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 Paris, je t'aime [Paris, I Love You] 

What grade would you give this film?
A 30%  30%  [ 3 ]
B 50%  50%  [ 5 ]
C 10%  10%  [ 1 ]
D 10%  10%  [ 1 ]
F 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
Total votes : 10

 Paris, je t'aime [Paris, I Love You] 
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Post Paris, je t'aime [Paris, I Love You]
Paris, je t'aime

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Paris, Je t'aime (French pronunciation: [pari ʒə tɛm]; Paris, I love you) is a 2006 film starring an ensemble cast of actors of various nationalities. The two-hour film consists of eighteen short films set in different arrondissements. The 22 directors include Gurinder Chadha, Sylvain Chomet, Joel and Ethan Coen, Gérard Depardieu, Wes Craven, Alfonso Cuarón, Nobuhiro Suwa, Alexander Payne, Tom Tykwer, Walter Salles and Gus Van Sant.

The film premiered at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival on 18 May, opening the Un Certain Regard selection. It had its Canadian premiere at the Toronto Film Festival on 10 September and its U.S. premiere in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on 9 April 2007. First Look Pictures acquired the North American rights, and the film opened in the United States on 4 May 2007.


Fri Apr 27, 2007 8:10 am
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Paris, je t'aime

I love everything to do with the beautiful city of lights and would go back there in a heartbeat. So when I heard that a bunch of directors (some famous - like Cauron, Craven, Coen bros, Van Sant, Payne) and a few dozen actors were filming 18 independant stories of love under the banner "Paris I Love You" - well I just couldnt wait to see it.

I saw this film about 8 hours ago and have to say I was a little disappointed at first but looking back the film is now resonating with me. The thing is that some parts of Paris, je t'aime work better than the film as a whole. The film's structure is that of 18 5-minute shorts about "Love". Some are cute, some sweet, some sad and some downright bizarre. Overall it doesnt quite mesh together as a complete film but there were enough great segments to make it memorable. I love the whole anthology idea. If you dont like a particular story, you know it will be over soon. But here lies the problem. For the segments that are great - you are left wanting more. You yearn for further character and story development but are left hanging. Still it is better to be left wanting more than wishing it be over.

Its also fun to try and work out which director directed each segment. I picked the Coens but not Cauron and surprisingly not Wes Craven.

I'll break down my grade over each segment and do so with minimal spoilers:

MONTMARTRE. Lacklustre opening sequence. A man sitting in his car wondering why he can't meet women somehow finds a woman collapsed near his car. She awakes in his car... 6/10

QUAIS DE SEINE - one of my favourites. Simple and sweet story about a French teen boy who meets a Muslim girl by the Sienne river. 8/10

LES MARAIS - the only gay love story. Kind of incomplete and disappointing coming from Gus Van Sant. I could swear one of the boys was Ryan Phillipe!! 5/10

TUILERIES - This was strange but pretty funny. Steve Buscemi doesn't even say a word but entertaining work from the Coens. 7/10

LOIN DU 16IEME - Beautiful work (and singing) from Catalina Moreno about a poor woman looking after her employers baby rather than her own. It just feels incomplete. 6/10

PORTE DE CHOISY - I'll admit this went way over my head. About a shampoo salesman in the Chinatown area of Paris. Thank God for cute Asian women because otherwise this was plain weird. 4/10

BASTILLE. Heartbreakingly beautiful. Man about to break up with his wife changes his mind when she tells him some bad news. 9/10

PLACE DES VICTOIRES - this is another sad one. Its also quite odd. Juliete Binoche as a grieving mother and Willem Dafoe as a Cowboy. Enough said. 7/10

TOUR EIFFEL - About a Mime who falls in love. Cute but nothing more. 5/10


PARC MONCEAU - Cauron directs this interesting segment about a woman and an older man chatting as they walk. Wont say much more but its effective. 8/10

QUARTIER DES ENFANTS ROUGES. This is probably my second favourite story. Maggie Gyllenhaal is an American Actress who falls in love with her drug dealer. 9/10


PLACE DES FETES . My favourite segment by far. Homeless guy falls in love with a women he sees drive into the carpark he works as a cleaner at. They meet again in rather tragic circumstance. Beautifully done and heart breaking, 9.5/10

PIGALLE - Bob Hoskins in this rather flat segment where he is trying to bring back the fire in his marriage. 4/10

QUARTIER DE LA MADELEINE - Very strange. This is the Vampire piece everyone is talking about. But it kind of works because its so different to the rest. Stars Elijah Wood. 7/10

PERE-LACHAISE - Wes Craven's offering (yes he didn't do the Vampire segment - but look out for him as an actor in that one. Solid work from Sewell and Mortimer I thought - though it doesn't quite deliver on the promise. 6/10

FAUBOURG SAINT-DENIS - Natalie Portman falls in love with a blind guy. This worked for me - though would have liked to see a longer version. 7/10

QUARTIER Latin - I thought this was quite funny. Surprising to see Rowlands wrote it and Depardeu directed it. 8/10

14TH ARRONDISSEMENT - The final segment is a love letter to Paris delivered by a lonely middle-aged American woman who speaks terrible French. Poignant. 8.5/10


Paris itself is a star here. Lets face it - the segments are about love, but the film as a whole is a love letter to the great city. Sure you could set a similar film in any of the world's great cities - New York, London, Tokyo but none would leave the same impressions as Paris does. Where Before Sunset made me want to go visit Paris, this film makes me want to go back.

