Several elements in Window to Paris were very interesting to me because, much like our previous two readings, they complicate previous soviet ideals. There is a line spoken early in the film made by the music teacher which criticizes the politics of education. He lambasts the school in which he work for seemingly lacking ideological integrity, since they before they trained communists and in his time trained capitalists for a similar effect. He seems to be drawing attention to the fact that the distinction is mostly meaningless at best and is, at worst, hypocritical.

The film at large seems to be more or less escapist in a sense. The main character is an eccentric art teacher who has no place in the present society which is focused on brutal practicality and progress rather than imagination or creativity. Compared to him, the rest of Russian society seems somewhat soulless and cold. Paris represents a welcome change in that it seems to, at least on an surface level, have a place with the teacher. Despite being drunk and stumbling into a studio where he didn’t belong, he still found a piano to fix. (This endearing little quirk was possibly my favorite thing about the character.)

I’ve gotten the sense that Russian culture lionizes its artists, so it seemed strange to me that art would be more be more readily accepted in Paris than in Russia itself. Of course, there is historical precedence for this, since many Russian artists remained in Paris rather than returning to the Soviet Union. Perhaps, its possible that the film is pointing out that, despite the move away from communism, art is still suffering in Russia.