AllMovie

In the time between World War I and World War II, women expatriates flocked to the Left Bank of Paris. Like Hemingway and Joyce, they were looking for artistic and sexual freedom, and formed a thriving literary community in bookshops and salons. Director Greta Schiller uses rare still photographs, film footage, interviews, and voice recordings to re-create the community of women in 1920s Paris. A centerpiece of the film, and of the community, is the story of longtime lovers Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. Many of the other featured artists and writers met in their salon. Adrienne Monnier and Sylvia Beach were pivotal contributors to the area with their neighborhood bookshops and lending libraries. Beach and photographer Gisele Freund are of the few surviving community members shown in interviews. New Yorker writer Janet Flanner and novelist Djuna Barnes are also featured. Blending archival elements with modern scholarly commentary, Schiller presents a well-rounded discussion of the remarkable time period.