I know some of you will absolutely love this quirky piece of film making, while others will go "WTF?".

I'm somewhere in the middle.

Grade : A- (for the great moments outweighing the low points)

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Last edited by MadGez on Mon Apr 30, 2007 8:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.



Fri Apr 27, 2007 10:32 am
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Im thinking of bumping it up to an A- but still not sure. It may need a second viewing.

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Sun Apr 29, 2007 10:57 pm
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There're few weak moments.. but overall, a great flick **** out of ***** (A-)

Sooooo worth to check out!


Mon Apr 30, 2007 5:02 pm
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PARIS, JE T'AIME - 8/10 (B+)

Here are my mini-reviews of each segment:

Montmarte - A decent opener that is light on plot, but still cute and entertaining to watch. The two actors give solid performances.

Quais de Scene - Great! One of my personal favorite segments. Gurinder Chadha does a great job with the direction and the story itself is sweet and simple It also sends a message about how irrelevant culture is when it comes to matters of the heart. I would have liked to have seen a feature film based on this concept.

Le Marais - Meh. Not one of my personal favorites. The only "gay" love story of the bunch, it is basically a bunch of Gaspard Ulliel reciting meandering dialogue to another character. The conclusion was also mediocre as well.

Tuileries - Hilarious and incredibly witty. Steve Buscemi gives a great silent performance and the Coen Brothers display their unique directing skills once again.

Loin du 16ème - Incredibly touching and sad. It features Catalina Sandino Moreno (in a great performance) singing to her own child while dropping him off at a daycare center, before going to a rich woman's house and singing the same song to her child - the one she has to spend the entire day with. Very well-done.

Porte de Choisy - Awful and pointless. Easily the worst of the bunch. It made absolutely no sense and the bulk of it was very random.

Bastille - Very sweet and emotional. I loved the interactions between the characters here and it featured a good message about true devotion and falling back in love. Another personal favorite of mine.

Place des Victoires - It was decent, but not my favorite. It was a bit strange and didn't have the emotional impact it should have had given the subject matter. Juliette Binoche was good, though Willem Dafoe basically had nothing to do.

Tour Eiffel - A love story between two mimes that was a bit off-putting, but still somewhat unique and cute. It was very colorful and the direction was good.

Parc Monceau - Alfonso Cuaron films this entire segment in a single shot, once again displaying how great of a director he is. The cast isn't really given much to do though, and the whole thing feels kind of pointless.

Quartier des Enfants Rouges - Maggie Gyllenhaal is quite good in this story about an actress who falls in love with her drug dealer. But there was no satisfying conclusion, which was disappointing. It would have been interesting to see this in a longer format.

Place des Fêtes - This one was incredibly sad and heartbreaking. Both of the actors did brilliant jobs and the story itself was very well told and tragic.

Pigalle - Another segment that I hated. It felt so dumb and pointless, and wasn't effective or interesting in the slightest.

Quartier de la Madeleine - The "horror-film" segment of the film that features Elijah Wood as a tourist who falls in love with a vampire. The cinematography was absolutely gorgeous and it was both eerie and fascinating to watch. It was easily the most random of the segments present, but it made sense when viewed in context with the rest of the film.

Père-Lachaise - Wes Craven's segment is surprisingly a rather sweet love story about a young engaged couple discussing literature. This was one of my personal favorites. It was very entertaining, cute and fun to watch. Emily Mortimer and Rufus Sewell were both great.

Faubourg Saint-Denis - Visually stunning and interesting to watch. Natalie Portman was great as an actress who falls in love with a mild-mannered blind man.

Quartier Latin - The dialogue in this segment was pitch perfect and the story itself (of an elderly couple discussing their impending divorce) was quite poignant. Gena Rowlands and Ben Gazzara were great.

14ème Arrondissement - Alexander Payne's segment is a real gem, featuring of the simplest plotlines but proving to be one of the most effective. It details an American woman's trip to Paris (as she narrates in poor French). It is quite funny, but also realistic and touching.

The final montage was absolutely wonderful as well, offering a few more scenes of footage with some of the characters along with beautiful shots of Paris.

