Quite a fascinating story and sad. Although I'm sure some of the paranoia Fischer experienced was justified given the times, he was delusional and mentally ill.
The movie brought back memories of this time period...the Cold War, the Vietnam War, Henry Kissinger, the IRA was blowing things up in London and the Algerians were blowing things up in France. At that time I don't think anyone would have believed that the Cold War and the threat of a nuclear holocaust would ever be over.
Ah...but there was Paris ...which made one forget all those mundane issues. Our arrival in Paris was probably one of the most memorable experiences we've ever had (well, the birth of our son was far and away the most memorable). Even though there were police with machine guns in the Latin Quarter...a remnant of the 1968 student riots, we stepped out of the metro into what seemed like a fantasyland.
Maybe I'll get finally motivated to finally put together a book about our experiences in France. I do have a working title: Provence and Paintbrushes
and I do have quite a lot of written material already from letters, blog posts, etc.
My beloved Notre Dame de Paris....one of the first things we saw as we came up from the metro. One of the first places I need to see when we are in Paris.
