2. Render the article into English and get ready to discuss the problems raised in it.

Why film and TV get Paris so wrong By Addison Nugent October 2020

Netflix’s Emily in Paris is the latest work to portray the French capital as a postcard-pretty playground for an American. Where do these fantasies come from, asks Addison Nugent.

“The best of America drifts to Paris. The American in Paris is the best American,” F Scott Fitzgerald once wrote. After 10 years of living as a US immigrant in the French capital, I am still not sure exactly what he meant, but I am sure that he did not envision Emily Cooper, the heroine of Netflix’s new show Emily in Paris.

Set a century after Fitzgerald took up residence in the city of lights, Sex and the City creator Darren Star’s new series is the latest work to deploy the ‘American in Paris’ trope which, no matter how many attempts they make, screenwriters just can’t seem to nail. It centres around a young US marketing consultant (played by Audrey Hepburn lookalike, Lily Collins), sent to live in Paris after her firm acquires a French agency. What ensues is a parade of every Hollywood cliché about life in the French capital imaginable, including rude chain-smoking colleagues and romance on every corner. Watching the series’ 10 episodes I was left with the question: how is Hollywood still getting Paris so wrong?

In the show’s opening episodes, we see how she, like so many of us Americans before her, is instantly disappointed when confronted by the fact that Paris isn’t how it appears in the movies. Adventure does not wait on every corner. Parisians are generally reserved and it’s very difficult to make friends. Being an American in Paris can be extremely lonely.

However, instead of learning to adapt to the beautifully complicated if somewhat disappointing reality of the French capital, Emily sets about obsessively moulding it to her expectations via her Instagram account. The show’s name actually refers to Emily’s Instagram handle, which plays a woefully central role in the series. This could be a chance for the show to satirise the prettified American view of Paris, but really it just plays into it; like his heroine, Starr gives us a city that is a total fantasy world. Emily becomes an influencer, attends lavish champagne-soaked parties, and meets hunky Parisian men at every turn.

 “For the most part, American directors paint their depictions of Paris and its culture through either nostalgic or rose-coloured glasses [...]” says Dr Alice Craven, Professor in Film Studies at The American University of Paris. “Audiences, particularly American ones, want to relish the beauty of the city of lights and therefore welcome the misty tints given to the city by these directors.” Again and again, on-screen depictions of Paris, from 1995 Meg Ryan vehicle French Kiss to the climax of Sex and the City have used it as a twinkling backdrop for romantic fantasies. But where did our rose-tinted vision of the French capital come from?

How the lie developed It arguably stems from the interwar period when young writers, artists and philosophers of the so-called ‘Lost Generation’ – a term coined by novelist Gertrude Stein – flocked to Paris. In the 1920s bohemian titans like Stein, Ernest Hemingway, Salvador Dalí, F Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Man Ray, TS Eliot and Jean Rhys formed a creative coterie – partying together at jazz clubs, exchanging ideas, and generally living the expat dream we now associate with Paris.

Many of the misconceptions about the city swirling around in the US imagination are not really misconceptions at all – it’s just they are 100 years out of date. Paris is now a wildly expensive city, named (along with Hong Kong and Singapore) the most expensive city in the world in 2019. Rent is astronomical, and Emily in Paris is almost realistic in the type of housing it affords its heroine: instead of putting her in an inexplicably gigantic flat, an estate agent announces that she will be living in the ‘servant’s quarters’: matchbox-sized flats found on the top floor of apartment buildings where rich families’ household staff used to reside. But in real such flats the walls are paper-thin, you have to go up a separate ‘servants’ staircase to get to them, and worst of all, everyone on the floor shares a communal toilet.

Patricia Field, the famed Sex and the City costume designer has said that she was inspired by An American in Paris when designing the costuming. However film fans will find Emily’s outfits bear little relation to An American in Paris’ lavish costuming; instead her look is very much a rich American millennial tourist in Paris. I cross the Pont Alexandre III (where Emily and her colleagues film a perfume commercial seen in the show’s trailer) every day on my way to work and if I passed Emily in her black-and-white checkered suit and aggressive red beret, I would automatically assume her quilted Chanel bag was filled with daddy’s credit cards. In one scene, Emily’s even wearing a buttoned shirt with the Eiffel Tower on it that sells for a cool €333 (£304): the rich girls’ version of the ‘Paris Je t’aime’ shirts peddled on every street corner. Paris is, of course, a fashionable place but the choice to consistently make clothing a central focus in American portrayals of the city points to a deeply shallow understanding of it.