Basically, all were quite good with the exception of Pigalle, Porte de Choisy and Le Marais.


Sun May 06, 2007 6:32 pm
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A few pieces don't make much sense (Porte De Choisy is my least favorite), Gus Van Sant's one is basically an one-joke plot, but most of the shorts are enjoyable. My favorites are Bastille, Quartier Latin, Père-Lachaise, Quais de Scene, and Tuileries. B.

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Tue May 29, 2007 1:25 pm
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Yeah, I enjoyed this movie. It wasn't what I thought it would be, but it was ok. My favorites one were Tuileries, Bastille, Pere-Lachaise, Fanbourg Saint Denis, and 14eme Arrondissement. The worst were Porte de Choisy and Tour effeil.

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Tue May 29, 2007 2:24 pm
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I caught the last half dozen short films in this anthology and was spellbound by each of these tiny gems. I gotta go back and see the whole enchilada now...


Tue May 29, 2007 10:40 pm
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I'd been looking forward to this since at least December of 2004, having it near the top of my most anticipated for both 2005 and 2006. At first I was afraid it would end up sucking, since it went through so many changes and seemed to be taking forever to make. By about last Thanksgiving, I was just afraid I'd never see it. So when I noticed people had actually started seeing it in the US, here and elsewhere, I started getting excited. There;s usually a theater near enough to me within a month or so of smaller films coming out, so I figured it wouldnt be long. It finally opened this weekend, and I saw it, with a surprisingly and thankfully pretty full crowd.

It's almost not fair, for everyone else's sake, how well this lived up to my expectations. Because when I call it the best movie of the year, after reading the previous paragraph, people might think "Bias!" or "Hyperbole!" or "He's stubborn and just wont admit that it sucked!", when the truth is, I really think it's that good. On the other hand, it's absolutely the fairest thing in the world that after so long it turned out so great...any less and the disappointment might've crushed me. I think it might have exceeded my expectations, actually; if I had to wait another year or two, it still wouldve been worth it.

Anyway, just wanted to get that out there. I'll edit or add fuller and short-by-short thoughts like the rest after I write them.


Mon Jun 18, 2007 12:15 am
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Great, great stuff. I'm a sucker for short films but some of these were just flat out superb, with Payne in particular stealing the show. Even when his movie takes place in Paris he still has Middle America by the balls, I love it.


Mon Jun 18, 2007 5:18 am
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Alexander Payne's short (the last one) is the best. 2nd best is Parc Monceau (with Nick Nolte) and the twist is clever.

It was nice to see Gena Rowlands, Ben Gazzara, Bob Hoskins, and Fanny Ardant in their respective segments.

The worst ones for me are the Maggie Gyllenhaal one (Enfants Rouges, but I guess she falls in love with her drug dealer so it does make sense... it just wasn't that satisying for me) and the one with the creepy Asians and the hair product (Porte de Choisy). Seriously, WTF was going on there? lol

Overall, wonderful and charming film.

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Mon Jun 18, 2007 3:00 pm
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ValleyGuyChristian wrote:
Alexander Payne's short (the last one) is the best. 2nd best is Parc Monceau (with Nick Nolte) and the twist is clever.

It was nice to see Gena Rowlands, Ben Gazzara, Bob Hoskins, and Fanny Ardant in their respective segments.

The worst ones for me are the Maggie Gyllenhaal one (Enfants Rouges, but I guess she falls in love with her drug dealer so it does make sense... it just wasn't that satisying for me) and the one with the creepy Asians and the hair product (Porte de Choisy). Seriously, WTF was going on there? lol

Overall, wonderful and charming film.


I think I'm the only person who loved Porte de Choisy, but I think that requires more of a knowledge of Asian cinema and knowing who Christopher Doyle is to truly appreciate it.


Mon Jun 18, 2007 4:11 pm
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^Yeah I was just lost throughout. Amused, but lost.

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Mon Jun 18, 2007 4:29 pm
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I hated the drug dealer one. Maggie is even more of a loser now.

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Wed Jun 20, 2007 6:34 pm
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are you kidding? that's the best work she;s ever done. I find her much more appealing and am much more likely to watch something she does because of it. :up:


Wed Jun 20, 2007 7:31 pm
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She's not a worse actress for smoking a joint in a movie, but that was still a pretty bad short.


Wed Jun 20, 2007 7:47 pm
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That Maggie one was one of my favourite segments actually.

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Wed Jun 20, 2007 9:19 pm
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It's too bad this one came and went without a lot of buzz. I saw it kind of randomly tonight, and I'm glad I did. I thought it was great.

A couple of the segments are real clunkers, yes, but the package, taken as a whole, is a beautiful ode to a beautiful city.

