Sunday 29 September 2013

Paris Je T'Aime (2006 various)

Twenty short films about Paris, each set in a different arrondissement, with the thread of love running through them all. Best episodes:

Darkly funny unpleasantness, 'Tuilleries', Coen Brothers, with Steve Buscemi and shot by Darius Khondji.

'Parc Monceau', Alfonso Cuaron, Michael Seresin shooting Nick Nolte in one long low light take.

'Quai des Seines', Gurinder Chada (boy helps Muslim girl).

The charming 'Tour d'Eiffel' by Silvain Chomet, featuring a mime (Paul Putner)!


Christopher Doyle's totally bonkers but stylish Asian / hair sequence 'Porte de Choisy' (shot not by him but Rain Li):


Tom Tykwer's amazing sequence 'Faubourg Saint-Denis', which moves so fast you abandon the subtitles (edited by Mathilde Bonnefoy), in tale of blind guy Melchior Beslen meeting actress Natalie Portman, presented in a sort of Marienbadish circularity.

Alexander Payne's warm story of terribly accented American tourist Margo Martindale (familiar from TV's The Americans) who falls in love with the city in '14e arrondissement':


But the highlight for me is the short bittersweet tragic tale 'Place des Fetes' by Oliver Schmitz, with Aissa Maiga and Seydou Boro, which is unexpectedly powerful:

Seydou Boro

Aissa Maiga
Also appearing: Maggie Gyllenhaal, Elija Wood, Juliette Binoche, Bob Hoskins, Rufus Sewell, Emily Mortimer, Miranda Richardson, Marianne Faithfull, Willem Dafoe and - most welcome - Ben Gazzara and Gena Rowlands.




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