Paris (I) (2008) User Reviews

Simply beautiful...

[Siamois · 8/10 · 7 September 2008]

The movie is mostly made of vignettes following several characters, loosely interconnected in the city of Paris. Sounds familiar. To be honest, I've grown tired of the many dramas borrowing that formula. It's become an epidemic, especially since Magnolia. And so, I did not expect to enjoy Paris all that much. But I loved it and it moved me by its stripped down, sincere approach.

Director and writer Cédric Klapisch, unlike several of his contemporaries, did not feel the need to employ convoluted means to link these characters, or end the movie on some sort of unifying, highly artificial bang. Klapish wisely elects to concentrate on building strong characters. He succeeds, so much so that it becomes easy for him to create simple, believable story lines for them. The real link between them? They are fallible, restless, tentative, longing... in other words, they are human.

There's a large cast here and Klepish mostly concentrates on a few of them. Many of the smaller parts are actually as intriguing as the bigger roles and I caught myself wondering what would happen to those characters. But Klapisch stays the course and ends the movie much like it began. A lot is left unresolved, much like life. No Hollywood ending here but I could certainly have followed those characters for another hour if need be.

A beautiful, stripped down story but enough subtext and genuine quality to make for a great and lasting movie experience.

Paris seen from the inside

[vic_voile · 8/10 · 24 February 2008]

Being a Parisian myself, and a great fan of all other Klapisch movies, I expected a lot about this one. Well, I was pretty satisfied: although it is no masterpiece, the global atmosphere, and especially the gorgeous views of the city are very well put together. The actors are very convincing too, especially Juliette Binoche, radiant, Luchini, a surprisingly good dancer, and Albert Dupontel. It is just a pity that there are so many simultaneous stories, some of them don't really bring much to the plot and could have been cut, to leave more time to the others.

Anyway, I recommend this movie for all people who want to get a feel for what Paris is all about!

I might have given it a 10...

[bob998 · 6/10 · 31 December 2008]

...if Klapisch hadn't wasted his time on all the plot threads that run through this over-long film. From Karin Viard as the bakery owner with her new helper Sabrina Ouazani, to the overly macho fruit and veg guys (Albert Dupontel, Zinedine Soualem and Gilles Lellouche) with their supermodel day-trippers, there is just too much material for the modest little picture that this really is. Klapisch, I guess, wants to be the Balzac of today's French cinema, and he has much talent--I enjoyed Chacun Cherche son chat and L'Auberge espagnole--but he must be more selective in telling his stories.

I took away from this exercise the performances of Fabrice Luchini, the history prof who decides to go into TV work when the fabulous salary is dangled before his eyes (100,000 euros a year!) and François Cluzet as his harried brother, an architect working on a nightmarish housing development (the computerized promotion film of which is one of the highlights of 2008). Honorable mention to Julie Ferrier as the ex-wife of one of the fruit vendors.

Maybe the Finest movie about Paris since Paris vu Par

[verododat · 9 May 2008]

No one, but no one, makes movies that better capture a sense of place than Cedric Klapisch. Since the miraculous little When the Cat's Away (Chacun Cherche son Chat, 1996) he's consistently been able to evoke a real sense of lived lives and inhabited city spaces. Wonderful then, to discover that after all the travels of The Spanish Apartment (2002) and Russian Dolls (2005) he's returned to Paris to make one of the best films ever made of those little universes within the City of Light. That said if you know nothing about France or its history and culture you just won't get it!

The hook on which this multidimensional movie hangs is Pierre (Klapisch favorite, Romain Duris), a professional dancer who's justlearned that his heart is failing. A transplant may save him, maybe not. All this has echoes of the great Agnes Varda film, Cleo de 5 a 7 (1962), where Cleo, a young singer played by Corinne Marchand, also gets a frightening diagnosis and she too, walks the streets of the city facing her own death. Maybe Paris (the film) achieves even more as a kind of aubade or farewell to the dance of life that ceaselessly crosses Paris (the city) in time and in space.

The centre of the film is Pierre's sister Élise (Juliette Binoche in her most relaxed and charming performance in years). Elise moves in with Pierre (along with her children!) to help out and her own little adventures as she shops at the local market opens out the film as we discover the complex and many layered live of the market workers, especially glum Jean (Albert Dupontel) and his soon to be ex wife Caroline (Julie Ferrier).

