Paris 36

... or Faubourg 36, as it's known in France. I suppose Faubourg isn't too well known as a suburb of Paris, generally speaking, so I can see why it would be renamed for an international audience. Would a gritty Scottish movie called Pilton 89 be renamed Edinburgh 89 for foreign consumption? Go figure.

Anyway... this is a very pleasant French movie (well, duh) which is worth catching, though by no means essential. It's a musical comedy drama about a group of unemployed workers in 1936 trying to reopen a theatre shut down just after New Year - a sort of Ringing in the Seine, if you will. It'll put a smile on your face, like a cinematic creme brulee. Or something.

How's the maths?
Not much to see here, but as with any French film I did find myself whiling away an hour or two afterwards pondering this whole weird way the French have of counting - you know, the whole seventy-two is sixty plus twelve or ninety-eight is four twenties plus eighteen thing. 'Cos what I want to really know is, does this mean there are certain questions which a French maths teacher would never ask? I mean, why bother asking "what's four times twenty plus eighteen" in French?

Think about it. I do!