Episode Five: the power of female sex

Okay, Gilles may be #3 on favorite single-episode boyfriends list, simply because he is French. “I suddenly recalled my terrible weakness for gorgeous French architects.”

I like this episode because of its international flavor, with Amalita and all her beaux. Amalita and Carrie are much better friends in the book, and I kind of wish she had been a reccuring character on the show. Side note: Amalita is also on an episode of Veronica Mars, but she’s playing a Middle Eastern woman, not euro-trash like on SATC. I guess that’s why they say actresses can have an “ethnic” look; it’s kind of a catch-all phrase.

All throughout the season, the show has exhibited some distinctive (amateurish?) editing techniques. This episode is a smorgasborg: Carrie walks out of Dolce and Gabana swinging her shopping bag in slow-motion; there’s a shoe wipe between the time Amalita calls Carrie on the phone and when she gets to Balzac; and when Carrie leaves Gilles to go home, she literally floats on air (they must have filmed her on a lift).

Carrie and Gilles’ day together seeing the sights of New York is enviable. “I felt like I had landed in a Claude Larouche film: a man, and a slightly neurotic woman.” They go to the Alice in Wonderland statue (this is also where SJP’s character goes with her father in “If Lucy Fell”), and one of the three Edith Piaf songs I know (Soul de Seil) is playing in the background.

Also, I don’t blame her for not running off with the Italian in the end, because he’s way less attractive than Gilles. That was probably an easier choice than the voiceover implies.