A little sugar coating

My younger brother has gone off to Paris for a couple of weeks to hang about in cafes and discover the beating hearts of the French, eat croissants.

To prepare for his trip he watched a couple of films to get him in an appropriately French frame of mind. His choices? Amelie and Paris, Je T’aime.

I know, it’s a bit like watching Mary Poppins and Notting Hill to get a feel for London. But perhaps there’s no harm in a little sugar coating from time to time*. Don’t most of us, as visitors, try to project on to a place whatever it is we are looking to find there anyway? It's not as if coming back from a trip with brutal memories and dashed hopes is going to fix a city's social problems.

Before I went to New York, Woody Allen's wonderful cinematic tributes had led me to suspect that most, if not all, New Yorkers were neurotic intellectuals with a penchant for complicated relationships. Sadly, that turned out not to be the case - and whatever happened to the jazz soundtrack? Still, I'm pretty sure it was the Woodster’s efforts, particularly Annie Hall and Manhattan, that ensured I was too busy focusing on the magic of his home city, like those amazing skyscrapers, to notice much of the grimmer, grimier reality on the ground.

So if people want to imagine London as a warm-hearted town full of books and stained glass and well-meaning children who aren't capable of stabbing anyone, or Paris as a dreamy stage for fairytales, romance and Carla Bruni, then good luck to them.

After all, I shouldn’t think sitting through La Haine or Irreversible would have made my brother’s croissants taste any nicer.

*Within reason. Too much sugar can rot the brain. Stay away from Love Actually.

Some good films set in London (in descending order of quality):
Withnail and I
Shaun of the Dead
Children of Men
Notes on a Scandal
Closer
This Year’s Love
Scenes of a Sexual Nature
Face
Match Point
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