Paris je t’aime
I am being inconsequent, I know. After all, I have watched “Gegen die Wand” and “Gespenster”, but I really feel like I have lots of impression about this film and I have can’t help but comment on them immediately.
First of all, this film made me realize how there are so many more places in Paris that I still have to see. I am in love with Paris as well, but I mainly only know the more famous places, while the ‘real’ Paris is probably unknown to me. (However, I am really not convinced that this film shows Paris as it is, it can obviously only show a small, idealistic aspect of it.) Somehow I now want to see all those places that appear in the movie… and I also feel like buying all those books about Paris’ “secrets” that were recommended to us in that Paris seminar of two hours we had and explore the whole city.
What this film definitely has shown is that Paris is one of the most fascinating cities in the world, if not the most fascinating – I cannot imagine it’s possible to make a movie like this with London, or Berlin, or New York.
However, we are dealing with a rather bad movie, if you ask me. The movie had its brilliant stories, but most of them were just crap in my eyes. Pointless or not funny at all and way too short. Therefore, I will only comment on the ones I liked (actually 10 out of 18, so considering the badness of the ones I didn’t like, it’s not a high quota).
From the one I liked the less to the one I liked the most:
Porte de Choisy
Okay, I still have to comment on this, because this is the biggest so-called artistical crap I have ever seen in my life. Oh God, this is the epitome of stupidity, arrrgh.
Montmartre
I also have to comment on this one, since I disliked this story so much. Oh God, I can’t believe how they could have wasted Montmartre (my beautiful Montmartre!) on this kind of pointless story, ugh.
Quartier de la Madeleine
This one was kind of funny after all XD It does not fit into the whole film at all, but it had this little *something*, maybe because it kind of made fun of the whole concept? *haha*
Père-Lachaise
I kind of like Emily Mortimer, don’t ask me why. However, she seems to always play the same role and always make the same facial expressions. But whatever, in this case, I was kind of annoyed that they had to speak english all the time (which I didn’t fully understand due to the low volume of the film), but somehow the story is interesting – and the fact that it’s playing at my beloved Père-Lachaise is making up for it. *g*
Place des Fêtes
A simple story, surely, but I found it very well done – and somehow it actually touched me, so it’s difficult to say whether I liked it more.
Loin the 16e
The story itself is not all that great, but it has a good message and I really liked the actress (oh, and I knew that she played in “Maria Full of Grace” even though I didn’t watch that movie!), she was cute and also played quite well. It was great to see the difference in her expression when she was with her own child and other one.
Parc Monceau
It was annoying how they spoke english with their stupid french accent, however the story itself is great. It’s creative and I was really looking forward to it, but in the end, I was not really satisfied with how the dialogue was presented. It’s still a nice piece though.
Tour Eiffel
Somehow I found this part very ‘french’. Its charming creativity reminded me a lot of Amélie Poulain.
Bastille
This story was, in some ways, emotionally touching. The only problem was actually that I seriously disliked the woman and I also felt sorry for the mistress who was then left apart. Aside from that, I could totally understand the feelings of the man and the way it was presented was also well done: The love for his mistress was well portrayed as well as how lovingly he was with his wife afterwards.
Le Marais
Here we come to my favourite story from the first part of the film… It is the only story in the whole movie that had a really punchline, if you ask me. It made the story slightly funny, meaningful and had quite a big emotional impact on me. If all the stories were so good as this one, “Tuileries” and “Faubourg St-Denis”, the film might have become a favourite.
Tuileries
Basically it’s just gorgeous and funny… There’s not much to say about it though, it’s just so true. Ah, the Parisians!
Faubourg St-Denis
For some reason, I feel like falling in love with Nathalie Portman after this – even though I usually didn’t think of her as a really attractive woman (in Leon she was too small, in Star Wars too ridiculous, in Garten State too annoying, in Closer she was not loved… etc. etc.), but in fact she definitely is underappreciated. This story was just so wow, it contained all the elements of a good short story – funny elements (we had to laugh when he said “sometimes she screamed with a reason” and the flashback showed them having sex XD), a believable romance where you could feel the connection between the characters, good flashbacks and a lovely start of the relationship… and of course, a great punchline. It doesn’t surprise me that this short film was the very first one – and that it drew lots of famous people contributing to the whole project.
Now I feel like I have forgotten quite a lot of what I wanted to say… but whatever, if I remember, I’d add it – and if I’ve forgotten, then it probably wasn’t all that interesting anyways.