My favorites:

1. 14th Arrondissement (Alexander Payne's, the finale segment)
2. Bastille (man wants to divorce until...)
2. Faubourg Saint-Denis (Natalie Portman one)
3. Place des Fetes (homeless man stabbed)

Not so much:

The Asian one
The opener
Wes Craven one with Mortimer and Sewell
Coen Bros. one with Buscemi

But even the weaker segments contribute to the overall spirit of the film.

Loved it.

A-


Thu Jun 28, 2007 4:15 am
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A-

agree with dkmuto on basically all of it.

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Sat Jun 30, 2007 1:18 pm
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Post Re: Paris, je t'aime [Paris, I Love You]
dk's review is good, i think.

this was really, really charming. payne's bit was probably my favorite and sort of captures the spirit of the film in an odd way. oddly, it sort of reflects how i felt about being in paris this summer (alone, with horrible french.... no, seriously...).

really liked this quite a bit.

***.5/****


Sat Sep 08, 2007 6:49 am
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Post Re: Paris, je t'aime [Paris, I Love You]
Here ya go, person who was looking for it.


Mon Dec 03, 2007 12:37 am
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Post Re: Paris, je t'aime [Paris, I Love You]
Thanks. :)

I really enjoyed it. The majority of the shorts were really good. Only two or three weren't very good. Definitely recommended!

8/10 (A-)

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Tue Dec 04, 2007 12:50 pm
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Post Re: Paris, je t'aime [Paris, I Love You]
I was amazed at how many of the shorts really worked. I'll admit I'm not as well-educated in the art of short film as I probably should be, but this film showed why it's an art form that should be embraced more often. My faves:

Chadha (Sweet mini-young love story)
The Coens (Played like a silent short from the '20s that Chaplin or Keaton would've done, which I loved)
Coixet (Different, yet touching)
Chomet (Bouncy, funny, touching and lovely to look at)
Schmitz (Simple, but heartbreaking)
Natili (Like a mini-German Expressionist love story, wonderfully twisted)
Payne (Naturally)

Wonderful.

***.5


Fri Jan 25, 2008 10:37 pm
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Post Re: Paris, je t'aime [Paris, I Love You]
My ranking:

01. Quartier de la Madeleine (Vincenzo Natali) - the vampire one. Beautiful, haunting, and stylish.
02. Tuileries (Joel and Ethan Coen) - the Steve Buscemi one. Great comedy and a terrific performance.
03. Place des fêtes (Oliver Schmitz) - the stabbing one. The most emotional of the bit, nearly brought me to tears.
04. Bastille (Isabel Coixet) - the leukemia one. It's visually innovative and emotionally strong.
05. Faubourg Saint-Denis (Tom Tykwer) - the Natalie Portman one. Visually impressive and it has heart.
06. Tour Eiffel (Sylvain Chomet) - the mime one. Loads of fun with some comic brilliance.
07. Père-Lachaise (Wes Craven) - the Oscar Wilde one. Seems a bit short but it's pulled off strongly.
08. 14e arrondissement (Alexander Payne) - the last one. Emotionally strong and a great way to finish things off.
09. Le Marais (Gus Van Sant) - the gay one. I actually liked it quite a bit, it had a great ending.
10. Quais de Seine (Gurinder Chadha) - the Muslim one. It's cute and charming, and that's about it.
11. Quartier Latin (Gérard Depardieu and Frédéric Auburtin) - the divorced couple one. Great dialogue.
12. Pigalle (Richard LaGravenese) - the acting one. An interesting idea and some good performances.
13. Parc Monceau (Alfonso Cuarón) - the single-shot one. Technically stunning but seems pretty light.
14. Quartier des Enfants Rouges (Olivier Assayas) - the drug dealer one. Appealing characters but doesn't end well.
15. Place des Victoires (Nobuhiro Suwa) - the cowboy one. Strange in a bad way but it has heart.
16. Porte de Choisy (Christopher Doyle) - the bizarre one. Its weirdness is all it has going for it.
17. Montmartre (Bruno Podalydès) - the first one. It's pretty bland and the lead is fairly unlikeable.
18. Loin du 16e (Walter Salles and Daniela Thomas) - the singing one. Seemed pretty pointless.

Overall, it's hard to judge as a film, but it's certainly enjoyable, with more good stories than bad. There's some great performances and the whole thing looks nice. And it's all tied together well. I'd certainly see a sequel.

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Mon Jan 28, 2008 1:35 am
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Post Re: Paris, je t'aime [Paris, I Love You]
6/10 -> C

Utterly disappointing. I heard great stuff about this omnibus, but it doesn't come close to the hype it has. By far the most offbeat and probably the most wonderful story is the last one. It's a beautiful ode to Paris sung by a passer-by that doesn't fit in.

I also like the Coen brothers short, Tykwer was really good too, I really digged the weirdness that were the mimes (unlike the hair product salesman - that was just too bizzare and scary). Other fall into watchable or unwatchable category.


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