Paris: Art of the Nightlife Then And Now

”What a number of sins does the cheerful, easy good-breeding of the French frequently cover? Many of them want common sense, many more common learning; but in general, they make up so much by their manner, for those defects, that frequently they pass undiscovered: I have often said, and do think, that a Frenchman, who, with a fund of virtue, learning and good sense, has the manners and good-breeding of his country, is the perfection of human nature. This perfection you may, if you please, and I hope you will, arrive at.” ( Lord Chesterfield, Letters to His Son ,1750)

The Crazy Horse Cabaret Theater in Paris, is home to perhaps France’s most famous erotic cabaret and expensive entertainment tabs. The choreography and stylistic presentation is often created by world renown choreographers like Philip Decoufle who push the limits of the art of the nude within the realm of modern dance that also incorporates  a glitzy context of French cultural tradition. A history of the sensual arts that date from the medieval origins of  Paris,the City of Lights.

Crazy Horse, Dita Von Teese,2009

 

 

Chesterfield, an English nobleman and parliamentarian of the 17 th century, was targeted for ”immorality” in his writings since he had developed an eloquent literary aesthetic that accepted life as it was, and responded by the creation of the word ”etiquette” based on the latin, of how to deal with situations based on a form of manners and gestures which would define and form the meaning  of ”gentleman”, a certain class and projection that was devoid of moral judgment yet concerned with navigating life’s sometimes murky and ambiguous moral and ethical waters. His entreaties were meant as private and intimate letters to his son, but publication to a wider audience proved popular, and novel ;outside the typical channels of thought the generally prudish and reserved English had been accustomed to.

Though the content of ”Letters” seemed to have resonated with great force among younger readers, the older guard, led by Samuel Johnson, responded with severe critiques that implied social poisoning and corrupting of youth. And, there was something deeply disturbing in Chesterfield’s representation of the social. The outrage was centered on the disconnect of behavior from rigid morality which led to the invention of the term ”etiquette” to express this condition. In addition, there was a difference in degree of morals, now split into higher and lower classes, each having an autonomous nature.

Chesterfield’s credo was essentially that, whatever earns affection is to be positively valued and carefully nurtured regardless of its ”moral” content. In effect, a normalization of anormality.

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''Crisis'', Crazy Horse, Philippe Decoufle creation,2009

” The idea was that the criteria guiding manners were no longer connected to morals, that the principles instructing manners were now of a different order and could no longer be derived from debates in moral philosophy. The idea was that the moral conclusions reached in metaphysics, theology or political theory no longer applied to the interpretation of behavior in society”.( A Genealogy of Manners, Jorge Arditti)

From ”Letters To His Son” a 1756 letter on the the pleasures of Paris nightlife… sounds reminiscent of Henry Miller in ”Tropic of Cancer” and experiences of many in the famed ”La Pigale” district. Some things never change though the Crazy Horse Cabaret Theatre is certainly more prestigious an institution.

Arielle Dombasle, Crazy Horse, 2007

I must insist upon your never going to what is called the English coffee-house at Paris, which is the resort of all the scrub English, and also of the fugitive and attainted Scotch and Irish; party quarrels and drunken squabbles are very frequent there; and I do not know a more degrading place in all Paris. Coffee-houses and taverns are by no means creditable at Paris. Be cautiously upon your guard against the infinite number of fine-dressed and fine-spoken chevaliers d’industrie and avanturiers which swarm at Paris: and keep everybody civilly at arm’s length, of whose real character or rank you are not previously informed. Monsieur le Comte or Monsieur le Chevalier, in a handsome laced coat, et tres bien mis, accosts you at the play, or some other public place; he conceives at first sight an infinite regard for you: he sees that you are a stranger of the first distinction; he offers you his services, and wishes nothing more ardently than to contribute, as far as may be in his little power, to procure you les agremens de Paris. He is acquainted with some ladies of condition, qui prefrent une petite societe agreable, et des petits soupers aimables d’honnetes gens, au tumulte et a la dissipation de Paris; and he will with the greatest pleasure imaginable have the honor of introducing you to those ladies of quality. Well, if you were to accept of this kind offer, and go with him, you would find au troisieme; a handsome, painted and p——d strumpet, in a tarnished silver or gold second-hand robe, playing a sham party at cards for livres, with three or four sharpers well dressed enough, and dignified by the titles of Marquis, Comte, and Chevalier. The lady receives you in the most polite and gracious manner, and with all those complimens de routine which every French woman has equally. Though she loves retirement, and shuns le grande monde, yet she confesses herself obliged to the Marquis for having procured her so inestimable, so accomplished an acquaintance as yourself; but her concern is how to amuse you: for she never suffers play at her house for above a livre; if you can amuse yourself with that low play till supper, a la bonne heure. Accordingly you sit down to that little play, at which the good company takes care that you shall win fifteen or sixteen livres, which gives them an opportunity of celebrating both your good luck and your good play. Supper comes up, and a good one it is, upon the strength of your being able to pay for it. La Marquise en fait les honneurs au mieux, talks sentiments, moeurs et morale, interlarded with enjouement, and accompanied with some oblique ogles, which bid you not despair in time. After supper, pharaoh, lansquenet, or quinze, happen accidentally to be mentioned: the Marquise exclaims against it, and vows she will not suffer it, but is at last prevailed upon by being assured que ce ne sera que pour des riens. Then the wished-for moment is come, the operation begins: you are cheated, at best, of all the money in your pocket, and if you stay late, very probably robbed of your watch and snuff-box, possibly murdered for greater security. This I can assure you, is not an exaggerated, but a literal description of what happens every day to some raw and inexperienced stranger at Paris.