Paris, Je T’aime
By Jason Revill
As a rule, I don’t care for anthology type films simply because the hit and miss ratio is generally way off. Luckily, with Paris, Je T’aime the number of successful vignettes vastly outnumbers the flops. Conceived as sort of a love letter to Paris, with twenty-one directors coming together to put together short films representing eighteen of twenty Paris’ arrondissements (two of the films fell through), this film turns out to be more of a fantastic set of shorts from some of the world’s best filmmakers..
Ethan and Joel Coen direct a silent but hysterically funny Steve Buscemi in “Tuileries”. Buscemi is a tourist who inadvertently breaks the rules on the Parisian subway of no eye contact and ends up the center of a lover’s spat between locals.
Two of the more touching pieces are “Loin du 16e” and “Quartier Latin”. Directed by Walter Salles “Loin du 16e” is beautiful in its simplicity. Catalina Sandino Moreno is a Spanish immigrant who sings her baby a lullaby before leaving it to travel a great distance in order to take care of someone else’s baby as a nanny. Here she sings the same lullaby, but with a longing for the child she had to leave at home. “Quartier Latin” (directed by Gérard Depardieu) is a last drink before a separated couple (Ben Gazzara and Gena Rowlands) finally decides to finalize the divorce. The two express a genuinely mutual love for one another and a longing for things to have worked out differently, but also an acceptance of the reality of the situation. Rowlands, who also wrote the segment, is absolutely fantastic and reminds us why she still has devoted fans.
Most people will have some pieces that they like more than others, but finding a favorite will be fairly difficult. That being said, Paris Je T’aime could not end on a better note than Alexander Payne’s “14e arrondissement”. It’s a sweetly melancholy piece that is in the vein of one of my favorite Payne films About Schmodt. Here an American tourist narrates her solitary tour of Paris and in a quiet moment has an epiphany about her life.
Each tale is self contained, but flows into the story following it. For the most part each short compliments the other, but there are ones here and there that try and get too clever for their own good so that they stick out and therefore make themselves look bad. Christopher Doyle’s “Porte de Choisy” is probably the most glaring example as a salesman of hair products enters a Chinatown salon to hock his wears and ends up in some sort of mock Hong Kong actioner. Another example is “Quartier de Madeleine” by Vincenzo Natali. Here Elijah Wood is an American backpacker who witnesses a female vampire attacking someone and falls in love. Other than the heavy handed style, there is nothing here for anyone to really enjoy, unless possibly if you’re a big Morrisey fan.
Okay, maybe most of the films have little to nothing to do with the city itself and really could take place anywhere, but the fact that they are set in Paris lends to them both the air of romance and mystery that no other city can. What you end up with are really a collection of mostly great five minute shorts made by some of the world’s greatest directors. With the success rate and sheer talent behind this, film lovers of Paris and movies should check out Paris, Je T’aime.
The Grade
- Story: A
- Acting: A
- Visuals: A
- Originality: A
- Enjoyability: A
- Overall: A
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