In these films and indeed in Emily in Paris, Paris serves as nothing more than a beautiful backdrop. Sure, the show does get a few small things right: there is dog excrement all over the streets, a fact Emily finds out when she ruins a pair of designer boots; the water does cut off constantly in old buildings; and the French do often respond with a nonplussed ‘Pas possible’ when asked to do something they would rather not. However, just like her 2000s forebear Carrie Bradshaw, Emily does not allow Paris or a different culture to shape her; she tries to shape it into an American idealisation. This notion that somehow Paris is for Americans seems to be Hollywood’s overriding message through the years – whereas if the American in Paris is really the best American, to return to Fitzgerald, it is because they give themselves up to the city in all its beautiful, flawed glory.

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20201007-why-film-and-tv-get-paris-so-wrong

1. Task

John Galsworthy is the author of The foresight saga and the winner of the Nobel Prize said he was born in a family of aristocrats in Surrey in 1867. the only son of a rich solicitor studied at a privileged school and then went to Oxford University Galsworthy got the lawyer's diploma but against his father's wish he didn't practice law and preferred to enjoy his life read a lot and travel during his trip round the world that John undertook to improve his knowledge of marine law he made friends with the young writer Joseph Conrad and for the first time began to think over the literary activity at the age of 28 John met his only love his cousin's wife Ada golsworthy thanks to her the young man made up his mind to realize his ambition and to become a write in 1897 he published his first collection of short stories from the Four Winds under the pen name of Johnson John because galsworthy was afraid of his father who didn't believe in his son's literary talent and considered his activities a useless pastime

The Man of property that was completed in 1906 and became the first book of the trilogy the Forsyth Saga one of the prototypes of the main Woman character was Ada golsworthy The Writer's wife and the writer depicted the history of her first unlucky marriage showing the relations of Psalms and Irene foresight the characters of that novel the novel The Man of property brought gosworthy the reputation of an imminent writer gosworthy forgot about his Heroes for eight years the writer died on the 31st of January 1933 that is less than two months after receiving the Nobel Prize some literary critics accused galsworthy of winning the hearts of mediocre readers and not intellectuals but nevertheless many people think that John gosworthy will remain the last prominent proseist of the Victorian era in the history of literature foreign

"The Forsyte Saga" is a story about the wealthy Forsyte family in England during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It mainly follows Soames(Соамс) Forsyte, a possessive man. The novel explores themes like love, marriage, and societal changes of the time. Through marriages, divorces, and conflicts, it paints a picture of how personal lives are affected by the evolving values of society. This text is from "The Forsyte Saga" by John Galsworthy. It talks about a butler telling Soames that James, the boss, is not feeling well. Soames goes to check on James, an old man. James is worried about family things, like his son Roger's death and money problems with his daughter Winifred's husband Dartie. James is also thinking about changes in the world. The text shows us what James is thinking and the problems his family is dealing with.

the problems raised in the passage:

Health and Aging: The extract depicts James Forsyte's old age and health concerns. At 88, he is physically sound but suffers mentally, feeling left out and anxious about his family's future.

Family Dynamics: There's a sense of family disintegration, with Roger's death marking a symbolic breakdown. James reflects on the changing dynamics, with younger family members pursuing their own lives, leaving him feeling isolated.

Financial Worries: James worries about the family's financial future, especially with concerns about Roger's inheritance and the financial implications of his grandchildren's lives, particularly Val going to university.

Social and Political Concerns: James expresses distrust towards political figures like Chamberlain and worries about the state of the Empire, reflecting broader societal anxieties and political changes during the time.

Marital Issues: James reflects on the age difference between him and his wife Emily, expressing concerns about her potential longevity and the financial implications it might have.

Legal and Financial Threats: The passage introduces a potential financial crisis involving Winifred's husband, Dartie, going bankrupt. James fears the consequences and contemplates the possibility of having to pay for Dartie's actions. Symbolism:

The butler opening and closing the door softly may symbolize discretion and the need for privacy in the household.

James sitting in a big armchair with a camel-hair shawl could symbolize his vulnerability and need for comfort in his old age.

Comparison:

The contrast between James's white hair and the fairly thick white hair may symbolize the passage of time and the effects of aging.

The mention of the motor-car and James's traditional barouche and bays highlights the contrast between old and new, traditional and modern.

Morpheme:

Words like "unfashionably," "extravagant," and "motor-cars" reflect the morphological aspects of the language used, showing the author's choice of words to convey specific meanings and nuances.

Foreshadowing:

The fear of Dartie's bankruptcy and its potential consequences foreshadows future troubles and conflicts within the family.

Characterization:

James's character is revealed through his thoughts, emotions, and reactions to the changing world and family dynamics.