Flavor of the Month or Taste of Things to Come? October 1992

Anyone who shies away from the vivid torture sequence in writer/director Quentin Tarantino’s startling debut film, “Reservoir Dogs,” might like to know that it’s one of Quentin’s mom’s two favorite scenes.The other one is the opening credits passage, about ten minutes into the picture, during which the eight crooks whose jewel heist is about to go awry stride across the parking lot of a Los Angeles restaurant in slow motion, clad in black suits with white shirts and skinny ties, not a former altar boy in the bunch.”They all look so male,” Mrs. Tarantino is reported to have said when confronted with the poeticized ne’er-do-wells played by Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Chris Penn, Steve Buscemi, Lawrence Tierney, Michael Madsen, Eddie Bunker and Quentin himself. Continue reading “Interview: Quentin Tarantino”

Feature, Hot tips on hot showers, October 1992

According to La Vie Parisienne à Travers les Ages, Henri IV’s mistress once felt obliged to tell him, “Sire, it’s a good thing that you’re King, because in all honesty, you smell like carrion rot.”

Continue reading “Paris’ bains-douches”

Dennis Hopper was in Paris recently for the opening of his photographic exhibition “Out of the Sixties” – a propitious title for a show of images that not only document the free-spirited, boundary-bursting, and truth-seeking period that created them but also act as a visual reminder of how far we’ve veered from idealistic pursuits. Out of the Sixties, although published first as a book by Twelve Trees Press in 1986, applies as much to the origin of the pictures as to the current status of the viewer. Gallery owner Thaddaeus Ropac called the exhibition “a time capsule.” Continue reading “Dennis Hopper, “Out of the Sixties””

Feature, May 1992

Springtime in Paris is synonymous with love the world round. One sighs just thinking about it. Ahhhhh, yes… It’s time to put the top down, get a haircut, hold the stomach in, bleach your teeth. The hormones are working overtime and anything seems possible – seductions of epic dimensions, successful conquests right out of the Greek myths, peak experiences to rival the Alps. Mating behavior – with its stern accompaniment of catcalls and racy one-liners – is the central rite of the Parisian spring. Continue reading “Paris…a city for lovers”

Feature, Horse Racing in Paris, April 1992
Although no “Hemingway-sat-here” plaques adorn the grandstands of the 8 Paris racetracks, the American writer was a regular horseplayer when he lived here from 1921 to 1926. In fact, the French racing establishment has done little or nothing to attract tourism, not even one brochure at tourist info centers. As a result, the racing spectacle is one of Paris’ best kept secrets. Continue reading “Paris… a Day at the Races”

Fashion focus: Patrick Kelly, Peter Kea, Gregg Snyder and John Arthur Speight, April, 1992

There was a time when Americans never dared think of selling clothes to the French. After all, we were always considered to be lacking in taste, particularly in our dress. As times and attitudes have changed, fashion has become more international, less localized. The spectacular success of the late Patrick Kelly, for one, has lured others to test the waters this side of the Atlantic. Currently there are Americans working freelance, as assistants, and these four entrepreneurs who’ve dared to start their own businesses. Continue reading “An American (designer) in Paris”

A series of 17th-century buildings, dotted with gargoyles and fitted together in a symmetrical octagon, serves as a backdrop to one of the most dazzling areas of Paris: Place Vendôme. Under the watchful eye of Napoleon, perched high atop a 144-foot bronze column, the world’s most coveted gems are transformed into extravagant trinkets for the world’s rich and famous personalities. Spellbinding names like Boucheron, Cartier, Chaumet and Van Cleef & Arpels all boast of a rich and opulent history that has withstood the test of time and continues to flourish, much like the centuries-old square itself.

Continue reading “Place Vendôme… All That Glitters”

William Burroughs’ “Naked Lunch” was “unfilmable,” but Canadian wizard David Cronenberg went ahead and adapted it to the screen anyway. Discerning fans of altered states of consciousness will delight at the matter-of-fact way in which Cronenberg has incorporated a Mugwump here, a Sex Blob there, a very proficient talking anus and word processing machines whose software hearkens back to the primeval slime.

Continue reading “Conversation with David Cronenberg”

When my friend Jacques offered to take me on a catacomb tour of Paris, I didn’t hesitate. I couldn’t pass up an invitation to visit the labyrinthine quarry that furnished the stones of Paris, from the gargoyles of Notre Dame to the cobblestones of Montparnasse.

Continue reading “Down in the Paris Catacombs”

Sometimes the smallest thing, a spat for example, leads you into a larger examination of cultural values and belief systems.

Continue reading “The Customer is Always Wrong”

All expatriates should add to their existential, Proustian shopping list at least one journey back to the Old Country – not their last place of residence, but their real pays natal. Continue reading “Remembrances of Jerseys Past”