The myth of New York City from a French perspective

Résumé du document

For this presentation, I have chosen to talk about New York City, also known as "the Big Apple" or the "city that doesn't sleep". When French people hear about the United States, they often imagine how exciting the life might be in New York. The name itself suggests to the foreigners a marvelous place where everyone must be because everything is possible. The writer Tom Wolfe once said that in New York "culture just seems to be in the air, like part of the weather". In our imagination a real myth of New York City does exist.

The movie-goer that I want to base this as presentation is precisely on what can be called "popular culture". The image of the town is used in many films or TV series, and the most recent of them might be Spider-Man 3. In these many movies, New York is at first an amazing place with high buildings and dissimilar boroughs. Then, New York is a culture made of jazz, musicals and art. But New York is above all the New Yorker, a peculiar kind of human beings.

Extraits

[...] Schoedsack et Merian C. Cooper. New York, New York (1977), Martin Scorsese. World Trade Center (2006), Oliver Stone. + TV shows: Friends, Sex and the City, Will and Grace, etc. + Woody Allen's films: Manhattan, Broadway Danny Rose, Meurtre Mystérieux à Manhattan, etc. Bibliography The Encyclopedia of New York City, Kenneth T. Jackson Histoire de New York, François Weil, Paris: Fayard New York, Mille Monuments, Jorg Brockmann et Bill Harris, Mengès New York : Chronique d'une ville sauvage, Jérôme Charyn, Paris: Gallimard, 1994. [...]

[...] They also show New Yorkers leaving the country gloomy when gazing it. From Manhattan to the Bronx Three of New York's five boroughs have become a myth. Manhattan appears as a city inside the city; it is the most appealing borough which symbolizes on the one hand luxury, coziness and fun, and on the other hand a place where you work but do not live. The streets are a great example of this duality. On the one hand, you have the “fashionable road” of Madison avenue, Park Avenue and the Fifth avenue which are the symbols of the wealthy New York (cf. [...]

[...] In our imagination a real myth of New York City does exist. The movie-goer that I want to base this presentation precisely on what can be called “popular culture”. The image of the town is used in many films or TV series, and the most recent of them might be Spider-Man 3. In these many movies, New York is at first an amazing place with high buildings and dissimilar boroughs. Then, New York is a culture made of jazz, musicals and art. [...]

[...] But New York is also the culture where comics are born. French people aren't traditionally fond of comics but a new trend begins with the development of Hollywood versions. Now, that we've watched so many heroes saving New York and flying around its skyscrapers, the city cannot be the same anymore in the eyes of the viewers. From the Met to the MoMA The museums of New York are very famous and important for the culture of the city. There are many art galleries, like in the TV program and the city” which shows the wealthy New Yorkers spending their days and nights in them; but, there are also world-famous museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, on the eastern edge of Central Park and usually called the and its main rival: the Museum of Modern Art, called the III] New York is the New Yorker From a famous New Yorker . [...]

[...] Outside New York, he lacks oxygen and is different from others because of his accent and habits. That's how I imagine New York City. Thanks to popular culture, I have the impression to know it. I know the place, I know the culture, and I even know the people. But now I am waiting for this myth to be confronted to reality. Can the myth of New York City be true? Filmography Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), Blake Edwards. Fahrenheit (2004), Michael Moore. The Godfather Part II (1975), Francis Ford Coppola. [...]