Adapted from a novel, Paris Blues (1961) is an American film set in Paris and slightly influenced by European cinema, but still very conventionally made.
It concerns the lives and loves of two American jazz musicians, one white (Paul Newman) the other black (Sidney Poitier), living in the French capital. Newman, Poitier, Joanne Woodward and Diahann Carroll all maintain memorable presence; all give solid, often warmly pleasing, performances. There is good music with Louis Armstrong on hand, but the film’s dialogue is usually unremarkable, even obtuse. Still, it’s a not-great but not-bad effort by none other than Martin Ritt (Hud, Norma Rae). You’ll like the actors, and there is chemistry between the lovers.
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