Paris à Tout Prix (Paris At All Costs or the official translation Paris or Perish) started off as a charming film about an up and coming Parisian fashion designer. But appearances can be deceiving.
Reem Kherici has the dark hair/dark eyes looks of a French woman possibly with that Mediterranean heritage. But I soon learn that she is Arab.
Fine. There are many Arabs in France now who have appeared to have assimilated and become French.
But Reem's papers are not in order. In fact she is in France illegally. The deportation police come to her workplace and chaperone her out and eventually to Orly airport. She lands in Morocco, a country she barely knows.
As it happens, her father was very ill, which she didn't know, and she managed to be with him during his last days. At this point, I switched off the t.v. and resumed a book I was reading. But curiosity got the better of me, and I turned on the show near the very end with about a half hour to go.
Reem was still in Morocco enjoying the company of her family and old friends. We had a brief tour of Marrakech with happy and content Arabs interacting with each other. There is no multiculturalism (or whites) in Marrakech. People are amongst their own and there is an air of freedom around despite the obvious economic difficulties.
Reem decides she should return to Paris and to her job. She had put together a leather and lace "gown" to show her design team during her time in Morocco with local items (especially the leather). Her stay has not been in vain after all! Here she is, an Arab girl promoting her land.
But she has no passport and she has been banned from entering France.
So she does what any Arab girl would do. She borrows her cousin's passport and goes to the airport anyway.
The cousin looks nothing like her. Reem has a longer face with prominent cheekbones and large eyes. The cousin has a rounder smaller face, is lighter skinned and has slightly oriental eyes. The agent at the airport customs, who looks Arab and should have known better, spends a good deal of time cross checking the passport photo against the real-life traveler before him. Finally he lets her through.
Reem enters Paris illegally. She arrives just in time to present her dress to her fashion house as a runway was in progress. Her leather gown with lace trimmings is chosen as the "final" dress, a big honor in the runway world. It is a success.
Reem has made a contribution to French art and culture. Who cares about the slight aberration that she is neither French nor a legal resident. She is PARISIAN!
Above is the runway dress. I couldn't find a full length picture of it. Perhaps it has to do with some copyright issue that it cannot be posted publicly. The costume designer for the film is Aurore Pierre.
The gothic dark S&M alluding leather strap of a dress is further indication of the decline of the classic French culture. Reem may be "Parisian" but she adds no grandeur to Paris, and in fact degrades it.