Cramped vs. Ordered: Capitalism in A Window to Paris

Yuri Mamin’s Window to Paris aptly displays Russia’s transition to capitalism with scenes that contrast the values and everyday life in Russia and in France. Through well-crafted dialogue and superior shooting, the film creates in the viewer a sense of the misplacement of capitalism in Russian society. In unknown and intimidating settings characters react to their surroundings in such a way that illustrates their surprise and illuminates their prejudices. Contrasts between scenes in Paris and scenes in St. Petersburg especially lend to a sense of stark differences between the cultures through the film’s use of perspective and sound. As the characters in Window to Paris explore foreign cities, their experiences establish for the viewer a conflict between the ordered and practiced Parisian society and the patriotic and cluttered Russian society into which Parisian capitalist values seep.

In Window to Paris, Nikolai Nikolaiovich, a music and aesthetics teacher at a St. Petersburg business school, moves into a communal apartment where he and his roommates stumble upon a window that looks out onto Paris. The characters quarrel with a Parisian woman whose life they disrupt in their ventures into the western city that is marked by consumption and a relative glut of goods. The film depicts the vast differences between the Russian and the French cultures as the characters experience cities of dissimilar cityscapes, markets and traditions.

While the characters explore Paris and St. Petersburg, the perspective of the film shows differing attitudes towards the cities. As Nikolai and Gorokhev walk through Paris in a sober state for the first time, medium shots show most of their bodies against a background filled with consumer goods. As they move, the viewer notes swiftly passing images of fruit stands, meat shops, and cafes. This constant motion lends to a sense of open space and easy movement. In contrast, when Nicole, the French woman whose life the Russians interrupt, finds herself on the other side of the window in St. Petersburg, the perspective tends to show more close-ups as she moves through a Russian market. Random figures pass by in the shot, blocking the viewer’s vision of Nicole and adding to a sense of clutter and confusion. Thus, in its depictions of markets in St. Petersburg and Paris, Window to Paris uses perspective to contrast market scenes of capitalist exchange.

In terms of sound, too, the market scenes in Paris and St. Petersburg differ greatly. The diagetic sound that one hears as Gorokhov and Nikolai walk through the Paris streets is that of coherent conversations and of music playing from an organ grinder. However, as Nicole stumbles through the market in St. Petersburg conversation is muddled, loud and confused. Everyone in the crowd yells at someone else, and multiple people address Nicole in passing, thus adding to her confusion. The scene notably lacks diagetic music, an element that represents and brings about order throughout the film. Thus, with contrasting sound in these two market scenes, Window to Paris creates a sense of disorder and confusion in St. Petersburg while displaying order and neatness in Paris.

However, in Window to Paris, the contrasts struck between St. Petersburg and Paris do not prove to form unbridgeable cultural gaps. In fact, the film’s ending trends towards acceptance of cultural differences. Historically locations of vastly different cultural and political revolutions, each city has its own value. While France stands as a leader of western culture and capitalism, Russia, no matter how much of “a miserable, bankrupt country” it is, has an intrinsic value to which the Russians must return in hopes of building a better future for their country.