Ah, Where do I start? Well, The Movie is a compilation of 20 stories set in the background of Paris. Presented by 22 Directors, Most segments are touching and heart warming. The crew has some big names like Coen Bros., Alexander Payne, Alfanso Curaon, etc. but the point is everyone succeeds in making their point in merely 10 min. per story. Now, that's a difficult task. To pull out emotional impact and develop the characters in 10 min. There lies the magic of the movie. All these segments work like different music instruments and make one beautiful tune together! Having said that, this movie is not just about Paris, no!! It's a celebration of life, living both joyous and sad moments, exploring yourself and feeling alive. That's what this is on larger aspect. Needless to say that it has many wonderful performances and mesmerizing cinematography.The last segment, directed by Alexander Payne, particularly left a deep imprint on me. It's about a middle aged woman who is alone on a trip to Paris. Living in Paris, she explores herself, she enjoys working for letter posting company. She's there enjoying her lunch everyday, alone. Enjoying the sight scenes of Paris, alone. There she finds a meaning to life. When sitting alone in a Park and looking at all people around her, she describes that she was filled with a particular feeling, a feeling mixed both of joy and sadness but less on the later part. Perhaps, that's what we are, the audience to this movie, looking at these characters.. we feel both joy and sadness!! We explore ourselves. Well, that was my thought.The movie ends with a beautiful monologue supported by a lovely song by Feist -We all go round and round / Partners are lost and found/ Looking for one more chance / All I know is .. We're all in the dance!!How appropriate! :)
... View MoreA concept which seemed quite interesting, Paris, je t'aime is something I'd encountered and forgotten again a number of times over. Encountered surprisingly in store for a price far lower than that of any I'd seen online, I simply couldn't say no.A project accredited to one Emmanuel Benbihy, Paris, je t'aime assembles eighteen short films from a plethora of international writers and directors, each based around a different arrondisement of the French capital. The concept of love, in all its various and varied incarnations, is explored in these segments. Familiar names and faces appear throughout, the reckonable sum total of talent here almost as interesting as the basic idea. The question: is the whole greater than the sum of its parts?Difficult to characterise, Paris, je t'aime is as interesting as its premise promises. With merely the instruction of a Parisian setting and the theme of love, the respective writers and directors here have been given a fantastic opportunity. As a result, the shorts vary hugely in pace, tone, structure, and dramatic effect. Variation is also seen, obviously and unfortunately, in quality. With approximately five minutes apiece in which to win over the audience, the project calls for the artists to use all their cinematic know-how, interestingly revealing the nature of everyone's talents in the process. The film's best shorts are those which are simple but affecting; uncomplicated yet engaging. Those directed by Salles/Thomas, Coixet, Schmitz, Tykwer, and Payne—none of whom I was overtly familiar with before—are the most effective in managing this, each being in its own way profound and saying something important regarding the central theme. Payne's—the finale to the film—is perfectly placed, a beautiful piece carried spectacularly by Margo Martindale. Podalydès, Van Sant, Suwa, Cuarón, Assayas,and LaGravenese offer a lesser brand of quality to the aforementioned, theirs each less meaningful, but certainly interesting nonetheless. Cuarón's single take is perhaps the film's most appealing technical aspect, incidentally. Those of Chadha, Craven, and Depardieu/Auburtin are less interesting still, and not individual or distinctive enough to warrant much merit of their own, though certainly not bad as such. The startling disparity of Natali's offering is staggeringly out of key with the rest of the film. Though an intriguing concept, and of a type only he appears to have considered, it ends up so distractingly different as to detract from the work as a whole, not least of all because it's poorly done—no surprise, as I later discovered, he being the director of Cube. What remains to comment on are the comedies. Though those that went before were certainly almost all comic in the course of their action, a dramatic approach to the theme was their primary tactic. Sadly, in the case of two of the three overtly comic shorts, it appears that this was a poor choice. They—those directed by Doyle and Chomet—try so hard to amuse that they end up annoying, irritating, vexing, and frustratingly terrible. The only of the three comedies to work is that of the brothers Coen, a well shot piece which illustrates a familiar scenario. Buscemi, in a wordless performance, is wonderful as ever, and the comic highlight of the film as a whole.With some spectacular highs, and a few ignominious lows, Paris, je t'aime is exactly the sort of fascinating project one expects it to be. Beginning well and ending sublimely, its arrangement is well constructed to space the shorts out in the best way possible. Though some segments drag it down massively, its concept is interesting enough, and its facets impressive enough, to ensure it goes down in memory as a success.
... View MoreParis, JE T'AIME?! In what language? French people said JE T'AIME with passion and fear, their tears are miserable because are tears of pleasure and pain and hope ... I think so.It is as if Americans come here in Romania and lead us ... oh, sorry, they are already here and they lead.But anyway, Americas sell "I love you"s, make "I love you"s, they produce it in cinema rooms to saturate the public starvation.JE T'AIME is a he, a she. JE T'AIME is us and we are not cannibals, but I love you is it! This is it, this movie ... like a big donation (in both directions).They compared Paris and "Armageddon". Like you can compare the life of a man with money he made, or the life of a child with any thing else on earth.Cheap sell, this is this ... a cheap sell, well, or a "big donation".Now, I do not know if America wants to afflict the French film, or Europe has enough of its own misery and assume that neighbor's bed is cleaner and more relaxing.Howsoever, this "intruders" were like a bunch of innocent ... did not know what hit them. ... my perception about this film and I'm really sorry for that. This is not a french movie, this is a sick french movie.I'm sorry for that comment too, but they make me. THEY, the ITs! PS: Excuse my English, I are Romanian and also a happy one
... View MoreI love Paris. I love seeing Paris. So I was interested in seeing this movie. I didn't read up on it before watching and at first I thought this was going to be one of those movies where several story lines come together and you are introduced to the main characters one by one(think of short cuts or love actually as an example). I started of interesting with the guy helping out the passed out woman and I liked the part with the obnoxious young French guys. Then with the awkward Chinese story I started to realize that there was no coherence to this movie. Just a sequence of short movies shot in Paris. I didn't relate to most of it. I was watching it with my girlfriend and we noticed that we were just 'sitting through it'. I didn't get the 'cowboy on a horse' part and I didn't understand the 'Nick Nolte talking to some young French girl in a street' either. I was completely annoyed with the pantomime part. So we turned it off. I guess I just didn't 'get it'.
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