Sunday, May 13, 2007

paris, je t'aime

it must have the french tourism board that was behind this loving film about love in paris. also by the fact that most of the ‘foreign’ protagonists in the film were american, or had american connections the usa was obviously the primary audience for the film. even the stars were old hollywood stars – nick nolte and gena rowlands or young hollywood brats – elijah woods and natalie portman. such a transparent appeasement device was allowable perhaps because it was so transparent. the only foreign films it is assumed that we will watch are feel good fluff made for american tastes. and feel good this was – and very american.

the ‘concept’ of the film being that 18 film makers make love stories set in 18 different neighbourhoods in paris, each film being only 5 minutes long. the films ranged from fantastic, sappy, silly to ordinary- nothing terribly bad- which i guess nothing can be in a time slot of 5 minutes.

recaps-.

  1. the cussing man in the car who finds love when a woman faints near where he is parked
  2. gurinder chaddhas inter racial love story about a girl in a burkha – sweet and fuzzy
  3. gus van sants lovely boys who cant talk to each other because one is french, the other american, neither here-nor there
  4. a vampire story in ‘sin-city’ black and white with very red blood where elijah woods sacrifices himself for love,
  5. a pointless and meandering film about a day in life of a migrant housekeeper, very self-serious
  6. a charming mime episode where two odd people find love in a jail cell , really quite nice
  7. a beautiful and moving monologue by a denver postal worker in holidaying alone in paris in a flat american accented french
  8. a wild warped and fabulous personal take on his own chinese attachments by christpopher doyle
  9. the coen brothers hilarious film set in a metro station with steve buscemi playing the tourist
  10. nick nolte in a pointless little story about walking in paris to meet his grandson
  11. juliette binoche in a terrible sappy story about a woman mourning the loss of her son
  12. the only story about the african population in paris was a tragedy of a man and a nurse meeting when the guy is stabbed
  13. a spatting couple o their honeymoon visit oscar wildes tomb and make up with a little help from the ghost of the writer
  14. a nasty and sarcastic war of words between a couple about to divorce after each has found a much younger lover
  15. a couple playing out sexual fantasies to reignite their desires for one another
  16. a man about to leave his wife suddenly discovers that she is dying of leukemia and falls in love with her again
  17. a love story between a blind parisian and an american actress
  18. another pointless film about an actress and her drug supplier.

6 comments:

Mukul said...

really sounds awful in one-liners.

samania saman said...

hmmm i was going to go see it.. now im having second thoughts

Siddharth said...

its not as bad as the oneliners put it. the vampire story is actually funny. so is the one with steve buscemi in it.
oddly enough its the ones which go about their business without treating the background as 'paris' that really seem to work.
AND if u like spidey 3 then this one shudnt be such a pain to sit thru...

Mukul said...

it was actually very nice to watch.. but we all had gone in expecting a world cinema classic, therefore these reactions!

Urban Floop said...

i loved aallllll the films including the stupid ones, actually especially the stupid ones...it was fun.
And Sid i think...never mind :)
good films lots of fun.

Anarchytect said...

did i sounds like i did not like it? sorry then. very watchable. fuzzy feel good lovey-dovey