Anne Aghion
Film maker and producer. Was awarded an Emmy in 2005 for her film “In Rwanda We Say. The family that does not speak dies.” Has just come back from four months of shooting in Antarctica for her next film “Ice People.”
Leads a double life between Paris (she lives in the Marais) and New York since 1997. She lived in New York first when she was 13, then studied there from 18 to 22 and has worked there regularly for ten years.
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Anne Aghion’s
PARISIAN RITUALS
What makes you a real paryorker? My mother was a New Yorker and my father is a Parisian. Being a paryorker is just a fact for me.
How did you become one? When I decided to keep an apartment in New York without giving up the one in Paris.
Do you know any other paryorkers? I don’t really hang out with any other paryorkers. The Parisians I know who live in New York don’t lead that double life characteristic of paryorkers.
How do these two cities contribute to balancing your personal and/or your professional life? Friendships aren’t made in the same way. Paris is the city where I grew up – and I think that you are from the place where you were a teenager – and there, I run into people that I’ve known for a long time. In New York, I have family, also friends that I’ve known for a long time, but I don’t have a support system that dates back to school like in Paris where I run into people thirty years later.
What’s the difference between the New-Yorker you and the Parisian you? I think both are a pain in the ass, but maybe not in the same way (giggles). One thing is for sure. I am a person who never gives up. New York taught me that. But I also apply that in Paris.
What images do these two cities bring to mind? I have a friend that compares Paris to his wife – refined, elegant, but a little predictable. On the other hand, New York would be like a mistress – sexier and better in bed. I wouldn’t have thought to put it that way, but I find that he hit it on the nose.
What’s your fondest memory of Paris? I was sixteen. I was coming home from a party on my scooter. I was going by Place de la Concorde in the early morning in spring, just as the lamps were going off. It was magical.
What’s the first thing you do when you set foot in Paris? I hit the shower. I open my mail. I go for a bite to eat at the restaurant “La chaise au plafond.”
And the last one, when you leave? Nothing. When I leave Paris (and also when I leave New York) I always have a ton of things to do before leaving, in spite of the systems I’ve devise to be able to take care of problems remotely.
What is the ideal time of day for you in Paris? The early morning silence year round. Summer evenings.
Do you have a ritual that’s intimately related to the city? I take back my neighborhood. I go to the dry cleaners and the pharmacy (dry cleaners and pharmacists in New York aren’t up to snuff). I have lunch and dinner in the handful of restaurants that I love. I see my friends and browse in my favorite bookstores. My life in Paris is very predictable. In Paris as in New York, I don’t have a need for new things.
What excites you about Paris? The comforting side of my neighborhood where things and people never change or only very slowly at that. In New York, the last time I was away for three months, when I came back the building across from mine had been torn down. My neighborhood is always changing. When I come back from trip or a shoot, it’s very nice to find things as they were when you left them.
What annoys you? In contrast to the endless “think positive” of New York, the Parisian doubt is both exasperating, but also very comforting (it’s indispensable to doubt).
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