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MovieMail's Review
Wes Anderson’s latest effervescent comedy The Darjeeling Limited screened in cinemas preceded by Hotel Chevalier, a short film by Anderson in which a wealthy young American whiles away time in an exclusive Parisian hotel until he is joined by his estranged lover (Natalie Portman). With the feel of an affectionate, pastel-coloured Antonioni pastiche, the film, tightly and beautifully contained, would certainly not have been out of place in Paris je t’Aime, a portmanteau of 18 films, each set in a different Parisian arrondissement and featuring the directorial talents of (among others) Gus Van Sant, Joel and Ethan Coen, Alexander Payne, Alfonso Cuaron and Wes Craven, as well as a dizzying array of international acting talent (Juliette Binoche, Nick Nolte, Gena Rowlands, Sergio Castellito).
As ever with filmic compendiums (RoGoPaG, Decameron, New York Stories, more recently, Tickets and Eros) the films are eclectic in style. Of the 18 films that make up Paris je t’aime, standouts undoubtedly include Gus Van Sant’s characteristically elliptical Le Marais, the Coen Brothers’ Metro-set comedy Tuileries, in which a hapless American tourist (Steve Buscemi) gets unwittingly embroiled in the bickering of a young couple, Walter Salles’ moving, downbeat Loin du 16e and Alfonso Cuaron’s excellent Parc Monceau, an extended plan sequence with a twist, starring Nick Nolte and Ludivine Saigner.
The film’s final trio of episodes are quite wonderful; heartbreaking and hilarious in equal measure. Tom Tykwer’s Fauborg Saint-Denis – one of the earliest films to be shot and the episode which sold the project to Joel and Ethan Coen – tells of a young blind man who strikes up a friendship with a struggling actress. In Quartier Latin, Cassavetes stalwarts Ben Gazzara and Gena Rowlands play an elderly couple reunited for one final drink before they finalise their divorce. Both Gazzara and Rowlands (who also wrote the episode) are magnificent, exchanging glances heaving with the passion they assume is dead. Without a doubt, it is one of the finest cinematic moments of 2007, as is Alexander Payne’s tender, final episode in which a middle-aged American woman recounts her experiences of Paris.
20 directors, 20 short films, 20 vignettes about life and love in one of the greatest cities on earth, with an international cast including Steve Buscemi, Gaspard Ulliel, Miranda Richardson, Willem Dafoe, Juliette Binoche and Nick Nolte. There's something for all tastes here, and as ever with such collections, there's much enjoyment to be had from seeing the undoubted successes side by side with the films that don't quite come off.
Directors include Olivier Assayas, Sylvain Chomet, Ethan and Joel Coen, Isabel Coixet, Wes Craven, Alfonso Cuarón, Gérard Depardieu, Christopher Doyle, Alexander Payne, Walter Salles, Tom Tykwer and Gus Van Sant.
