Paris, Je T'aime

aka: Paris, I Love You
France 2006, 120 minutes
Dir. Olivier Assayas, Gurinder Chadha, Sylvain Chomet, Joel Coen, Isabel Coixet, Wes Craven, Alfonso Cuaron, Richard LaGravenese, Vincenzo Natali, Alexander Payne, Walter Salles, Daniela Thomas, Tom Tykwer, Gus Van Sant, Nobuhiro Suwa, Bruno Podalydes, Christopher Doyle, Gerard Depardieu
In English, French, Arabic with English subtitles
Genres: Foreign Cinema, Drama / Romance

Topics: Shorts.

Feat. Fanny Ardant, Juliette Binoche, Steve Buscemi, Sergio Castellitto, Willem Dafoe, Gerard Depardieu, Marianne Faithful, Ben Gazzara, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Bob Hoskins, Emily Mortimer, Nick Nolte, Natalie Portman, Gena Rowlands, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Ludivine Sagnier, Barbet Schroeder, Rufus Sewell, Elijah Wood

Aroview: A prestige line-up of actors and filmmakers converge in this grand anthology of love letters to the city of romance. With each vignette clocking in at around 8 minutes, this celluloid tapestry offers something for almost every mood and palate.

Disseminated across Paris’ districts and landmarks, highlights include Nobuhiro Suwa’s distilled meditation on grief, with Juliette Binoche; a typically skewered take on tourism from the Coen Brothers; and Alexander Payne’s fitting finale, about a middle-aged American woman recounting her lonely Paris sojourn.

Less successful, but still distinguished entries from directors Olivier Assayas (about an actress, Maggie Gyllenhaal, working on a film shoot), Alfonso Cuaron (an extended tracking shot with Nick Nolte), Christopher Doyle (taking his cue from Wong Kar-wai), Tom Tykwer (a frantic long-term relationship crammed into a handful of minutes) and Sylvain Chomet (the eccentric adventures of a mime) round out the best bits.