Another story thread follows terminally bored history professor, Roland Verneuil (Fabrice Luchini) embarking on a new career as a TV pundit: these scenes are beautifully satirical yet also curiously touching.

Among the many delights of the movie is a great dream scene where Roland's brother, architect Philippe Verneuil (François Cluzet) is plunged into the 3D Universe used to sell off one of his middle class housing Projects and floats like a tormented Mario Brother from some gleaming modernist disaster to rapturous potential buyers and back again. This delicious scene goes on just long bought to make more than a few silly dreams of home improvement (let alone all those fantastical TV Reality shows) seem, as they are, utterly absurd , yet also quite nightmarish in their silly faith in problem solving by buying stuff. For this alone the movie's worth the price of admission!

Interwoven, too, is the story of the anxious young Benoit in Cameroon, adrift and about to try to join his Paris based émigré family in that most dangerous of ways, the open boat from Africa to Europe. All French life, it seems, is touched upon, not least the political morass facing governments as they grapple with the problem of the poor and dispossessed out in the projects. The music track is equally complex, with that old favorite (since Truffaut used it in Shoot the Piano Player almost fifty years ago!) Erik Satie's Gymnopedie Number 1 again weaving its extraordinary spell! You just have to be there!

Klapisch has done something marvelous here, a film full of ideas and humanity, yet one that somehow enables us to engage with and care for so many complex characters without ever having to resort to stereotypes. It's a great achievement – and a glorious movie about that city to which we must all return in our dreams: Paris.

Hurray Klapish

[mmunier · 7/10 · 12 April 2008]

To day I went to see "Paris" and hoped to win a trip to Paris from Sydney out of it! I had seen L'auberge espagnole and had no idea of the link! To top this, by accident I caught a french movie on TV to night perhaps already running for 10 minutes and it was Russian Dolls! Again I did not realise it was related, even called a Sequel to l'auberge espagnole! I enjoyed the 3 movies each on their own way. "Paris", my birth city, I did enjoy immensely, yet I could have imagine its story in any other city. Although it was nice to catch up with sites I have not seen for 25 years and left nearly 40 years ago, but to me it was very much this cocktail of people and their personal situation that moved me so much. Just like everyday life with its humor, sadness and pain all this with a comfortable music that actually did ease a little the pain. Again I thank those who write so well here and gave a concise and very interesting account of this wonderful film. I think one of these writings should appear with the main page of the film rather than tentative account like mine. Bu if by chance you are reading mine I'd like to let you know that if you go to see this movie, just go with the flow and you should not be disappointed.

Some how disappointed

[hachehache-1 · 6/10 · 11 September 2009]

I was really looking forward to see this film for different reasons: The trailer made it look really heart filling, Juliet Binoche and basically because I love French cinema. So I finally got to do so, but man was I disappointed.

It wasn't utterly bad, but basically, for me, it just didn't grab me at any point. Everything and everyone (Each character) seemed so dry, so inexpressive, things would happen and they'd all be like "OH... o.k" and at moments they even seemed to contradict them self's. I don't know, I've seen lots of movies where each characters story is intertwined and some are good, some suck.

I've seen it in American, Italian, French, German and even Spanish cinema, so that kind of story telling is not unique in it self anymore and because of that, it's harder to do it, and I think that in this case, seeing how non of the stories needed the other to exist, none of them really coexisted as one and there fore there was no reason to tell them all in the same piece, well it simply wasn't the best of movies, again it doesn't utterly suck, it just isn't as good as it could have been.

Complex study of a city and it's inhabitants.

[kerkevik · 9/10 · 11 August 2008]

A wonderfully complex study of both the city, and it's people on a wonderfully complex group of characters. Every one was as interesting as any other, regardless of the stature of the actor playing them, and you were invested in them all because of it. Juliette Binoche and Albert Dupontel were the most familiar names to me, but their characters were not allowed to dominate the story.

All along the way you were taken on journeys that were unsignposted and shocking, in some cases, because of it.

A quite extraordinary tale that deserves a far wider audience than it is likely to get. Overall the film was a shining example, in my opinion, of what makes French cinema the best in the world.

