I went to see the excellent movie "The Squidd and the Whale" last night here in San Francisco. The movie, though not a comedy, has the distinct feel of a late 1970's or early 1980's Woody Allen movie, most especially "Annie Hall". The setting of the movie is mid-1980's Park Slope, Brooklyn, NY and involves the divorce of two highly educated writers, one on the way up, the other on the way down on the fame scale. The couple has two boys, one teenage the other trans-pubescent. Featured prominately from the opening scene is a wondefully preserved dark blue over palamino 1975 Peugeot 504 Diesel sedan. As you'll see, numerous pivotal conversations for this family in crisis take place on the move in the Peugeot with the audience in the back seat as it were..
That the car is a principle plot device for the film, and the 504's selection for this key role shows the director's unerring knowledge of exactly what a mid-1970s 504 could do for him as reference object and relic of the East Coast US, circa 1985. Its simple presence telegraphs to the audience a raft of information about exactly who and what kind of family owned the car. I'm guessing that fully 1/3 of the movie is shot from the back seat of the 504, leaving the audience with nothing to look at but that very familiar (for us) chromed plastic dashboard so unique to the 504. Its singular presence so prominately displayed give former owners the feeling that you might reach out and flip the hazard switch sitting just to the right of the steering wheel. But this isn't "Willy Wonka..." so you can't. But sitting through the movie as the car is driven repeatedly down the leafy summer streets of Park Slope, I was overcome with fond memories sitting behind the wheel of my 504
from so many years ago. For real I felt the lazy, loping gait of my car underway, especially the particular way this model dealt with the unwanted intrusion of a bump; the car's "harshness police" nearly always successfully detained the intruding bump shocks somewhere deep inside the car far from the passengers. The suspension bits and the body conspired to muffle, handcuff and mask the intruder so that by the time it belately arrived inside the cabin, the occupants were only faintly aware of a rumour that the car had possibly travelled over a pothole of indeterminate size. The driver in fact could in no way susbstantiate this scurrious rumour, so it was best just to forget about the whole matter and press on.
Seeing the old, familiar steering wheel and hearing the boys pile into the car and send their seatbelt clasps into their base housings with that distinct metal/plastic "clink" made me long for my old red diesel 504 wagon with its soft bean bag seats, its ignition switch sited on the leftof the steering wheel, the center dashboard air vents that you pulled up and toward you in that arching manner all Peugeot air vents vestigally mimic to this day. The leonine power of the car. O.K., I've gone too far. In fact, my little brother and I had plenty of time in the car to pretend as we struggled up the numerous steep hills in and around The Main Line that I was Fred Flinstone and he Barney Rubble with our legs extended down through the floor furiously peddling to the top of the hill. And that a distant goal very much in question.
Any of you who grew up on the East Coast corridor in the 1970's and 1980's like I did (Brym Mawr, Pennsylvania) perhaps noticed, as I did, that Peugeot's and the 504 in particular had one of the most unique owner profiles of any car, Volvos and SAABs included, despite some overlap. I could decern three distinct groups:
- French speaking recent immigrants to the US from former or existing French DOM/TOMs (Department Outre Mer/Territoire Outre Mer) such as Haiti, Senegal, Cote d'Ivoire, Algerie, etc..). Their passion for Peugeot was impressive and undiminished. At least one a week I will be flagged down to ask questions about my car.
- White Anglo Saxon Protestants (Old Guard Philadelphia Quaker, Boston Brahmin or New York Knickerbocker) and Jewish professionals who could neither stomach driving an American Baroque Boudoir Palace on 4 wheels like a Cutlass Supreme Brougham nor abide the purchase of a car by a company whose conduct and trail of support for National Solcialism or Japanese miltarism leading up to and during WW2 was decidely dubious.
- Northeast ivy league/liberal arts college professors or academics, such as the couple in this movie. Peugeots owned by this group typically had at least 10 or more Boston Back Bay Parking Permits marching up the side of the back window appearing to all the world like the a fighter pilot's scalping trophies which in fact they probably were if one takes into account Boston Drivers.
Finally, Laura Linney, the wife in the movie, mentions a short story she has submitted to "The New Yorker" and refers to its title which if my hearing wasn't off as "The Peugeot Story". As this movie was only a screenpaly not a book, i guess we'll never know to what she was referring!
Anyway, I go on. Go see the movie.
How much free photo storage do you get? Store your holiday snaps for FREE with Yahoo! Photos. Get Yahoo! Photos
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Recommended format for your email subject lines:
Model # [Model Letters] Year Subject
Examples:
505 88 V6 Mileage
405 Mi16 89 Ignition Coil source?
To unsubscribe from this list send a blank email message to PEUGEOT-L-UNSUBSCRIBE@EGROUPS.COM
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/peugeot-L/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
peugeot-L-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Received on Fri Nov 25 23:27:40 2005
