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NEW 4K RESTORATION! 65th Anniversary Screening! This February, The Black Nerds bring a special presentation of Paris Blues to the Revue Cinema. Let’s take it back to 1961, to a moment when jazz carried the weight of freedom and Paris shimmered as a promise for artists seeking air, space, and self determination.
Praised within Black cinema circles for its rare depiction of Black jazz musicians finding refuge from American racism abroad, Paris Blues stars Sidney Poitier and Diahann Carroll in roles that remain quietly radical, alongside Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. The film captures the allure of Paris as a place where Black artists might finally be seen as musicians first, without the limitations placed by American racism, even as studio caution softens its boldest ideas around race and romance.
Set among smoky clubs and late night conversations, the story follows two American expatriate musicians, trombonist Ram Bowen played by Newman and saxophonist Eddie Cook played by Poitier. Their lives appear unburdened on the surface, shaped by music, friendship, and nocturnal rhythms. Beneath the cool exterior, the film reveals a deeper meditation on identity, vocation, and the uneven cost of freedom.
For Eddie, Paris offers relief from a country determined to define him before he ever plays a note. His desire to be known simply as a musician speaks to a deeper pursuit of dignity through craft. Jazz becomes survival, intention, and self definition. Ram’s relationship to Paris is more aesthetic than existential. He drifts, resists permanence, and delays commitment, embodying a freedom that allows him to remain unresolved.
The film’s romantic entanglements sharpen this divide. Diahann Carroll’s Connie challenges Eddie’s retreat, questioning whether escape can ever replace responsibility. Their relationship, though constrained, carries a charge rarely afforded to Black love on screen at the time. Duke Ellington’s score, alongside appearances by Louis Armstrong, gives the film its emotional spine, communicating what the script cannot always say aloud.
Paris Blues is not a film about arrival, but about transition. It is a chapter in a coming of age story where art, love, and identity collide, and where becoming is still in motion.
Head on over to the Revue Cinema this February and escape to Paris, to jazz, and to young hearts in the process of defining themselves. (FADUMA GURE)
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Revue Cinema, 400 Roncesvalles Ave, Toronto, ON M6R 2M9, Canada
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