Review

Review Date: 17-June-07
Spoiler Rating: Low
Juju Judgment: Just OK

Paris, Je T'aime (2007)

During the short time I worked in graphic design, I learned something that I have often remembered in other contexts. One can most exercise one's creativity when working with plain paper and black-and-white rather than a full-color palette and range of textures. That is, the limitations of a creative project compel one to find particular and perhaps unusual means of expression (as poets can certainly attest). For this reason, the compilation of vignettes called "Paris, Je T'aime" holds the promise of memorable slices of art and life. It consists of 18 short works by a number of well-known (and lesser-known) directors, starring a host of well-known actors. A film like this needs only two or three gems to succeed, since the potency of each is concentrated. "Paris, Je T'aime" doesn't have any gems, but a few of its segments are decently done.

One of the themes apparently meant to tie the stories together is love in its weird, wonderful, and heartbreaking forms. Unfortunately those narrators who stick to convention have a better time of it, although their pieces feel uninspired. In this category I would place the scene of a rich older couple (Ben Gazzara and Gena Rowlands) preparing for divorce, and the one in which Elijah Wood becomes a vampire. Perhaps surprisingly, this isn't the one directed by Wes Craven. His involves a premarital crisis between Emily Mortimer and Rufus Sewell (both excellent) as resolved by the ghost of Oscar Wilde. That story wields a certain amount of charm, which cannot be said for the unorthodox contributions by Christopher Doyle and Nobuhiro Suwa. One depicts a hair-care product salesman being enlisted by a vicious Asian stylist; the other shows a grieving Juliette Binoche saying good-bye to her dead son through the intervention of an angel (Willem Dafoe). Both are unpleasantly disquieting. If you want creepy done right, look no further than the Coen brothers' darkly humorous piece starring Steve Buscemi as a hapless tourist accosted by a jealous thug in the subway. It's one of the best of the bunch.

Although I didn't really feel the love in these tales, I was more disappointed by how poorly the film as a whole speaks to the other common theme of setting. Most of the offerings of "Paris, Je T'aime" could take place in any city in the world, and while each is assigned to a specific neighborhood, little regional flavor comes through. The segments that make the best use of context are those which involve foreigners. Walter Salles and Daniela Thomas present a stark but eloquent statement about class distinction starring Colombian up-and-comer Catalina Sandino Moreno. Gus Van Sant serves some light humor with a romantic hero (Gaspard Ulliel) who pours his heart out in French to a typically monolingual American. And for me the standout is the final selection by Alexander Payne. It follows an average American woman (Margo Martindale) who goes on vacation by herself and tastes the traveler's mix of joy and sadness. Like all the characters, if the title is to be believed, she loves Paris for the feelings it evokes. Given a few minutes and one city to work with, most of the directors involved in this project fail to make her experience our own.

Copyright © 2007 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.