REVIEW: ‘Lost in Paris’ humor is lost on some of the audience
The Office of Student Life’s Film and Speaker Series hosted a screening of “Lost in Paris,” on July 22nd in SSCB Lecture Hall. The film is based on Fiona, a Canadian librarian, who travels from Canada to Paris at the request of her aunt who is desperately trying to avoid getting put in a retirement home. Once she reaches Paris, she runs into a number of outlandish roadblocks while also finding a potential love interest.
The movie starts off with Fiona (Fiona Gordon) receiving a letter from her aunt in Paris asking her to come visit her because she wants Fiona to save her from her caretaker putting her in a home. Fiona jumped at the idea of a change of scenery! When she reaches Paris, she finds out her 88-year-old aunt Martha (Emmanuelle Riva) is missing. Fiona then searches the city to find her aunt and runs into Dom (Dominique Abel), a kind but frustrating hobo that won’t leave her alone.
Overall, “Lost in Paris” was an interesting movie. That being said, a lot of the jokes definitely went over my head. Most of the jokes were set up like an old sitcom, and the humor that I’ve grown to enjoy doesn’t encompass that style anymore. Fiona also fell into bodies of water A LOT throughout the movie for some comic relief, and I didn’t find it that amusing because it was expected at that point. However, the majority of the predominately older audience found all of these types of jokes and dramatic falls really funny. My conclusion is that its just a generational humor gap.
Moviegoer Diveanne Martinez summed up my thoughts exactly when she said, “The movie was funny, but it wasn’t humor that I was used to.”
One thing I definitely enjoyed about the movie experience was the French lesson right before the movie began. Christine Paul, director of foreign languages and continuing education, gave all the moviegoers a short list of French vocabulary words that appeared in the movie. She then ran through what they meant and how to pronounce them. This was really helpful and fun because during the movie when they said some things in French, I recognized the word from the sheet and instantly know what they meant.
For example, there was a scene were Fiona realized that Dom had stolen her purse (after it, along with her luggage, sunk into the river during one of her dramatic falls), and she snatched it back from him. Dom then yelled, “voleuse,” which means thief. Without the French lesson, I definitely wouldn’t have caught the ironic joke.
“Lost in Paris” is definitely a creative movie, but it just wasn’t my cup of tea. I’m still really glad I saw it because it was an experience in itself, and I wouldn’t have learned a couple of French phrases without it. I’ll definitely be attending future movies offered by Student Life’s Film and Speaker Series.
