Paris vu par... Reviews

More than 40 years before ‘Paris, Je t’aime’ (which I have still not seen), another anthology film was made around the city of love. The big difference was that, this time, all the directors were French and they were all members of the New Wave. Even though I haven’t heard about 3 of them (Jean Douchet, Jean Rouch, Jean-Daniel Pollet) , the other 3 directors (Éric Rohmer, Jean-Luc Godard and Claude Chabrol) are/were amongst the best French directors ever so I was definitely eager to check this flick. Unfortunately, I thought that all those short segments were rather underwhelming. Indeed, I couldn’t pick one which was really better or worst than the rest. It is always the risk with short movies. Whereas a long feature can take its time to tell its story and his general message to the viewer, such shorts have to be effective really quickly otherwise, they feel rather pointless. I mean, those shorts were definitely not worthless though. Indeed, they provided a nice showcase of all those directors style from the French New Wave. To conclude, even though I thought it was rather disappointing, I still think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in French movies.

The concept is intriguing, take six directors and let each of them make a short film set in a Paris neigbourhood. The result is a quirky melange of stories that cover the gamut of emotions from funny and bittersweet to sad and tragic. There's the story of an American student who falls for an impostor, a young boy who can't stand the noise made by his quarreling parents, a dissatisfied housewife who doesn't really want what she thinks she wants and more. The directors also bring their varied styles to the table. Somehow, despite the enormous potential for the stories and styles being jarring, the end result gels very well resulting in a great cinematic experience.