Review of Paris When It Sizzles (1964) by Kate B — 29 Apr 2007

My favorite Bill Holden movie that I've seen so far is SUNSET BLVD. which is about Holden as a screenwriter having to write a script he doesn't really want to write. And here he is again in a similar role, playing a screenwriter staying at a luxurious hotel suite in Paris with only a weekend left to write a script that he doesn't really care to write.

Enter Hepburn as a typist who is hired to help him and a love story develops between them. As they write the story together, we get to see the "film within the film" come to life as we cut to hilarious images of Holden and Hepburn acting as the characters in the imaginary story they are narrating and creating.

Those little film scenes within the film are pretty outrageous and off the wall and that is what makes the film so fun when it cuts to those little narratives. Also Holden's acting is equally flamboyant and playfully dramatic as he is often seen pacing and prancing around the hotel suite as Hepburn watches in lovestruck admiration.

Holden also gives his hilarious take on how to write a screenplay to include things like "swithces upon switches upon switches" to trick the audience. Claude Renoir, though he is uncredited works as cinematographer along with Charles Lang Jr.

and there are nicely shot scenes with vibrant colors and some good looking night shots. A very picturesque tour of Paris. Favorite scene: One of the "film within the film" scenes when Hepburn discovers Holden's character Rick is a "vampire" in a cave.