Paris, Je T'aime (numerous directors, 2006)
First off, I feel a little bit mean (say what?) not rating this at least
. When I first watched it, I thought there wasn't that much of a quality differential to the stories, so it seemed like a fair rating, but having rewatched it, taking notes, and rating each episode individually, I'm going to stick with my lower rating. However contradictory this sounds, I still recommend the film for viewing for the better episodes, but I'm just warning you that there will be some which leave you cold, and they're probably not the same ones that I thought were of lesser quality.
Paris, Je T'aime is a "collective film", consisting of 18 self-contained episodes, all set in the City of Light and Love, and all filmed by different directors. Most all of the episodes are five to six minutes long; some try to tell a story, while others are just slices of life. One other thing they all have in common is that the directors each had two days to shoot their entire episode. I don't think that any of the films are downright horrible, but I find some far more interesting and entertaining than others. The episodes are separated by some scenes of the dailly and night life of Paris, but basically, they all flow one into the other with only a quick title and director listed to show you where each one begins.
The episodes which meant the most to me included the Coen Brothers' humorous tale of vacationer Steve Buscemi whose happiness is destroyed when he makes eye contact with a lovemaking couple, even though his travel guide highly recommends against it; Alexander Payne's wonderful finale about an American female postal worker (Margo Martindale) who narrates her own story in the best French she can muster (it contains the biggest laugh and the most-poignant moment for me); the first two episodes, which both show how a male with no positive experiences with the opposite sex can actually relate to a female by simply caring enough to help them when they need it; Tom Tykwer's wildly-stylistic tale of the love affair between an actress (Natalie Portman) and a blind man (Melchior Belsion); and, perhaps against my better judgment, I actually found the tale of the mimes meeting each other in jail and finding true love to be one of the more creative parts of the film.
There are many other actors/directors I haven't mentioned, and some do worthwhile work. Among those would be Nick Nolte, Gena Rowlands, Ben Gazzara, Juliette Binoche, Bob Hoskins, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Elijah Wood, Miranda Richardson, Willem Dafoe, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Gérard Depardieu, Alfonso Cuarón, Walter Salles, Gus Van Sant, Olivier Assayas, Wes Craven, etc. This film is far superior to a similar film made about 20 years ago called
Aria, which I might just put into my 10 Worst Art House Films list. This one is a pretty good omnibus film, considering the constraints under which it was made. That's the main reason I think it's worth checking out, especially if you love Paris.
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