Season Wrapup

Endless Boring TV Again

Paris:– Monday, 30. August 2004:– All the figures aren't in yet because all the shows aren't over, but it seems like summer in Paris was a big hit despite the tricky weather. What worked especially well were all the free events – like Paris Plage – and the outdoor cinemas, like the one out at La Villette.

The season began with 'Paris Cinéma' which projected 400 movies and drew 97,000 viewers to 30 cinemas as well as to outdoor screenings in the Luxembourg gardens and at the parvis of the Hôtel de Ville. At the cinemas the price was right at 4€ per film, which is about half the usual entry price.

The month–long 'Quartier d'Eté' festival steadily drew tens of thousands of spectators, even to the less comprehensible productions. The free part of the varied program attracted an estimated 80,000.

The Fnac bandstand on Paris Plage put 26 groups on stage at the rate of two concerts per weekend, each time drawing between 2000 and 3000 to hear the indie bands. Records were set by the groups like 'Ogres de Barback' and 'Comeille' with Louis Chedid.

Attendance was huge at La Villette both for the music at 'Scènes d'Eté' that began in mid–July and the outdoor movies on the 'prairie.' Brian de Palma's 'Scarface' set a record on 30. July when 18,000 turned up to watch it under the stars. Rain canceled two only of the scheduled shows.

Other outdoors movies were shown in different locations around town, to slightly smaller audiences than last year. Up on Montmartre, 7500 turned up to see Jean–Luc Godard's 'Une Femme Est une Femme.'

Just about everything was finished this weekend just ended, except for the 'Tréteaux Nomades' festival. This one continues indoors at the Conservatoire Hector–Berlioz, 6. Rue Pierre–Bullet, Paris 10. Métro: Château–d'Eau. InfoTel.: 01 48 93 63 23.

All that's left now is the coming Journées du Patrimoine on the weekend of 18–19. September and the 'Nuit Blanche' on Saturday, 2. October. If you can't wait, catch this year's Roman version on Saturday, 18. September.

Unknown to the residents of a non–descriptive public–housing apartment building in the town of Châtellerault, an unremarkable town of 30,000 souls between Poitiers and Tours, one of their neighbors passed away quietly while watching television.

The event happened with so little drama that nobody noticed the missing 4th–floor neighbor until last Friday when a process–server attempted to collect outstanding rent and utility bills. Rent and utility bills unpaid for nearly two years.

The man, unidentified by police, had been 57 years old and unemployed. His neighbors, interviewed by France3 TV–news, said they weren't aware of their neighbor's absence. The man's skeleton was discovered in a lounging position in front of the TV set that had ceased when the power had been cut some time ago. His only companions were reported as being spiders.

A spokesman for the town hall, somewhat distressed, guessed that the unknown man had 'slipped through' the usual controls that beset everybody in France There was no record of the dead man ever applying for welfare aid.