Paris

[rajdoctor · 7/10 · 17 July 2008]

I had heard about this movie, and just because it was in French with Dutch sub-titles, I did not go and see it. While traveling in Air-France, this was on the list with English sub-titles and how can I then miss it? The movie is about a dancer Pierre (Romain Duris), who is suffering from a heart ailment, and would require an operation. He does not know whether he will live or die. He stands on his apartment balcony and watches people who pass by. The story takes a peep into the lives of those characters – an over-middle age professor Roland Verneuil (Fabrice Luchini) flirtation with his young female student Laetitia (Melanie Laurent) who stays opposite Pierre's flat, Pierre ex-wife Caroline (Julie Ferrier) and her interactions with various men in her life, There are a few other stories too. In the end, while Pierre is driving to the hospital and on the way watching this characters still struggling with their own stories in life.

The movie though clichéd at times – in its narrative, has absorbing moments, and that makes the interwoven of events interesting to watch.

Romain Duris is good, so are all the other actors. The main actor in this movie is its script. Film Teacher and Director Cederic Klapisch does a fine job in presenting various facets of Paris and its life in a narrative that leads to a comprehensive whole story.

This movie is an enjoyable treat to watch. I recommend it.

(Stars 6.75 out of 10)

Very good

[minxin · 9/10 · 13 June 2008]

I saw this film on an airplane to Paris. At first I didn't pay too much attention as I was also reading a book as the same time, and simply use the film as a background to practice my French listening (the film is in French with English subtitle). But as the film developed, I became more and more intrigued, and finally dropped my book reading completely to watch the film.

The plot is very well conceived, and a nice thread is used to connect the lives of several groups of people living in Paris to show aspects of their lives. I admit there are many characters not fully developed, but they still feel very alive and real. An intelligent viewer would be able to follow the diverse characters and get a sense of real life stories depicted here. (Indeed this is not a feel good story, but instead feels very real.)

After finishing the film, I went back to the earlier parts I missed and finally connect the ends to a whole pictures. I recommend to watch twice if you didn't follow the diverse characters and threads at the first time.

La Ronde Squared

[writers_reign · 6/10 · 26 July 2008]

If you're shooting a valentine to Paris count me in, even if your name is Cedric Kaplish onlie begetter of the vastly overrated L'Aubere Espanol and, yes, even if your nominal lead is the even more overrated and under talented Romain Duris, for whom you seem to have a permanent hard-on. Alas, the best-laid schemes ... Probably the strength of this is that Kaplish goes easy on the chocolate-box aspect and gives us more of the ordinary Paris, the one that I, a regular visitor from England, know from walking it's streets en route to one cinema du quartier or another. The film starts promisingly when Duris is told he has a strong chance of dying - something that acting-wise he does in every movie he makes - and then meanders into a labryinth of mini plots and myriad characters until in a blatant steal from Kieslowski's Three Colors:Red, several of them are spotted by Duris from the taxi taking him to hospital. People like Francois Cluzet and Karin Viard are under-used and it is left to Juliette Binoche, Fabrice Luchini and the like to add some class. Kaplish needs a strong script written by someone else to really shine which is why his finest achievement remains Un Air de famille, written by Agnes Jaoui and Jean-Pierre Bacri and it didn't do any harm that the two writers also starred in it. Whilst I'm not prepared to dismiss Paris out of hand I was greatly disappointed.

Is this what French cinema has become?

[howie73 · 4/10 · 4 July 2010]

This Gallic, Altman-lite, picture-postcard film might as well have been produced by the Paris Tourist Office. What we get is too many stories about the multiplicity of life in Paris. The film could easily have lasted another 30 minutes to sustain the stories it created and discarded, but after all, this is 'tranche de vie".

All the clichés are here - the ugly professor who falls for the beautiful girl, whose beauty is only skin deep. Yawn. How many French films have dealt with this cliché? Romain Duris' tragic story seems to be a direct lift from Francois Ozon's superior 'Les Temps Qui Reste'but lacks that film's depth of character. Duris, ultimately, is a poorly conceived protagonist, who, ludicrously seems to be straight, even though all the signs suggest otherwise. Yet again, a mainstream French film has shied away from portraying gay characters.

The other inter weaved stories are varied but dull, most concentrating on the disaffected bonhomie of the French bourgeoisie. The stories about the market traders seem inconsequential and piddling almost as if the director bowed to tokenism.

All in all, major disappointment and a further concession to Hollywood values.

'Parisians grumble...'

