Paris, Je T'Aime [DVD]

Paris is a city of light, lovers, art and beauty. And "Paris, Je T'aime" explores all the sides of the city in in eighteen brief fiolms, all set in various arrondissements of Paris, and directed by some brilliantly underrated directors. And they seem to be about love -- often it's a person, but each one is also an ode to Paris itself.

A somewhat lonely Denver mailwoman (Margo Martindale) makes her first trip to Paris, and recounts how "I fell in love with Paris, and Paris fell in love with me." A mime spreads colour and mischief on his way to love. Two strangers fall in love in a bar. A medic learns that a dying man is in love with her, and seeking her out inadvertantly led to his death at the hands of a racist gang.

A young boy leaves his misogynistic pals behind, to seek love with a young Muslim girl. A pair of British people visit the tomb of Oscar Wilde in Pere-Lachaise, an American actress falls for her drug dealer, and a young nanny's dismal living conditions are a stark contrast to that of the people she works for. All these -- and more -- are intertwined gently in the finale.

But two stand out especially. Tom Tykwer's includes a young blind man (Melchior Beslon) receiving a call from his American actress girlfriend (Natalie Portman). She tells him, "Our spring was wonderful but summer is over now and we missed out on autumn... our love fell asleep, and the snow took it by surprise." In his sorrow, he thinks back to how they met, and how their relationship continued... and gets a surprise.

And Vincenzo Natali turns in a bloody, gothic love story. A young American tourist (Elijah Wood) is walking alone at night, when he steps in a pool of blood. He follows the blood to where a beautiful vampire (Olga Kurylenko) is slurping someone to death -- only to have a sudden attraction bloom up between them. When he has a fall, what will happen?

"Paris Je T'aime" has it all -- comedy, tragedy, romance, racial tension, religion, vampires, sunlit vacations, glamour and cliches. Okay, there's the occasional dud -- "Tuileries," about an American tourist by the Coen Bros., is just lame. But since all the directors are given only about five minutes, most of them are tiny, polished gems without any extraneous material.

Natali's is colourless (except for blood) and eerie, Gurinder Chadha's is shyly sweet and sunny, Richard LaGravenese's is adorable, Craven's is syrupy, and Tykwer's is a delicate web of camera tricks and blurred glimpses. Sylvain Chomet even charms us with mimes zooming through the streets. And each brings another dimension of Paris to life, from lush green parks to bars to the Eiffel Tower itself.

And the acting is just as great -- the great Juliette Binoche, Seydou Boro, Catalina Moreno, Marianne Faithfull, Fanny Ardant, Gérard Depardieu, and the adorable Melchior Beslon. Martindale deserves special praise for her sweetly realistic portrayal of an American tourist, and Portman is brilliantly vibrant as a girl who yells a lot. And Elijah Wood turns out a brilliant performance in total silence, managing to convey fear, mischief, eroticism and love.

"Paris Je T'aime" is a collection of little gems, with the occasional dull pebble thrown in -- brilliant directors, emotionally charged stories, and great acting. Enchanté!

I really can't recommend this collection of shorts highly enough! I think the previous reviewer did a great job of outlining the nature of the material, I would only echo the thoughts regarding quality of direction, the beauty of the cinematography, impressive acting and tight scripting. I'd also agree that there are maybe 2 duds in there, but out of 18, that's not bad going. Amongst the most poignant I found Oliver Schmidt's Place des Fetes moving to the point of tears, and Tour Eiffel by Sylain Chomet would bring an indecent smile to even the most po-faced individual. Therein lies the beauty of the film, like the city in which it is framed, it has the ability to elicit the full gamut of human emotions through its sheer beauty. A wonderful collection, I see that they are planning the release to coincide just before Valentine's Day, and whilst that might be a cynical commercialisation of the concept of love, these films certainly are not.

Ideal, I thought. Too late at night to start watching a whole film, I'll just see two or three of these instead. But, just like biscuits, where you can't have just one, I ended up eating the whole packet. More than two hours later (documentary and trailer included) I was still there, so be warned.

But being addictive isn't the same as being good. A few of these eighteen short films are frankly terrible, some are adequate, others clever and two or three properly rise to the occasion. As there are so many of them I can't be bothered for the purposes of this review to go back and find out exactly who did what but here are the stand-outs, and my surprising conclusions.

Firstly, I remember the directors Gus van Sant, Wes Craven and the Coen brothers for all the wrong reasons. Their films are appalling. My first-year classmates at film school would have done better than that, even the ones that never made it to the second year. The proselytising of Parminder Nagra is likewise simple to the point of mundanity. And then you have all these stars clearly enjoying their school trip to Paris: Bob Hoskins, Fanny Ardant, Nick Nolte, Steve Buscemi, Ben Gazzara - but what were they all thinking? Only the splendid Natalie Portman and Maggie Gyllenhaal are amongst the few that have done their homework and as a result properly shine.

So what's to like? Well, actually quite a bit. Christopher Doyle's film is startling in its originality, as is the tender and heart-stopping piece about a mother grieving for her young son. Likewise the sweet-to-sad love story featuring Portman properly grasps the five-minute format like few others and shows a care and thoughtfulness that brings a smile to your face. The final film, perhaps the best, builds with a poignancy that is a joy to behold in its economy; seldom have five minutes of celluloid been as gripping, life-affirming, funny and sad all at the same time. This one, together with the others just mentioned, do in fact make the whole endeavour well worth the price of admission.

Little need be said about Paris itself; we all know it's gorgeous. But the cinematography here is quite superb, glowing and pulsing with interesting colours so that even the turkeys (see above) come out looking far better than they deserve. Though it does make me wonder that given production values as good as these maybe me and my film-school mates could have rocketed to stardom after only our first term.