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Film Review: Paris Je T'aime
Release Date: 29 June 2020
On General Release
Our Rating: 4/5
Time honoured depictions of ‘Gaye Paris’ are what they are: time honoured. In a Paris now offset by the very un-viva notions of mass-scale riotings, burning cars, a widely unemployed youth and an uncomfortable relationship with the immigrant communities that make up a significant part of Parisian life – a film about the Eiffel Tower, histrionic face-slapping Godard jaunts, baguettes and bikes, just don’t cut it to reflect a city as progressive as this.
So to investigate or, to put it in a far more Gallic way, send a ‘love letter’ to the city that persists to capture international imaginations, over 20 directors have come together to produce one grandé film with Paris at its centre.
A stunning achievement, representing the cinematic best from around the world, including shorts by Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting, Elephant), Wes Craven (Scream, Nightmare on Elm Street), Walter Salles (Motorcycle Diaries), the Coen Brothers (The Big Lebowski, O Brother Where Art Thou?), and plenty more big names. The final production is a neighbourhood by neighbourhood tour of the city, with each director producing a short film on a different area, which flows seamlessly into a fast paced, organic revelation of modern Paris.
Highlights here include the Coen Brothers’ paranoiac vision of the Metro starring Steve Buscemi (Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction), in which an American tourist fails to heed the guidebook’s warning to ‘Avoid Eye Contact’ only to be subsequently beaten and humiliated by the uncompromising face of Paris itself. Place Des Fêtes by Germany’s Oliver Schmitz, showing a very un-Gaye reality of Paris’ growing immigrant community, is superb, with a devastating pace to it. Look out as well for Alexander Payne’s humorous, lilting short of a mid-west American woman’s reminiscence, in broken French, of her once in a lifetime trip to Paris.
Seamlessly and cohesively structured, this style of film, which saw success before in 2003’s Coffee and Cigarettes, works really well here. If anything, the style is so fast paced that the less engaging moments, and there are a few here, are rapidly replaced by a whole new self-contained plot.
The lower moments really do stick out in Paris J’Taime. Canadian Vincenzo Natali’s absurd vampire short, starring Elijah Wood, is just flat out inappropriate, as is Christopher Doyle’s bizarre story of a travelling salesman who goes into some kind of fantastical hair salon – both jar quite badly with the overall shape of the film.
Nontheless this is beautifully executed overall, with a great soundtrack by Feist and enough daring to show the full range of Paris without slumping into sentimentality. Paris Je T’aime is definitely not to be missed and makes for a light, affirmative one to watch.
Highly recommended
Click here to see trailer
Chris Lord, MyVillage 26th June
"I saw this film last year in France, where it was released earlier. It was touching, gripping, entertaining and thought-provoking. I believe that this film will become a classic.
I highly recommend seeing this film. Ten out of ten."
becky 01st July
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