Paris Blues

Director: Martin Ritt

Cast: Paul Newman, Sidney Poitier

1961 / 98min / 35mm

Legends Sidney Poitier and Paul Newman duet as Eddie Cook and Ram Bowen, two jazz musicians who have exiled themselves from the US to Paris, where they find romance with two of their compatriots on holiday, Lillian Corning and Connie Lampson (Carroll and Joanne Woodward). A soundtrack by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn, as well as on-screen performances by Louis Armstrong and Aaron Bridgers, represent the best of mid-century American pop culture, yet the specter of American racism hovers like a cloud over the story. To the latter, Paris Blues, with its sensitive depictions of romance and friendship between Black and white characters across the Atlantic, offers a tender, moving rebuke.