Paris Blues (1961)

Trombone player Ram Bowen and Sax player Eddie Cook, are a couple of American Jazz musicians living in Paris. They live lives full of music staying up all night playing in a jazz club and sleeping all day. Their carefree lifestyles are turned upside down with the arrival of two beautiful American tourists (one white, one black) and the men finally find themselves torn between the music and the women.

Director: Martin Ritt
Cast: Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Sidney Poitier, Louis Armstrong, Diahann Carroll, Barbara Laage, Andre Luguet, Marie Versini, Moustache, Aaron Bridgers, Niels Henning Orsted Pedersen, Serge Reggiani, Emilien Antille, Roger Blin, Charles Bouillaud, Michel Dacquin, Helene Dieudonne, Michel Garland, Rene Hell, Jo Labarrere, Jack Lenoir, Frank Maurice, Niko, Michel Portal, Claude Rollet, Albert Simono, Andre Tomasi, Maria Velasco, Dominique Zardi

Extras:
- Hollywood Jazz by F Guerif and N Mouellic (unsubbed) 26 min.




IMDb

Ram Bowen and Eddie Cook are two expatriate jazz musicians living in Paris where, unlike America at the time, Jazz musicians are celebrated and racism is a non-issue. When they meet and fall in love with two young American girls, Lillian and Connie, who are vacationing in France, Ram and Eddie must decide whether they should move back to America with them, or stay in Paris for the freedom it allows them. Ram, who wants to be a serious composer, finds Paris more exciting than America and is reluctant to give up his music for a relationship, and Eddie wants to stay for the city's more tolerant racial atmosphere.
~ alfiehitchie

Ram Bowen and Eddie Cook are two expatriate American jazzmen working in a Left Bank nightclub in Paris. Ram is there hoping to attain stature as a musician, and Eddie has come to escape the racism a Negro encounters in the United States. Among their friends are Wild Man Moore, a trumpeter helping Ram with his concerto; Marie Seoul, who owns the club and is having a casual affair with Ram; and Michel Duvigne, a Gypsy guitarist addicted to drugs. One day Ram and Eddie meet two American tourists, Lillian Corning and Connie Lampson, who are on a 2-week vacation in Paris. Eventually the two couples pair off, and Eddie decides to marry Connie and return to the United States, despite the discrimination he will face. Though Ram falls in love with Lillian, he is reluctant to give up his independence and become a second-rate trombone player in the States. When an impresario rejects his concerto, Ram at first decides to leave Paris and marry Lillian; but ultimately he realizes that he must stay until he can determine whether he has a real talent for composing. Sadly he says goodby to Lillian and returns to his music.

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