the audience applauded

Better Late Then Never

An Exercise In Nonsense

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Try to cram eighteen different stories into two hours and you're going to end up with something which, as a whole, is rather uneven. Such is the case with Paris, je t'aime. This is less one movie and more eighteen movies which happen to be shown in succession. The only common denominator is the setting, Paris. Eighteen different stories, told by eighteen different directors, featuring eighteen different casts. Some famous directors, some largely unknown. Some stories feature famous performers, others feature performers who are completely anonymous. There are little comedies, little dramas, little romances, little tragedies. It's quite the ebb and flow, you never know what's coming next. At least you know that if you're not enjoying what you're watching in a given moment there will be something entirely different coming along shortly.All in all it's an interesting experiment, buoyed by mostly interesting stories. A few of the mini-movies don't work or seem out of place. In a movie full of ordinary stories about ordinary life in Paris a vampire segment is a little jarring and bizarre. There's a story centered around a Chinatown beauty salon which is quite incomprehensible. A few of the stories fall rather flat. But on the other hand a few of the stories are actually quite brilliant. Most fall somewhere in between. At its best Paris, je t'aime is really good and even at its worst it's not truly terrible. The film may wear you down by the end, there's the sense that maybe there are three or four stories too many. But even if the film does start to drag it manages to pick itself up and get moving again. Such is the benefit of having an entirely new story every few minutes. Everyone will have their own favorite segments. There is something here for everyone. Fittingly the final segment is essentially a love letter to Paris. Margo Martindale plays Carol, a middle-aged American tourist extolling the virtues of the city in truly terrible, amateurish French. Carol may not have mastered the language but the sentiment is clear and sincere. She loves Paris. Simple. There is obviously much to love about the city and in Paris, je t'aime all the different directors with all their different stars do the city justice. It's an up-and-down movie, by its very nature inconsistent. But it's a unique ride, one worth taking.

The common themes among the film shorts is about couples mostly straight with one exception of a gay couple. The film has an all star cast and there are in five minute films together intertwined by the city of Paris sights and sounds. Most of the film shorts are pretty simple about two people who get together. Each film short is done by a different director from different countries as well. Everybody has their view of Paris, France. I loved Margo Martindale in the 14th Arrondissement as a single American woman who narrates in French about being in Paris as a tourist. She does a terrific job in making us like the character.

Usually, the movie is more like a novel and you have to spend whole 2 hours to "read" it all. Some are good, some not. This one, in contrast, is a good "book" of short stories. As usual, not all are good but all in all this is great film. I've seen it several times already and, probably, will will be seeing more. It has good aftertaste and definitely worthwhile to see. At least, to make your own impression. As soon as each episode is not long (some 5-6 minutes) it is easy to skip one you do not like, at least when one decides to see it next time and one definitely does.The strange requirement to give at least 10 lines in the review. I do not want to go into details, especially episode-by-episode. There are 18 of them and all are different. I believe, each of them find the viewer.

I love Paris. I love seeing Paris. So I was interested in seeing this movie. I didn't read up on it before watching and at first I thought this was going to be one of those movies where several story lines come together and you are introduced to the main characters one by one(think of short cuts or love actually as an example). I started of interesting with the guy helping out the passed out woman and I liked the part with the obnoxious young French guys. Then with the awkward Chinese story I started to realize that there was no coherence to this movie. Just a sequence of short movies shot in Paris. I didn't relate to most of it. I was watching it with my girlfriend and we noticed that we were just 'sitting through it'. I didn't get the 'cowboy on a horse' part and I didn't understand the 'Nick Nolte talking to some young French girl in a street' either. I was completely annoyed with the pantomime part. So we turned it off. I guess I just didn't 'get it'.