The Real World You Never Saw: Paris

Review by: Alysa Salzberg
(AlysaSalzberg@TheCinemaSource.com)

The Real World You Never Saw: Paris is a paradoxical title for me. First, I was in Paris all last year, (appropriately enough, while this edition of the hit MTV series was being filmed). Day in, day out, I lived (and loved) The Real World: Paris "” I saw it all, first hand: from conversations with French friends, to haggling with farmers on market days, from buying groceries to doing laundry at a laundromat that housed three drunken homeless men, like a red-nosed Greek chorus. These are memories I will never forget, this is life in a city I love more than anything else I've ever been through. On the other hand, as the DVD promises, I never did see the show. It started while I was still away, and when I got back, I missed my beloved city so much that I couldn't bear to watch these kids living other lives there. It's complicated.

But, a film reviewer must do what a film reviewer must do. So when I found that my next assignment was to review this DVD, I turned to someone who I knew would be a far better judge than I. My roommate and dear friend, Vicki Freedman, is a hardcore Real World fan, and has been since Season 1. So, she was pretty thrilled when I bestowed The Real World You Never Saw: Paris upon her "” though her happiness dimmed a bit when I told her I had to have the DVD back to my boss in a few days' time. Anyway, Vicki settled in and watched the hour-long feature, cogitated, then told me she was ready to answer my list of questions.

The first thing I wanted to know was, what are the cast members' actual names, and how do they measure up as a group of people? Most of us know what the deal is with The Real World, but just in case, I'll tell it again: seven strangers are chosen to live in a tricked-out house or apartment in a big city (in this case, Paris), to see, as the speech during the credits goes, "what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real." This premise is a bit arguable, of course "” I mean, how many jobless (no one on the show works, unless they're given a group job to do by MTV, and these jobs often end in neglect and/or disaster) twenty-somethings can afford to live in a huge London flat, an upscale Manhattan duplex, a New Orleans plantation house, or a hôtel particulier (big, big mansion) in the Parisian suburbs? But as most Real World fans would tell you, it's really all about the castmates' interactions, not where they live.

(Still, it would be interesting to see how different things would be on The Real World: Palestine, or The Real World: Boise.) So, how do these folks measure up? Well, C.T., Adam, Mallory, Christina, Leah, Ace, and Simon aren't as vapid as the Las Vegas cast, according to Vicki, but then again, they aren't as exciting either. If a group of aliens came down to earth, they would be a fair representation of our generation, but at the same time, though she's their age, Vicki felt distant from these seven strangers.

This led me to my next question: If the cast isn't that exciting, why was Vicki watching the show? (Besides the horribly compelling quality of much of MTV's programming.) Vicki had come to visit me when I was in Paris, and for her, the show was a way to remember that enjoyable trip. Still, when I asked her about how the city was portrayed on the DVD, she told me that, as on the show, it doesn't take center stage. What we see of Paris is generally shots of well-known landmarks like the Eiffel Tower, or the dark interiors of clubs and restaurants. At times, it seems these latter are all there is to the city. The Real World: Paris skimps a bit on the ville de lumière's loads of aesthetically, historically, and culturally significant sites. Still, as Vicki points out, and as I've often thought, by setting this season of The Real World in France, MTV refutes so much of the negative things that have been said about that country. So, props to MTV for that.

On the other hand again, there is no extra feature about the city on the DVD, and, in addition, there are no Parisian or French cast members. In fact, there are no cast members from continental Europe at all. To both Vicki and myself, this is a great mistake. The Real World: London, the only other season to be shot overseas, was cool because half the house members were from countries other than America, and two were British. By having them in the house, viewers and cast members alike were better able to understand, appreciate and learn about British culture. So what's the deal with the Paris season? They couldn't find one Parisian to live in that house? On top of that, only one of the cast members actually speaks French. On the show, our Real Worlders don't interact very much with their Parisian neighbors, except, on occasion, to hook up with one in a bar. The DVD's promised behind-the-scenes look doesn't show any more about this, either: it may be a "real world", but it's an isolated one.

Still, as a picture of what this closed-off bubble is all about, Vicki

felt The Real World You Never Saw DVD did a good job. First off, she mentioned the way the feature is set up. Housemates C.T. and Ace are sitting at a table, talking, and a dubbed-over voice makes it look like they're speaking French. The whole thing is really a compilation of memories and insights into the show, which are introduced as "Lessons", and given French titles, so that the whole thing is like a French tape you might watch in high school. Within this cute device, we get to see shots of nude cast members (rear nudity is uncensored, while frontal nudity bears the blurry bars), hear angry words unedited (the bleeps are left off the curse words, which, according to Vicki, makes the segments much more comprehensible and easy to watch), and see more of the castmembers just being themselves, which made them more likeable to my roommate. There are some fun scenes on the DVD, such as the interview tapes of each cast member, and shots of each trying to speak French. Probably Vicki's favorite thing, though, was a behind-the-scenes look at…behind the scenes. Fans get to see just how close the Real World cameras get for a close-up, and how other cameras are operated by motion detector. The only bad thing Vicki had to say for the whole experience is the fact that certain things, like C.T.'s violence and aggressiveness, aren't explored at all; instead, this DVD gives us a shiny, happy view of the season "” and not the whole season, but just what's been seen on TV so far.

So, ultimately, is this DVD a good thing? Hardcore Real World fan Vicki Freedman says it's definitely worth renting, and could be watched more than once, but you might want to think twice before you buy it: though the DVD promises a lot of stuff you never saw, by watching the series every week, as well as checking out the reunion that'll wrap up the season, you'll get more or less the same information, if not more. The extras, too, aren't that memorable: a few amusing outtakes, a tour of the opulent house, and not much more than that.

Vicki's Feature Grade: B

Vicki's DVD Extra Grade: C+

Overall Grade: B-