Mimicry and imitation: Paris etc 2017 (French language tv series).

Mimicry and imitation: Paris etc 2017 (French language tv series).

Why do women imitate other women? 

The young woman from Alsace, her flatmates’ “favourite fascist!” travelled to Paris to learn to cook (or become a chef?) in a busy Parisian kitchen. She arrived with long blonde bland hair, engaged, young and a National Party supporter because her family believed “migrants are taking all the jobs from French nationals”. Her flatmates questioned this because they asked, What does it mean to be French in the 21st Century? Allison, neither a Parisian nor a German from Alsace (something the region is known for is it’s location as well as cultural differences) was altered: after her first sexual encounter and then moving on to a young female chef she changed and looked more like the other female chef: short, edgy haircut, eye brow piercing, tattoo fresh on her neck with black liquid eyeliner her “look” from the innocent, countryside transformed by Parisian life and social interactions. Her ideals remained the same. She couldn’t accept the body of the other woman and she couldn’t communicate this justly: she felt repulsed because “she didn’t know how to express herself with the woman”. The other woman, hurt and emotionally distressed, responded with depth to the still seemingly naive “fascist” Where was her emotional connection to herself and to others?

Imitation comes from many sources: sexual attraction constructed through cinema, social media, and magazines as well as the home and other social institutions (education, religion, etc). How was she to unlearn her socialisation process and reframe her future and her needs as a young person? 

Paris, after their own terrorism attack is discovering the “etc” throughout this film and through diverse perspectives – age, relationships, gender, professions, etc. Who does this young woman imitate to discover Paris? Not a local and not quite foreign in the capital she explores as a tourist with an extended stay. What is Paris to us, the outsider? Are they used to the camera gazing at them, longing for the stereotype romance and the black and white photograph by Robert Doisneau The kiss by the Hotel De ville that sealed it from the outsider’s perspective: the romance. The lifestyle. The language. The philosopher and the revolutions (with refusal and the underground). Imitation and why we do it intrigues many psychologists and their research. Mimicry, simply put, works like a social glue and indicates a person wants to be as admired as the one they imitate. It also promotes social bonding and cohesion. Allison changed her look to belong and to explore within a social group. The critics suggest it’s because some people have no personality nor identity of their own and lack the confidence to create their own identity within a social group. 

What is Allison? And the people who visit Paris? What are they seeking? My approach to this is to question and not accept a fixed response; with flexibility I explore other films/books with  similar outcomes reported like, the ordinary women who followed Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love (loose memoir) approach to letting go, eating a culture and finding love somewhere other than America. More exotic? More likely a holiday romance? Or spontaneous and accidental finding of one’s self, a travel writer, someplace else. Neither local nor superficial tourist, What is found and What is lost?

Single White Female syndrome, named after the American film, labelled the disorder that imitates beyond normal limits or spectrum: the aggressive, murderous approach to mimicry and imitation of a “look” and identity to experience life beyond the person’s ordinary – past issues – and present problems. Imitation, in this instance is obsession and the compulsion to do harm reveals the dark side of envy and extreme jealousy. French films often (at least the thinking ones) offer the spectator ways to experience sexual jealousy beyond murderous intentions. They know it happens and, for some writers, the educational aspect of conversation and acceptance becomes the philosophy and the attraction to the French culture in films. Paris, etc revealed complications and relationships that weren’t perfect.

The red balloon that the artist made brought my thinking back into film theory’s history: the 1956 French film by Albert Lamorisse, The Red Balloon. A child’s need for hope as well as innocence through the eyes of the child. The artist created a much larger red balloon and we see, driving through the streets of Paris the excited eyes of the onlookers – like tourists visiting – all had an innocent and hopeful look on their faces: joy and simple fun finding this red balloon travelling through Paris to the artist’s destination. The hope for the young girl from Alsace? That her innocent approach to finding work was questioned: that her political ideals fit for Weimar Germany and the entrance into the world arena of Nazism because so many suffered poverty,  unemployment and starvation after WWI and weren’t without social credibility because all nationals believe they deserve protection and financial security as well as question: is violence or neglect of who we are as people a problem that institutionalised poverty and the acceptance of unemployment as simply racially motivated? Like the Stolen Generation in Australia, many have suffered the politics within the foundations that construct the institutions and the mimicry and imitation that socially bonds people to a group and group acceptance. The young male band, the flat mates with their beautiful French song singing the spelling of Amour L’amour en toutes lettres by Les Nouveaux Garçons (Unfortunately the O and the Story of O once they sung this and the translation appeared, I thought of Pauline Réage‘s novel, 1954 The Story of O, and the disturbing elements of SadoMasochism unwanted in my image of amour or love. The less than innocent Alsace moment becoming sordid and questioned simply because of translation and my educational past I brought to viewing to frame this scene) brought a balance to the imitation and mimicry: they experienced their political life as well as their music as local, a group as well as a moment or experience that we can’t get access to: theirs. 

We all need to have self-expression and a group – psychologists and sociologists argue. And we all need to feel our story validated. Imitation does annoy some people and occasionally is flattery. It’s the way we explore expressing this annoyance and acceptance that makes the difference to deepening social connections. For me, the references within my writing that have appeared again from discussing this film are from remembering Jean-Luc Godard and Jacques Tati (especially the Kleptomaniac in the department store) just as much as I would have liked to have discovered more of Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s influence in contemporary French cinema. This series didn’t appeal to me immediately and of course, I remained to uncover the questions as well as suggestions that the French cinema often offers to the spectator. Of course, complicating the story is the Tahitian man who states quite clearly “I hate Paris”. He is Tahitian and French speaking and prefers Tahiti. He doesn’t see the romance nor desire to be the tourist. He has contempt – not like Godard – and reveals another lover, a way to love that doesn’t fit Paris.

© Cate Andrews, 2024.