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Documentary director Heddy Honigmann uncovers the startling stories of the musicians who play for a living on the Parisian underground. The familiar guitarists are joined by people with every conceivably portable instrument, including harps. But it's their backgrounds that are arresting as ordinary buskers can be revealed to be professional orchestra players playing for francs after being exiled from their own countries.
Their stories are simple yet very moving and while some people are more likeable than others, the film gets straight to what matters to them most: it's common to see interviewees dodge questions in ways that reveal more than straightforward answers would.
It's a little-observed cultural difference between the UK and certainly the US, seemingly now also Europe, that documentaries are seen to be cinema events everywhere but here. Tellingly, one Romanian couple ask the film crew what they are shooting and are told that it's for film and television. "The Underground Orchestra" belongs in a respected late-night 大象传媒2 strand such as "Storyville", and that's the kind of outlet where it's going to get its greatest audience.
But you should try to catch this in a cinema if only for its music. Subtly, the music is both in the foreground of the action and also shown to be less important than the people yet Honigmann uses these buskers' music to convey a flavour to Paris. It's a rich flavour, too, with a vastly greater range and certainly - with these examples - far more talented musicians than you see on the London or New York undergrounds.