[gradyharp · 9/10 · 4 October 2009]

Paris is a kaleidoscopic view of that great City of Light inhabited with a variety of individuals each of whom is consumed with life and love and living and dying. Cédric Klapisch has written and directed this richly populated canvas as a background of a tender story of a Moulin Rouge male dancer Pierre (Romain Duris) who is diagnosed with a terminal heart disease requiring transplantation if he is to survive. But in the end the many characters introduced in 'incidental stories' have become so interesting that, instead of providing simply a background for Pierre's portrait, they become an integral part of the drama as well as indelibly stamped on the viewer's mind.

Pierre has kept his illness secret, yet when faced with the dire concept of a transplant he confides in his sister Élise (Juliette Binoche), a single mother of three, who takes him in to fill his boring days of self confinement. There is a palpable magic between the two as Élise attempts to bring Pierre out into the world of hope and of living. Incidental to her life are trips to the market where she observes the lives of the grocers and discovers their private lifestyles, information shared freely with the viewer. A Parisian North African communicates with his brother at home with a postcard of Paris, seducing the brother to brave all odds to come to the city. We also meet a jaded art historian Roland Verneuil (Fabrice Luchini) whose father has just died, an event that devastates his emotional brother Philippe (François Cluzet): Roland proceeds to have an affair with a student but his physical awakening is abruptly altered by the realities of Parisian life while Philippe progresses through his seemingly mundane existence toward a surprise ending. The grocers seek adventures with a group of girls among whom is the ex-wife of one of the men and in the process we observe the varying reactions of interpersonal relationships tested away from the eyes of group participation. All of these stories are white noise to Pierre's situation, and though Élise is able to make Pierre 'dance again' at a party of his fellow dancers she organizes, in the end Pierre is left to care for Élise's children while Élise finally opens her frozen heart to a new romance. At this point Pierre receives the inevitable telephone call that a transplant is ready, and as he proceeds to the hospital he opens his mind to the beauties of Paris. Some of the vignettes we have observed are completed while most simply continue - just like life in the glorious city so often considered the city of love.

All of the many roles are enacted by gifted actors, the cinematography offers us a different view of Paris than that of postcards and travel brochures, and the musical score ranges from popular music to the haunting 'Gnossiemme No. 1' of Erik Satie which is Pierre's theme music. At times the viewer feels lost in the complex overlay of the many stories being told, but settling back in a chair and just absorbing the film results in an evening of Parisian intoxication.

Grady Harp

web of stories

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 2 September 2016]

It's a web of stories connected to Paris. Pierre is a dancer with a heart problem. He needs a heart transplant. He spends his days watching people from his apartment. His sister Elise (Juliette Binoche) is a social worker and single mother to three kids. They move into his apartment to take care of him. One of her clients is Mourad whose brother Benoit is traveling across Africa to try to enter France illegally. Roland Verneuil is a academic who becomes attracted to his student Laetitia (Mélanie Laurent). His architect brother Philippe Verneuil has pregnant wife Mélanie and nightmares about his project. Khadija with North African roots finds work in a bakery despite her racist boss. These and others form the story web. It's a lot of characters connected in various ways. Some of them are compelling. Some are less compelling. Some are even forgettable. It's a bit overloaded which makes the stories feel scattered. I would prefer fewer characters and more story in each one. This does have a sense of Paris as a place of love and connections and internationalism.

Paris not a very good film.

[losriley-1 · 3/10 · 19 March 2012]

This film has an overload of good actors and a very interesting script,however it fails so much more than it succeeds. It left me wanting to never visit Paris again.(I am sure Paris is breathing a sigh of relief).In reality I love Paris the city. Mainly because the film was so indulgent and vain. As for the lead actor I really ended up wanting him to die due to his narcissistic attitude to his illness. I read a review that said that the film left many things unresolved much like life.Which is exactly the type of bullshit that this film propagates. It was just a few people shagging around.When they did have sex we did not get to see anything that remotely appeared to hold true to life. I did like the animation section of the film which I thought was genuinely inventive.The way the interwoven stories overlapped in an arbitrary fashion was banal.I am a big fan of French cinema and recognised so many of the actors from much better films.The music was also very irritating.For me the only thing that was left unresolved at he end of the film was why I subjected myself to a film that patted itself on the back at every opportunity. This is not cinema,this is not life,this is a very poor film dressed up as a masterpiece.Avoid honestly avoid.Unless condescension is your bag.

