Yes, I know this is the first movie I've done a second review for. But, trust me, there's just so much to unpack in this classic rom-com. Really.
The bulk of the movie and the biggest lesson for writers is the one covered in the previous review -- Getting the story out of your head and onto the page is the real work of the writer, and it's also the hard work of the writer. You can't sell what you haven't created yet. An idea is just an idea. A story exists only in a readable format.
However, that key motiff aside, Paris When It Sizzles has a few other treats in store for us when we examine it.
A writer's life is a lonely one. In the midst of trying to seduce Audrey Hepburn, William Holden does manage to get one thing honest. Of course, he's just playing it up to tease Hepburn's sensitivities, but it's indicative of Holden's acting that the character is able to convey a subtlety that gives away the truth of his statement. You can't help but see a sort of sadness in his expression as he says the words, and that's why it really plays with Hepburn's feelings. And it's true. No matter how much we may surround ourselves with friends and family, or even other writers when it gets down to it, the thing that takes up the bulk of our lives pulls us away from others and builds the walls to keep us focused on the work.
The second treat is this one: My Fair Lady is Frankenstein. Or let's put it a different way. There are no original ideas so get over yourself. Just like My Fair Lady is an upper-crust re-telling of Frankenstein and A Thousand Acres (Jane Smiley) is just a farmland re-telling of King Lear, whatever great and original idea you think you have is just your own way of rehashing something that has already been done. (And bought the t-shirt.) But that's okay. Accept it and tell the story you feel you need to tell. Good writers borrow and great writers steal as the axiom goes. So steal to your heart's content.
Finally, and this one is super important to writers in the genres of adventure or romance or mystery or horror, or -- let's face it -- any genre (and that includes all you fancy pants literary authors who stopped calling yourself writers years ago), learn how to turn your story around when it needs a change. Holden is "coaching" Hepburn and tells her about "switches" -- that part of a story when a sudden change happens to shuffle up the character's status. Then he hits the next one, switches on switches. And so on and so forth, until Audrey Hepburn (admittedly a little drunk at this point in the film) informs the master screenwriter that great stories are simply switches on switches on switches on switches on switches on switches.
And, by God, she's right! The best stories are those that keep characters moving and growing and changing and learning (which also means the reader is doing all those things as well). Thanks to movies like The Sixth Sense, we're accustomed now to the one BIG SWITCH, so much so that we tend to forget the importance of all the small switches that actually form the story itself. That moment when Rebecca questions the motives of her husband and Manderley. That moment when Lucky in Them realizes ghosts are real and her kids are actually in danger as much from them as from the world outside their door. That moment when Carl Good (Murder Doll) starts to question which woman is being honest with him and which is trying to have him killed. Those are the moments that lead to other moments that lead to other moments that make a story captivating to readers.
So, yes, Paris When It Sizzles has a lot more to say about the writing life that I remembered it having, and I think most writers would benefit from giving this classic screwball rom-com another (or at least a first) viewing.
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