Paris, je t'aime

For those not fluent in French, Paris je t'aime translates as Paris, I Love You. Love in Paris is a seemingly inexhaustible theme and here it is the thread tying eighteen short films together (with an emphasis on short: each film runs only about five minutes). One may suspect that, given all this fecundity the film would be uneven, but there are only a couple of shorts that feel unnecessary: the majority are remarkably engaging.

The contributors are a mixed bag of unknowns, screenwriters turned directors, and established names such as the Coen brothers, Gus Van Sant, Alfonso Cuaron, Wes Craven, & Alexander Payne. There are some familiar faces: Steve Buscemi, Natalie Portman, Gena Rowlands, Elijah Wood, & Nick Nolte all appear, but this isn't a film concerned with names or persona's. Sometimes it turns them on their head. For example, Wes Craven does not direct the short featuring a vampire (that's Vincenzo Natali) but rather a short about two lovers at the grave of Oscar Wilde.

Paris je t'aime represents an impressive cross-section of Paris: tourists, grandfathers, immigrants, mothers, actresses, nannies, and blind students are all treated with dignity and drawn with surprising complexity. The tone and mood of each short seems to vary: some are wistful, some are comic, and others deeply poignant.