The stories are good, just not enough to really care

[A1l9i8m6 · 4 January 2019]

A French version on Love Actually that is shot much better but doesn't tie the characters together as well. But there's a lot of themes done right here, good acting and a few very entertaining scenes along with a very fast emotional connection to the lead. But also a few useless characters and almost a completely useless storyline (thankfully it has a lot if interest and charm) make this French "love connection" movie just shy of greatness.

slowly grew on me- good but not great

[LyceeM16 · 7/10 · 10 October 2011]

I love French cinema and Paris - but did not have high hopes for this film. I rented it because I was missing Paris and could tell that the film would have great shots of Paris- and it did. I have never cared for Binoche. I found the beginning of the film to be hackneyed and trite. The character of the professor was off-putting and a bit creepy. Nevertheless- by the end of the film, I was won over and I think the film is good but not great. One of my favorite activities (shared by many visitors to Paris) in Paris is watching the life swirl around me on the streets and in the surrounding houses. This film captures this experience. We are brought into the interlocking worlds of a number of characters whose lives intersect in ways they do and do not perceive. Although there are some truly clunky aspects (the affair between student and prof was not credible, the young man's illness seemed to be conveyed in an unconvincing manner, the last-minute intersection of the professor and the dying man, the motorcycle accident, the fashionistas in the warehouse) of this conceit in the film, the melange is ultimately messy, unresolved, and poignant. One is left with a true appreciation for the people whose lives touch our own.

Some of the best scenes: the small-minded owner of a boulangerie the party scene (what great dancing) the father-to-be the cruelty of the young student the tenderness between the fruit seller and Elise Elise and her children

The last scene- where the (possibly) dying man looks upon his nieces and nephew, says good bye to this sister, and takes a cab to the hospital- was just like the film itself- hackneyed, trite,and clunky in places ---but ultimately true-to-life, messy, unresolved, poignant and somewhat magical.

Paris in a somewhat un-Parisian way

[stensson · 7/10 · 23 June 2009]

Many parallel stories here; many of them taking place under the eyes of this young dancer with a heart disease, who watches them from his balcony.

He's jealous of these lives and communicates with them mostly through his sister, who after all perhaps is the only real character he knows. She's living, while others perform a kind of theater, from the racist lady in the baker's shop to the professor who tries to have a ridiculous affair with one of his students.

The script functions well sometimes and less well other times. A movie to watch or just let go.

extraordinary

[gyurmi3 · 10/10 · 27 April 2008]

This is a great, lovable film. I am still under the influence of it. Me and my girlfriend simply had to sit in a good restaurant in town afterwards to discuss it over a bottle of Chardonnay. This is so much about life! The director wisely lets the viewers to decide about some points that have been intentionally left in a subtle haze. And he does not want to teach us, does not want to moralize and tell us a great story. This is a fresh, very French movie which is just a great start for the new spring season. It is 130 minutes long, still a lot of people (including us) were reluctant to stand up at the end and leave the room seeing the "Fin" sign. Thanks Monsieur Klapisch for the great evening, and of course everybody who contributed his film, first of all the actors - all of them were very credible and smashing. Sorry if I sound overenthusiastic, but - for me - this was a great experience, indeed. I can only recommend it to everybody. Go, and see it, and make yourself a great evening!

Paris

[CinemaSerf · 7/10 · 13 April 2024]

It's "Pierre" (Romain Duris) who provides the conduit for this potpourri of scenarios. He's a dancer who is diagnosed with an heart condition. He is going to have to stop working and rely on his sister "Élise" (Juliette Binoche) whilst he awaits a transplant. His life now largely revolves around sitting watching old videos of himself, or standing on his balcony watching the world go by. She, on the other hand, is juggling plates. Divorced, three children and working as a social worker. With delicate union negotiations pending, her request to go part time to keep an eye on "Pierre" doesn't go down so well, but she moves in with him and herself begins to re-evaluate her own life. Meantime, there's a slightly pompous professor "Verneuil" (Fabrice Luchini) who gets tempted by an 100,000 Euro payday to do a Parisian history television series but not as tempted as by one of his students with whom he is soon having an affair. His brother and his wife, a vegetable market trader and an immigrant Cameroonian feature to some extent as the internecine nature of the story unravels and we find ourselves playing a delicate game of six degrees of separation - nicely concluded by the scenes at the end. It's not so much a story, as an observation of lives loosely connected by family and locale, and with some gritty comedic elements to lighten the mood, takes quite a poignant look at the flaws and joys of family; a bit of lust and loads of human insecurities. I could have done with a little more from Duris, but Binoche carries her role well here, as does Luchini and it's quite quirkily soundtracked to make for a decent enough drama.

