Nous irons à Paris (1950)

Welcome to the land of open-air joy. This gang of friends drops everything and hits the road. With the help of a clandestine transmitter, they all proclaim the joys of being here today and somewhere else tomorrow. They’re young, they sing, they’re happy. Radio X’s audience grows with every broadcast. Listeners can’t get enough of these upbeat songs, performed on the sly out in nature, wherever their travels take them. Every evening, Maman Terrine’s straight-talking broadcast is a delightfully spontaneous affair. Her parodies of advertisements, which mercilessly take aim at “La gaine Lotus” (since one member of the team is settling a score with his future father-in-law this way), also contribute to the show’s success. Its popularity grows, and Ray Ventura and his Collegians join in and become part of the team. Henri Salvador and the Peters Sisters are parachuted in and perform an improvised music-hall number. George Raft and Martine Carol appear briefly as themselves. Radio X becomes famous, and the authorities, at first unyielding, soften their stance. It is a world shaped by the joy of singing, dancing, claiming space and making it an ally, and spreading positive vibes in a country rebuilding itself. Forget the constraints of the other world, escape a drab environment, and shake up age-old integration procedures. With no need to worry about tomorrow, let loose in nature to the rhythm of the music: everything here is avant-garde and heralds the libertarian upheavals of the 1960s. Even the director of Lotus girdles, after railing against the station, is astonished to realize that all the fuss around his brand is ultimately boosting sales. He takes advantage of this and launches a whole new range with names inspired by this (counter-)advertising. The adventure unfolds on the road, with chance encounters that are always friendly. It is a wonderful rural, pastoral initiation. This France of the immediate postwar period is examined at close range through an unpretentious Parisian lens. Everyone loves one another and improvises in good spirits, always speaking respectfully.