Emily in Paris

Emily in Paris – French Cultural Exception as seen through American eyes

Emily in Paris is the new series trending on Netflix, written and directed by none other than Darren Star, author of Sex and the City. It's a light and entertaining TV series to watch before bedtime; I guarantee it won’t give you nightmares!

This entertaining soap opera tells the story of a young American professional from Chicago sent by her employer to Paris to bring an American perspective to a prestigious French marketing company. To be honest, the chirpy Emily gets on our nerves at first, but as the story unfolds the viewer becomes accustomed to her relentlessly enthusiastic and positive attitude.

Once in Paris, the series really gets going and you feel a guilty pleasure witnessing a myriad of prejudices against the French, especially the Parisians: moodiness, arrogance, disdain, witty eloquence with a more than a touch of malice, resistance to change in the workplace, nonchalance, infidelity, shamelessness, skepticism, political incorrectness, lack of consideration. We see cigarettes and dog poo on the pavements. But also, positive clichés abound: elegance, style, sophistication, creativity, beautifully presented food, aesthetics, culture, intellectualism, joie de vivre, wine, champagne. In short, this series preserves the mythical image of a Paris that inspires so many American artists in search of intensity, sensual delights, and glamour ... we follow in the footsteps of Josephine Baker and Hemingway.

Clearly these clichés are exaggerations, but as the saying goes, there is no smoke without fire. The rudeness of Parisians is legendary and their arrogance centuries-old. Even the French admit it! In Patrice Leconte's film Ridicule (1996), the film director transposes today’s French society to Marie-Antoinette’s court of Versailles where wit reigns supreme. In Emily in Paris, the actress Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu brilliantly plays the role of Sylvie, the director of the marketing company, a typical Parisian lady, fluent in English, who is haughty, distant, caustic. She makes no effort to please yet is stylish, witty and occasionally charming.

In fact, in this American soap opera, the French exhibit two faces: the aloofness of the North Europeans contrasted with the somewhat explosive Latin temperament.

As one episode follows another, you might get the feeling that American values are threatening French culture, whether it be food, fashion or lifestyle. On the other hand, the American way of doing things comes up against the inherent French savoir-faire; any change would just be… compliqué. Could laziness be at the root of the French resistance to change?

As for the etiquette prohibiting business talk at a business dinner, this would seem utterly irrational for Americans while for the French to violate this rule would amount to social awkwardness and nothing short of bad manners ... But is this really still the case nowadays?

Finally, making the effort to be consistently friendly in a professional context - behavior accepted without question in the United States – seems, shall we say, rather elusive in Paris. We cannot argue with this since we have all at some time been faced with a bad-tempered waiter, a haughty saleswoman or an obnoxious civil servant.

However, it is also true that these French flaws are a large part of the Gallic charm that American and British visitors seek. In the series Emily in Paris, the temperamental failings of the Parisians do not get in the way of Emily’s liking for her colleagues. Our idyllic image of Paris as The City of Lights, a magnificent, chic and artistic city emerges unscathed.

The Paris portrayed here is undoubtedly too white, too rich, too artistic. We are not shown the homeless people, beggars, migrants or commuters. Maybe the director never took the RER, the suburban trains? Darren Star prefers to export the image of a legendary Paris, a “douce France” (sweet France) that is no longer so, an artistic beacon reminiscent of the Roaring 20’s or 30’s, an image also found in Woody Allen’s Moonlight in Paris (2011).

Despite revealing its charming flaws, Emily in Paris is without a doubt a good advertisement for France. Paris will always be Paris, a beautiful city filled with world famous landmarks.

form-idea.com New York, 20th November 2020. Read this article in French