Another great Klapisch's movie

[elpopieto · 8/10 · 15 March 2008]

I saw this flick yesterday, and I have to say that I loved it. I am a big fan of Klapisch earlier work( Le peril jeune, Peut etre, chacun cherche son chat,...), but I am yet to see Russian dolls and the Spanish apartment.

I have found this movie in line with the other movies. Not frankly funny, but not only depressing. I thought that all characters are driven by one main emotion, which categorises them into the different stereotypes of Parisians: The intellectual, the artist, the grocer, etc. I have found hard to identify to only one, but rather you can connect with all of them at the same time. I have found out that all of the characters are, in fact, Paris, and I loved the movie for it. Klapisch is a great director and has always been able to capture a lot of complex emotions on camera. I have to say that he did it again in this opus.

His big talent is that he is able to make us reflect on our own lives through trying to understand his characters, and I guess that is why some people did not particularly like this movie as they were forced to have an inside look, but personally, I find it a great exercise.

The photography, avoiding clichés, is great and shows a different side of Paris. It is showing the Paris where people live, and not particularly where people holiday in.

All in all, a great performance by the whole cast and crew. Thanks again mister Klapisch!!!

Paris never looked lovelier

[dbborroughs · 6/10 · 4 October 2009]

Pierre, a dancer with a potentially fatal heart disease watches Paris from the balcony of his Apartment.

Love letter to Paris is a fantastic looking film (add it to my list of films to have playing on large screen TV's instead of paintings) that didn't connect to me emotionally. Its too scattered a film with lots of people and characters and moments as life in the city goes on. It looks good but by a half an hour or so I was wondering why I was watching when the people didn't interest me as much as the eye candy. Its not bad, and I'm sure had I ever gone to Paris I would have loved it, but as it is too much candy and not enough substance.

A parody of a French movie

[valteleki · 3/10 · 26 April 2008]

If a French movie was sarcastically depicted in, say, The Simpsons, it would be this one. Starting with the title: "Paris". Kind of annoying if you happen to have seen "Inside Paris", "Paris Je T'Aime" and "Two Days in Paris" in the last 4 months. Well, I didn't expect much from this one and it still managed to disappoint me. A good director takes many stories and makes them converge into a convincing, well thought out plot. Here there are many stories, but they dissolve into Nothing, with a capital N. And way too many characters too, most of them thoroughly superficial and of no consequence at all. The movie is a succession of empty clichés about life ('seize the day') and about France (with the mandatory 'buy a baguette at the boulangerie' scene repeated ad nauseam) which slowly build up into an annoying and pretentious self-parody of a thoughtful movie. Juliette Binoche contributes her usual 'cow watching the train pass by' attitude and overall none of the characters inspire the least empathy. Actually, 5 minutes into the movie you couldn't care less what will or won't happen to them from there on. After an hour, nothing relevant has happened and you begin to wonder why you didn't say yes to that dinner party with your friends. Relief comes with the end titles, after 2h10 which feel like a teaser of Eternity. I'm not into car-chase and explosion movies, I do get my fix of Jim Jarmusch or Werner Herzog now and then. But this movie is definitely a must. A must-avoid. Trust me, you can do much better things with those 2 hours. I give it 3 points just because it's got decent music and interesting cameos of Paris. But all in all, forget it.

Round and round we go

[Chris Knipp · 8/10 · 20 February 2008]

Auberge Espagnole director Cedric Klapisch has made another lively ronde of people's stories centered on the French capital and Africans who want to migrate there. Featuring Klapisch regular Romain Duris and a brace of other popular French film actors, including Juliette Binoche, François Cluzet, Fabrice Luchini, Albert Dupontel, Karin Viard, lovely almost-newcomer Mélanie Laurent, Zinedine Soualem and others, Paris will show at the Lincoln Center French series ten days after its opening, today (February 20, 2008) in the city of the title.

