I love movie outings in Paris. Of the three major theaters, I love going to the giant Gaumont at Opéra where the seats are actually comfortable and the bathrooms aren’t lined with urine (I’m looking at you, MK2 Beaubourg…).

Last week, I anxiously raced to Gaumont after work to catch “Midnight in Paris” with Mr. C and was thoroughly disappointed. I had my reservations about the film while it was filming in Paris but I was still hoping to leave with renewed faith in Woody Allen. Unfortunately, his cliché-laden tale, albeit entertaining at times, was too much. After five years as an expat, has Paris really lost its luster? Well, no. But monologues about the city’s mystique and boundless source of inspiration are prosaic and bring out the cynic in me. I do agree with Anne, however, who said that the film’s best performance was Paris herself.

But this post isn’t actually even about that. Perhaps our biggest chuckle of the evening came not from the film itself but from this commercial for radio station, RTL (also the station that interviewed me last summer). For non-French speakers, here’s what they’re saying:

In France, we want things to change….


So we elect a president who passes reforms. 


Except that we don’t like the reforms.


So we protest! 


As a result, the French stay home and make babies. 


Schools are therefore over-crowded and lice comes back.


The French do many loads of laundry which consumes a lot of electricity…


And causes the price of electricity to increase. 


The French want that to change…. 


So they elect a president who passes reforms! 


Who knows you better than RTL?


The concept of an endless catch-22 certainly got a rise out of the audience proving that while the French may be proud and willful, they are skillfully and unabashedly self-deprecating! Unfortunately, the translation isn’t quite as funny….

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