I don't really have a spoiler except that I point out that other reviews do even if they don't warn the reader. Maybe it isn't a spoiler after all.This movie is rated on IMDb about as well as many movies by Woody Allen that I personally found to be excellent. So it is not a mortal sin if I say that this movie is (almost) excellent in the sense that I truly enjoyed watching it despite (or maybe because of) some of the silly moments and somewhat weird subplots in it.I would give about 7 out of 10 to this move but I chose "10" in my formal rating in the hope that it will improve the current average rating of 6.2 that I found a little unfair.Here is an issue that I am very curious about. It appears (but I am not certain) that many of the Jewish characters in this movie weren't Jewish in real life. In American films, Jewish roles are usually (although not exclusively) played by Jews. I wonder if there is a sufficiently large pool of Jewish actors in France. France being such a secular republic, it is hard to know who is Jewish and who is not unless their names are "suspicious". If one looks up Wikipedia, the religion and ethnicity of American actors are quite frequently mentioned.
... View MoreI used to be French and I used to love Woody Allen - "used" because of a combination of geographical mutation and a vanishing memory... I remember seeing this movie in Sydney a few years ago, so taped it when it was on TV a few days ago. This time I watched it on my own, perhaps because I felt it might not be everyone's cup of tea, but I had a wonderful time revisiting... I did not worry about expectations and really it's one's best way to approach it, not to pull it on a slab and dissect it. (the same goes for so many other movies; it supposes to be fun, and it is. I liked the originality to involve W Allen the way it is done and make a romantic and funny story out of it. I was interested to read one of the comment mentioning that years ago Woody Allen, in "Play it Again Sam", Does a similar thing when he converse with a certain "Humphrey Bogart". I would be surprised if it was just a coincidence. Although I can't say it has any other bearing on this film.
... View MoreParis-Manhattan (2012), written and directed by Sophie Lellouche, stars Alice Taglioni as Alice, a 30-something pharmacist in Paris who worships Woody Allen. Alice can't find the man of her dreams. (Well, she found him, but he married her sister.) So, instead of looking for another man, she spends her time watching Woody Allen films and talking to Woody's poster, which hangs on the wall in her room. (The poster answers back, using quotes from Allen's films.)Of course, she finally meets that man of her dreams, but she doesn't realize he's the man of her dreams. He's not sure she's the woman of his dreams either.There are secondary plots about the boyfriend of Alice's young niece, and about whether Alice's brother-in-law is having an affair. Neither subplot adds much to the film, but they keep the movie moving forward.In a way, I'm surprised that I enjoyed this film as much as I did. However, when you have a movie that is set in Paris, a protagonist who is strikingly attractive, who quotes Woody Allen the way other people quote the Talmud, how can you not enjoy it?We saw this film at Rochester's Dryden Theatre as part of the excellent Rochester Jewish Film Festival. It will work well on DVD. It's worth seeing, as long as you don't expect "Hannah and her Sisters," or even "Play it Again, Sam."
... View MoreI had no expectations about this film, all I knew was it was French about a woman who had a penchant for Woody Allen. When you have no expectations and you see a really good film, you come out thinking: "That was an excellent film." It was so light, delicate, feminine I guess is one of the right words.People who find this film boring should definitely stick to Bond films, cops and robbers, anything described as an "Action Flick". Don't ever look at any of the films of any of the directors who feature in books about great films. Skip Almodovar, Bunuel, Godard, Fellini, Bertolucci, Bergman, Eisenstein, probably best not to bother with Woody Allen either, they'll just bore your socks off. Come back to them after you grow up!
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