If this movie is "about" anything, it's about loving life, appreciating what you've got. If you're just wandering the streets of Paris with nothing to do, Pierre (Duris) thinks, you're pretty darn lucky. Pierre, a dancer, should know. Life tastes pretty sweet to him because he's on his way to a heart transplant and his chances of surviving beyond his mid-thirties where he is now are iffy. His sister Élise (Juliette Binoche), a single mom and social worker, brings her little kids to stay with Pierre, who spends a lot of time looking out his window. Across the way he sees Laetitia (Mélanie Laurent), who soon starts an affair with Rémy (Joffrey Platel), but is also being wooed by a Sorbonne prof and longtime bachelor Roland Verneuil (Fabrice Lucchini), who's brother Philippe (François Cluzet) supervises big new construction projects on the outskirts of the city, is comfortable with his life, happily married, and soon to become a father. Roland is a historian and his subject is Paris. He consents to a do a TV series "popularizing" all that but he loses heart, and his little affair with Laetitia fizzles, and he goes to see a shrink (Maurice Bénichou). Élise shops in a market where she meets Jean (Albert Dupontel)--and there lies another tale: his ex-wife Caroline (Julie Ferrier) still works side-by-side with him, but is now involved with Franky (Gilles Lellouche). And there's more. . . probably a good deal too much more. It's true that playfully investigating a variety of characters, lives, and social situations has always been Klapisch's forte and his passion. But perhaps with Paris his resources and his enthusiasm were too great. There's a bakery where the proprietress (Karin Viard) hires a "Moroccan" girl, Khadija (Sabrina Ouazani, another lovely not-so-newcomer). At one point when we're in an ordinary restaurant with a bunch of people, including Jean, Caroline, and Franky, I started to wonder: what the heck are we doing here? How am I supposed to care about all these different people at once? It's the filmmaker's way to work with vignettes, the contemporary filmmaker most especially. The trick is making them count, and integrating them together into a successful film. Perhaps because of the presence of Binoche, I began to think of Kieslowski's masterful Red, which is about connections, and chance, and has a haunting immediacy and poignancy Klapisch may be striving for here. Klapisch is a gifted filmmaker and an understandably popular one. He knows how to make us care about people (most of the time anyway); he's great with actors; his camera is fluid; he can make things move. He knows the magic of editing, locations, coincidences. The balance between the wishful enthusiasm of Romain Duris' character and the wit and self-aware foolishness of Fabrice Lucchini makes a lovely contrast that seems at the heart of the film. It was Lucchini in another film 24 years ago who repeatedly declared that Paris is "the center of the world." That may be true. But Klapisch's Paris doesn't quite have a center. His film has too many people who carry too close to equal weight. They force their identity and their situations on us so rapidly it's as if they were holding up a sign. This is the pitfall of the "choral" film: of achieving a brief illusion of complexity at the risk of lacking depth.

Happily, it all ends with a taxi ride, with the driver cursing the day's demonstrations, which are going to tie up many sections of town. Somehow, he and his rider, Pierre, are going to get to their destination anyway. And if this isn't a masterpiece, Klapisch and his top flight crew and terrific actors still arrive at their goal of delivering much to ponder and enjoy.

And the Africans? They don't make it.

Shown as part of the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Lincoln Center, New York, February 29-March 9, 2008.

So So Boring

[avimeller · 2/10 · 4 July 2008]

Sorry, but Paris was never so boring. Beware, this film will have you snore for 130 minutes. Nothing in the plot is interesting - just your average day by day life portrayed in a very dull and uninspired manner. It looks as if Klapisch believed that the beautiful sights of Paris will be enough to capture the attention of the viewers, and he may be right - judging by the comments of the viewers so far. But he cannot fool everybody all the time: The film is empty. The dialogues are hollow. Nothing develops into something of substance. Actually it is so dull that even peppering the movie with life and death ideas - does not save it from total failure. I am astonished Binoche agreed to take part. Don't you.

Brilliantly Inspiring

[deroglu · 10/10 · 3 May 2012]

Had difficulty in deciding to watch this at first: The main character is terminally ill, etc. so a sad and may be depressing I thought. But no,the movie that comes out of this plot is brilliantly inspiring of life ! And this done without letting you suffer through sad, painful scenes or trying to make feel good by taking an overly optimistic approach, showing the good side of things, etc. NO ! It is simply presenting some everyday life characters living in a beautiful city. The life naturally flows through them. Whether they like it or not...

My first Klapish film. Brillianlty done. Will definitely watch his other works.