Paris

This delightful film explores the life of Pierre, who suddenly finds his life might soon be over as he waits for a heart donation which might not work. Meanwhile, his sister cares for him whilst wistfully searching for love, harbouring some bitterness from previous experiences. Initially, this leaves her somewhat cold, and slightly indifferent to Pierre's bad news, which adds to his sense of lonliness and helplessness.

As a downbeat Pierre views Paris from his balcony, in beautifully shot, atmoshperic scenes, he realises that people take life for granted, and feels sadness and a sense of injustice as he watches other characters "carefree" in the city.

These other characters blend in and out of love, using people, hurting each other, and generally displaying typical human behaviour. We are constantly reminded that they are lucky to be able to enjoy life, albeit with their various problems, whilst Pierre has seemingly little hope for the future.

At the same time, and with a fair degree of irony, poor immigrants from Cameroon try just to get into Paris at all.

Yes, at times the Paris-dwellers and their spontaneous love match-ups seem a little ridiculous, but this is deliberate; in satarising them, it draws our attention more strongly to the irony that we overlook the simple things available to us.

The magic of this film is that it takes well-worn, simple ideas, but presents them in a way which we can easily relate to. We empathise with characters whose problems, mainly in relationships, seem depressingly real, yet we are soon reminded to put things in perspective by the bad luck suffered by Pierre.

There is also a superb score accompanying the film, in particular the downtempo tracks which perfectly capture the mystery and bustle of the city at the same time (I enjoyed the music enough to find out who the artist is and make a purchase).

The messages are simple and deliberately presented in a refreshingly innocent, almost naive manner, creating a charming film.

What is it about French films that makes the best of them so deeply reflective in a way that few American and British films achieve? Maybe it's that France itself is such a beautiful and evocative country, maybe it's that the French have a lifestyle that, for us non-French, appears so stylish and romantic... whatever... but when they get it right they really are in a different class, and "Paris" most definitely gets it right.

Beautifully filmed, brilliantly acted, and underpinned by a superb soundtrack, the film explores "real" peoples' lives slowly and above all subtly. Not a great deal happens, and there are no conclusions to the stories involved - a guy gets diagnosed with a life threatening heart condition, another chap falls in love with one of his students, a lonely single mother and a market stall trader are hesitantly drawn together, and an African dreams of getting to Paris to start a new life. That's about it really. But it's the way that this is all put together & explored that makes the film, and which achieves its objective of trying to capture what Paris is to people who live there or dream of living there - which of course means that its infused with their, often vague, hopes & fears and it has no clear & tidy "Hollywood style" endings... life's not like that.

At times funny, at times charming, and ultimately quite moving, Klapisch directs the film without reverting to heavy-handed sentimentality or high drama to make his points.... in fact, exactly the opposite: witness the fleeting, beautifully poignant shot at the end of the film as the African compares the view on the postcard of Paris that has driven him to make his journey there, and which underpins his hopes for the future, with the reality of it... nothing more needs to be said or filmed to capture what he must be feeling.

Perhaps the greatest credit to "Paris" is that, even though it's two hours long, subtitled (which is never the easiest way to watch a film), and devoid of any clever plot twists or unexpected surprises to hold your attention, by the end of it all... you really don't want it to end. It's that good.

I bought this mainly for the purpose of keeping up my French and improving my daughter's knowledge of the language. Unlike your typical box office hits, there are no sensational special effects or high drama in this film (which, incidentally, do nothing for me anyway). It is, however, essentially a film about people and feelings. In that sense, it is typically French and would not cut the mustard outside that country. The beginning can be a little puzzling, trying to work out how each character is going to fit into this jigsaw, but as the film progresses everything falls into place. Although the ultimate ending is never revealed (will the lead character's heart transplant be successful?), the film does have a relatively happy conclusion. After watching the film it's hard not to spend a moment or two looking at one's own life and imagining what would be truly important if faced with life on a transplant list - family and friends. Overall, a truly thought provoking and enjoyable film.