Window to Paris offers a modern reinvention of the St. Petersburg myth and plenty of laughs. One aspect of the film that stood out to me right from the opening sequence was the power of music and musical icons within the narrative and satire. First and foremost is Nikolai’s brandishing of a tuning lever like a gun on two occasions. In this way, the means of correcting the pitch of an instrument and restoring harmony to a scene is shown to carry might similar to the ability to take a life. Furthermore, a few major plot points owe to musical intervention. Nikolai’s scheme to break Nicole out of jail entails presenting her as a famous French singer-songwriter, while he assume’s Elvis’ name. Likewise, his plot to evacuate the children from Paris entails passing his entourage off as a French army band before hijacking an airplane. These examples show music as a force transcending conventional authorities — Nikolai asserts that Edith Piaf is worth more to St. Petersburg than its entire police force, a position that yields no opposition from the police. It is no surprise that the master musician can bend the will of the children to stay in Russia and thus avert brain drain despite proving meek in other regards. At the same time, we can see the improbable developments owing to musical elements as marking music as one of the mystical forces governing the St. Petersburg myth.
As for the film’s social critique, music represents an indicator of a society’s health on multiple occasions. For instance, the comedically off-key rendition of “The Internationale” amid a vodka shortage hints at the failure of communist ideals to create a harmonious Russian society. We see a similar theme of music exposing failure and fraud in Gorokhov’s attempt to scam Parisians with the music box concealing a speaker; the pitch drops as the speaker dies, exposing the sinister intent. In addition, the sequence of business instruction superseding musical education for a time in Nikolai’s school points to a loss of aesthetics as a cause of social degradation in spite of ethical reform. The out-of-tune piano too falls into this symbolic category. As I lack formal training in music, I would be curious what you guys make of the finer details of the score.