brothers Cohen. They would shoot during a strike with people arguing and smoking ;-). Or cutting their nails whilst sitting on the bowl of the toilet.

Thanks for posting !

fuzzbucket

I think kerouac's photo reports are the most authentic representation of the real Paris. But they won't help at all to burst the "Paris tourist bubble".
People either can't or won't handle the truth about what living in a city - any city - is really like. Most seem to prefer the fantasy.

kerouac

Believe it or not (yes I know that those who know me will believe it), a year and a half ago, I made no fewer than 15 videos using my pitiful little Lumix compact camera showing various scenes of Parisian life. Most of them were dreadful, but a couple have a few scenes of interest. I have no way of knowing what others will think.

Here are just two links, but you can probably easily decipher what the other titles are and find them if you want.

How Parisians live 8: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRTfFzh_oXA

How Parisians live 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1d77bU84h0

I'm just grateful that nobody ever beat me up for invading their privacy, and of course I must thank the RATP for a great deal of unwitting participation.

nukesafe

Simply wonderful, Kerouac! I liked both of those much better than the "commercially" produced ones.

I recall you showing me your "pitiful" little Lumix camera on our last trip to Paris, and I was so impressed I got a much newer and fancier version. Unfortunately the sensitivity of the scenes you have caught with your instrument make me realize it is the photographer, not the equipment, that makes the difference.

Sue_xx_yy

<i> As for being authentic by showing people arguing </i>

But WoinParis, you are I think missing the point.

Kerouac was frustrated by the first video, which is fair enough: one's opinion is what it is. But as I hoped to point out in my earlier post, to be authentic, as in bona fide; veritable, true - the film producer would have to depict the full spectrum of human behaviour that one can observe at any given day on a city street - a random sample of shots, not an edited viewpoint. This is all very well, but it is generally not the mandate of any film producer, let alone a commercial producer.

The thing is kerouac, I think most people do understand that what they see on vacation, and certainly what they see in a promotional video, is a heavily edited version of the world they are visiting or about to visit. They also accept this 'sanitization' to some degree, because for many, vacations are about escaping reality at least to some degree. If we wanted reality, it would be cheaper to stay home.

WoinParis

Why don't they show a beautiful gorgeous blond businessman eating a 'bleu d'auvergne' with a Savigny les Beaune' ?
Rhaaaaaaaa. Exceptional.

kerouac

That could probably be arranged, Wo. I should probably make a video full of incognito Fodorites and let the rest of the members try to guess who is who.

WoinParis

Let me lose 20 Kgms first.
But I like the idea ;-)