In love with… Paris Je T’aime

January 28th, 2010

All I can say is that I felt, at the same time, joy and sadness.
But not too much sadness, because I felt alive.
Yes, alive.

18 arrondissements. 18 short films. 18 stories.

That’s a good way to sum up what Paris Je T’aime is. But I find it to be much more. My experience with it the first time I watched it was that of seeing a good movie, full of nice little stories, but to my surprise, it stayed with me for a long while. I found myself remembering it in the following days and in the most random situations. It’s not really that odd, though, since in the film there’s a story for everyone, there are so many things you can relate to, that it shouldn’t be difficult to connect with at least one of the small fragments of life that shape Paris Je T’aime.

Even though it can be considered (mistakenly, IMO) just as a compilation of short movies, written and directed by different people, you really don’t get a feeling of simply watching a series of stories just for the sake of it. They’re all excellently integrated, giving the movie a perfect pace and in the end you have the perception of having watched a fully-formed film with a huge ensemble cast that took you along through the streets of Paris and shared some (big and small) episodes of their lives.

As I mentioned, each story is written and directed independently by different writers/directors from around the world and it’s set and represents a different arrondisement in Paris¹, and they’re as follow. Summaries are from Wikipedia semi-edited by me to avoid huge spoilers²:

Montmartre (Bruno Podalydès): A man (played by Podalydès himself) parks his car on a Montmartre street and muses about how the women passing by his car all seem to be “taken”. Then a woman passerby (Florence Muller) faints near his car, and he comes to her aid.

Quais de Seine (Paul Mayeda Berges/Gurinder Chadha): A young man (Cyril Descours), hanging out with two friends who taunt all women who walk by, strikes up a friendship with a young Muslim woman (Leïla Bekhti)

Les Marais (Gus Van Sant): A young male customer (Gaspard Ulliel) finds himself attracted to a young printshop worker (Elias McConnell) and tries to explain that he believes the man to be his soulmate, not realizing that he speaks little French. Marianne Faithfull also appears briefly in the film.

Tuileries (Joel Coen/Ethan Coen): A comic film in which an American tourist (Steve Buscemi) waiting at the Tuileries station becomes involved in the conflict between a young couple (Axel Kiener and Julie Bataille) after he breaks the cardinal rule of avoiding eye contact with people on the Paris Metro.

Loin du 16e (Walter Salles/Daniela Thomas): A young woman (Catalina Sandino Moreno) sings a Spanish lullaby (“Qué Linda Manito”) to her baby before leaving it in a daycare. She then takes an extremely long commute to the home of her wealthy employer (whose face is not seen), where she sings the same lullaby to her employer’s baby.

Porte de Choisy (Christopher Doyle)³: A comic film in which a beauty products salesman (Barbet Schroeder) makes a call on a Chinatown salon run by a woman (Li Xin) who proves to be a tough customer.

Bastille (Isabel Coixet) ♥: Prepared to leave his marriage for a much younger lover (Leonor Watling), a man (Sergio Castellitto) instead decides to stay with his wife (Miranda Richardson) after she reveals a terminal illness – and rediscovers the love he once felt for her.

Place des Victoires (Nobuhiro Suwa): A mother (Juliette Binoche), grieving over the death of her little boy (Martin Combes), is comforted by a magical cowboy (Willem Dafoe).

Tour Eiffel (Sylvain Chomet): A boy tells how his parents, both mime artists (Paul Putner and Yolande Moreau), meet in prison and fall in love.

Parc Monceau (Alfonso Cuarón): An older man (Nick Nolte) and younger woman (Ludivine Sagnier) meet for an arrangement that a third person (‘Gaspard’), who is close to the woman, may not approve of. The film was shot in a single continuous shot. When the characters walk by a video store, several posters of movies by the other directors of Paris, je t’aime are visible in the window.

Quartier des Enfants Rouges (Olivier Assayas): An American actress (Maggie Gyllenhaal) procures some exceptionally strong hashish from a dealer (Lionel Dray) whom she gets a crush on.

Place des Fêtes (Oliver Schmitz) ♥: A Nigerian man (Seydou Boro), dying from a stab wound in the Place des fêtes asks a woman paramedic (Aïssa Maïga) for a cup of coffee. It is then revealed that he had fallen in love at first sight with her some time previously.

Pigalle (Richard LaGravenese): An aging couple (Bob Hoskins and Fanny Ardant) act out a fantasy argument for a prostitute in order to keep the spark in their relationship.

Quartier de la Madeleine (Vincenzo Natali) ♥: A young backpacker tourist (Elijah Wood) falls in love with a vampiress (Olga Kurylenko).

Père-Lachaise (Wes Craven): While visiting Père Lachaise Cemetery, a young woman (Emily Mortimer) breaks up with her fiancé (Rufus Sewell), who then redeems himself with the aid of advice from the ghost of Oscar Wilde (Alexander Payne).

Faubourg Saint-Denis (Tom Tykwer) ♥: After believing that his girlfriend, a struggling actress (Natalie Portman), has broken up with him, a young blind man (Melchior Beslon) reflects on the growth and seeming decline of their relationship.

Quartier Latin (Gérard Depardieu/Frédéric Auburtin): A separated couple (Ben Gazzara and Rowlands) meet at a bar (run by Depardieu) for one last drink before the two officially divorce.

14e Arrondisement (Alexander Payne) ♥: Carol (Margo Martindale), a letter carrier from Denver, Colorado on her first European holiday, recites in rough French what she loves about Paris.

And here’s a clip of one of my favourite segments. I know quality isn’t the best, but it’s the only one I could find with English subtitles:

And last but no least, I have to do a special mention to the wonderful soundtrack, full of amazing little songs and melodies, including Gogol by Gonzales, one of the most beautiful piano pieces I’ve ever heard, which you can listen to here

1. Check Wikipedia for more info about arrondisemens [↩]
2. The ones marked with a ♥ are part of my Top-5 [↩]
3. This is the only one I didn’t like. I think I didn’t get it, lol [↩]