18 vignettes highlight the different arrondissements (or neighborhoods) and people that make up one of the greatest cities in the world, Paris.
Here's the thing: I love Paris. I hate big cities, but Paris is the one big city I could live in. So when it comes to a movie like this, which is basically a love letter to a city I love, I'm a sure bet.
I'm not going to tell you what all 18 short films were about (for that you can go to wikipedia), but there were definitely some standouts:
- "Quais de Seine" A young French man strikes up a friendship with a Muslim girl; a very optimistic and sweet film.
- "Porte de Choisy" A hair product salesman pays a visit to a Chinese-run beauty salon. This film started off strange but ended up very fanciful and fun.
- "Tour Eiffel" Two mimes fall in love. Why always the mimes??? Seriously.
- "Faubourg Saint-Denis" A short film starring Natalie Portland, and one of the most visually interesting vignettes in the entire movie. The more I think about this one, the more I'm impressed with it.
- "14e arrondissement" I liked this one because it reminded me of me! An American woman from Colorado visits Paris and describes in very s l o w French (which is how I speak it) what her visit was like. I just loved this one and it made me want to go back to Paris so badly I actually started crying, because I am a sap.
That's just five short films out of eighteen, but actually the majority of them are pretty good. A few are boring, and a few are like watching the drama team in high school (lots of shouting, dramatic statements, slapping, and--on my part--eye rolling), but the vast majority of them are 100% worth seeing.
That being said, when you watch them all in a row it gets to be exhausting. That's 18 different storylines in a two hour period! It felt way to long and even though I was enjoying it, after the first hour I wanted it to end. I'm glad I stuck with it, but personally I wish I had been able to view each short film one at a time over the course of several days.
There's not much to say beyond that other than, if you love Paris, this movie is definitely worth checking out.
I watched this movie as part of Paris In July, a month-long challenge hosted by Book Bath and Thyme for Tea. Check out Book Bath's blog for more details.
