Based on Harold Flender’s 1957 eponymous novel, Paris Blues (1961) was shot on location in the French capital and focused on the lives of two ex-pat jazz musicians: saxophonist Eddie Cook (Sidney Poitier) and trombonist Ram Bowen (Paul Newman), living in self-imposed exile.  

Focusing on the musician’s respective romances with two vacationing tourists, Connie (Diahann Carroll) and Lillian (Joanne Woodward), the film’s intense screenplay highlights the differences regarding racial integration in the U.S. and France at that time. In the years following World War II, a number of African-American jazz musicians took up residence in France, the working opportunities, and the appreciation that French audiences showed for their art, finding there not only a place to compose and play music but a haven from personal, social, and economic problems.

Paris Blues serves as a snapshot of this particular period where Paris provided a refuge for these artists of color (such as James Baldwin, Richard Wright, Dexter Gordon, Bud Powell) and would become an important site for African American jazz musicians across the 1920s and the ensuing decades.

This screening is a part of FACETS’ March 2022 series, A Tribute to Sidney Poitier.

Programmer’s Notes

by Charles Coleman, FACETS Film Program Director

“Through the figures of Poitier, Armstrong, Bridgers and Carroll, these legacies are channeled as the film alludes to the racism of the United States they had sought to leave behind. The iconic leads are magnificent, supported by Joanne Woodward and Diahann Carroll, as the musicians must choose between personal happiness in racially segregated America or the pursuit of their art. Paris Blues also benefits from a superb soundtrack composed by the great Duke Ellington, featuring a notable supporting performance from the legendary Louis Armstrong as well as an appearance by jazz pianist Aaron Bridgers.”