8- « We’ll always have Paris » : Nostalgie et Reconstruction de l’Eros dans la Géographie Mythique d’Hollywood

Abstract

Love stories portrayed by classical Hollywood seem to cater to middle class values that do not consider the inherent conflicts of erotic love. In this specific context, in which love stories are meant to have a happy ending, it might be interesting to see how the imagery of Paris is used by Hollywood as a motif for an alternative eroticism. In comedies such as Midnight and Arianne, or in melodramas such as Angel and Casablanca, Paris is shown as a kind of dreamland, far from the sentimental pragmatism of daily existence. Many of these films use triangular love stories, in which Paris becomes an island of happiness that lovers – especially, when they give up to true love and return to their previous lives – will never forget. « We’ll always have Paris », says Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca. Besides this specific use of Paris as an ideal place for passionate love, which conforms to the traditional codes of love in Western culture, we could mention Hollywood’s depiction of the French capital as a setting for second chances. Since remarriage is a common motif in romantic films, it is not unusual to see the trip to Paris as metaphor for regeneration. Characters that seem condemned to a life of boredom in urban America and who see their romantic dreams doomed to failure as a consequence, experience a kind of emotional rebirth in Paris. In the tragic tradition of adulterous love or in comic scenarios of second chances, Paris stands out in American cinema as a mythical setting that evokes the rapture of love.