Written by poet/screenwriter Jacques Prevert ,directed by his brother Pierre and narrated by Arletty ,the star of the Prévert/Carné heyday. it's a short which begins with a postman bringing the mail in a small village of Provence overcome by the heat in an almost Pagnolesque atmosphere.
Prevert opens an album and begins to talk about Paris to the postman and some children who have never been there :the beauty of the capital and of its women.The poet blends present and past ,showing pictures of the era before (and even long before) WW2 and after ;Prévert's anti militarism occasionally surfaces ,as Arletty's voice ironically points out: now that hostilities are over,they could not call "La Rue De La Paix "(peace street) "Rue De La Guerre" (war street);some things never change but some do : Prévert and Arletty feel nostalgic for things from the past.
What is fascinating for the 2012 viewer ,it's that THEIR present (the old juke box which fascinates a young girl)is now the past ,and Paris of the sixties seems remote ,as remote as the "Fortifications where the adventures of Fantomas and "Les Vampires " took place .
A short which proves that we had not heard the last of the old wave.
