AuthorElaine Sciolino

The original title‘Ridicule’: The French Reaction to ‘Emily in Paris’

This is an extremely old-fashioned and particularly popular story:An American girl, American ingénue, moved to ParisShe fell in love with the sensory experience the city brought to her (usually by meeting a French lover) and tried to blend in with her unshakable customs (never smiling at strangers) - a particularly popular setting.If you're an American audience。

Parisians, however, don't buy the platitude that "Paris is the romantic capital of the world". So this new Netflix play, written by Darren Starr and starring Lily Collins"French version of Sex and the City" - "Emily in Paris"Just a minute after the trailer was released, it received a lot of french questioning.

French radio station RTL said: "Between berets, cocktail dresses and impeccable streets,It is difficult for Parisians to recognize their daily lives」。 Les Inrockupibles, a French magazine that has never seen American pop culture, wrote: "Parisians have begun to laugh at the show, which has yet to start. 」

But when I showed a dozen parisians from 22 to 81, they made a more nuanced impression - a little nuanced.

The most common reaction among these Parisian audiences wasridiculeLaughing - French means funny and ridiculous, as well as funny and funny.

Emily Cooper, a 20-year-old social network marketing expert from Chicago, doesn't know that her job in Paris is "to teach a family."Paris luxury marketing companyHow to improve their marketing on Instagram and Twitter.

Ridicule II: Emily loves to wear every playDifferent high heels and flashy fashion suitsIt's not possible on the streets of Paris, It can't be within her budget。

Ridicule III: Emily's boss Sylvie with artistic malicePublic insultsand belittle Emily - no, the French don't.They are all saying bad things about others in their backs。

Ridicule's best: Emily doesn't speak French, relying on translation software on her phone. 「Translation software can't workCaroline Valentin, owner and director of a studio that makes hand-embroidered and beaded costumes for theaters, said.

"These cliches about Paris are really too much, too dense, they're like a collection of skits,Gradually became comical in exaggeration。 Philippe Thureau-Dangin, 65, is the owner and director of Exils, a small French book publishing company. 「Perhaps the creators of this series wanted to imitate Moliere。 Moliere also exaggerates and creates impossible situations for the sake of comedy. 」

When the middle-retired director of a French company used a warm biseKiss both cheeksWhen welcoming Emily, Mr. Philippe Thureau-Dangin smiled and said, "This kind of bise will never happen in the office of a professional you meet for the first time." It's a little too direct, isn't it? Moreover, the company's department director also happens to be smoking - how could it be without permission?In.Smoking in the officeBesides, there is no permit, and now there is no smoking in French offices. 」

Another thing parisians thought would never happen: a thin blonde Serbian model swerwed across the Alexander III Bridge to advertise perfume ads. She was naked except for the perfume she "wore on her body". Emily is acutely aware of the campaign against sexism in advertising. The French champs, backed by Emily's female boss, said the ad was sexy, not sexist.

"It's a parody of the nudity they used in their propaganda twenty or thirty years ago!" The 29-year-old cameraman, Léo Bigiaoui, said. In 2016, After the Paris City Hall released a short video showing the city's picturesque symbols - the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the bridge over the Seine - Mr. Bigiaoui and his partner Maxime Baudin fought back with their short video, "Paris Loves You Too." It showsDaily life: A man is fishing, a sweaty woman is jogging, and there are working-class shoppers at an outdoor vegetable market.

I'll never, ever be able to imagine shooting a on a bridge over the Seine. 」

France's version of the #BalanceTonPorc meToo #ExposeYourPig, making advertisers and marketers more cautious about how sex is used as a sales tool. "I'm not going to use nude models in perfume ads to attract men's attention, " says Florence Coupry, a 33-year-old executive at one of France's top strategic communications companies. "It has nothing to do with being French. Such an activity would be counterproductive. 」

Still, Ms. Coupry thinks the exaggerated stereotypes are deliberate. "The play brings the stereotype of Paris to the extreme, full of old-fashioned settings and fun at it. As spectators, we were amused by them. 」

For Ms. Coupry, "Emily in Paris" is like a TV version of the Paris photos on Instagram. "Don't forget, remember, the word clichés already means "photo" in French, and Emily is the marketing specialist in charge of Instagram, posting every day and waiting to be liked. She is obsessed with wanting to be liked in real life, even by her very mean boss. 」

But one thing about the mean boss made many viewers feel real - when Emily asked Sylvie why she didn't want to know her, Sylvie replied:You moved to Paris, worked for my company, and even disdained learning French. You regard the city as your amusement park. After a year of food, sex, wine and some culture, you'll be content to return to your home country.For Americans who come and go in a hurry and taste Paris, some Parisians are reluctant to make friends with them.

Parisians are all about accuracy, and some viewers were quick to point out some of the show's factual errors. Among them: Emily's 120-watt vibratory rod may short-circuit the power in her apartment, but it will never shut down the entire community; her apartment is not, as depicted, a standard, narrow, 100-square-foot maid's room in the attic, but a spacious space on the floor below. And those who grow up eating Midwestern American beef don't call French steaks "amazingly tender" - no matter how cooked they are.

Still, I can feel the same way as Emily. The first time I moved from Chicago to Paris, I was in my 20s as a foreign correspondent for Newsweek, had no friends, were not good at French, and lived in an apartment with a close-up view of the Eiffel Tower. The rest of the company's reporters (older men) were tolerant or almost unabashedly contemptuous of me.

Less than a year, I boarded an Air France charter flight to Iran to work as a resident reporter. By leaving the country, I was professionally re-born - my sheepskin coat and Sorel snow boots from Chicago were of little use in Paris, but perfect in Tehran.

Sometimes the platitudes are true, and that's why some of Emily's episodes in Paris are good. Some viewers see the show as a fresh escape from the new crown - in real-life Paris, all public places must wear masks; bars close at 10 p.m.

"It was awkward at first, but it looked good," said Arthur Baker, 22. He is a volunteer for a non-governmental organization that resettles political refugees, "and I might brush it off with my friends." In this case, any kind of distraction is good. 」

About the author

Elaine Sciolino is a contributor to The New York Times, a former Paris bureau chief who has been based in France since 2002. Her new book, The Seine: The River That Made Paris, is published in October 2019. She has previously published four books, including "The Only Street in Paris: Life on the Avenue of martyrs" The Only Street in Paris: Life on The Rue des Martyrs is a New York Times bestseller. In 2010, she was awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor, France's highest national honor, in recognition of her "special contribution" to the French-American friendship.