Juliana lau
It is widely known that ‘Paris’ is the quintessential ‘City of Love’. So, you might expect that it would be easy to fall in love with said film watching a movie about love stories completely shot in and revolving around aforementioned city. Sadly, that’s not the case with Paris Je T’aime . Paris Je T’aime’s biggest mistake is, ironically also its biggest selling point: 18 different stories about love directed by 21 acclaimed directors. Given only a few minutes at most, each director weaves their own Parisian love story set in different parts of the city.
A man is torn between his young air stewardess mistress and his cancer-stricken wife. Sparks fly between old couple in the midst of an amiable divorce. A lonely American tourist falls in love with Paris. A seemingly mismatched couple holidays in the city, leading to an argument and subsequently, their reconciliation. Love blossoms for a pair of mime artists and in a later story, a blind man and a struggling actress.
Some of these stories will leave you smiling giddily even after it’s over such as Quais de Seine (directed by Gurinder Chadha), which tells the story of a young man falling in love with a Muslim girl. Watching him wait patiently outside the mosque just to catch a glimpse of her is a scene worth mentioning, especially for the girls.
Some others will have you laughing heartily thanks to witty scripts and convincing performances.
Directed by Frédéric Auburtin and Gérard Depardieu, the entire segment of Quartier Latin, starring Gena Rowlands and Ben Gazarra, would have you chuckling at the humourously snarky insults traded back and forth between the couple.
Others will tug at your heartstrings. One of the most powerful stories of the 18, Place des Victoires (directed by Nobuhiro Suwa) revolves around a grieving mother (Juliette Binoch in an emotionally stirring role) who is trying to get over the tragic death of her young son.
Yet on the other hand, some stories are simply bizarre. Porte de Choisy, directed by Christopher Doyle, has a hair product salesman visiting an eccentric, aggressive Chinese hairdresser, and the segment ends with the couple surrounded by people and parading around the district like royalty. Quartier de la Madeleine, directed by Vincenzo Natali who was most likely inspired by the use of monochrome in Sin City, stars Elijah Wood as a lost backpacker who inexplicably offers himself to a female vampire.
As mentioned before, Paris Je T’aime’s biggest mistake is its unique selling point. Honestly, who’d ever get bored with 18 different stories directed by 21 directors, all within the span of 2 hours? Yet, instead of piquing the interest of viewers, the combination of so many segments only leaves the audience confused.
Individually, each story is engaging enough with the respective directors dealing with different aspects of love in Paris. However putting them all together only creates a big, disorienting mess. After a segment is finished, it immediately zips to the next story without giving any time to recover, leaving the viewer breathless and puzzled.
And, while it’s a lovely change from the usual narrative films, the few minutes given for each story is simply too short. With an immense lack of character and story development, it’d be fully justifiable to feel a little cheated. Moreover some segments consist of rather ambiguous or abrupt endings, which would leave viewers frustrated and annoyed.
In spite of all these, though, it is still possible to see the underlying message of Paris Je T’aime and the 18 featured stories: that love is all around. And while you might not fall in love with this movie, you’ll certainly fall in love with the city that the movie is shot in. Good enough for a Valentine’s date.
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
Movie Details
Opens: 22 February 2007
Runtime:120 minutes
Cast: Natalie Portman, Juliette Binoch, Rufus Sewell, Gaspard Ulliel, Nick Nolte, Cyril Descours, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Elijah Wood, Gena Rowlands
Director: Olivier Assayas.