Paris

I was able to go to a screening of Cédric Klapisch's film, Paris last night. I didn't have a chance to track down the trailer before viewing the film, so I DID already see it before watching the trailer. So with that said, here's the trailer, and my spoiler filled review is directly below.

 

***SPOILERS START NOW***

Ok, assuming that you just watched the trailer, this looks like a charming little French film about people falling in love and appreciating those around them. I have to respond to that assumption with a big, enthusiastic, NOPE! I have to give HUGE props to whoever put that trailer together though! It was fabulous! The music in it was used well, the clips picked made it look like a compelling story, and it looked like it was shot really well. Au contraire mon cher ami! I'm beginning to think that I have a problem with French films in general. I'm not all that well versed in them, but the last one that I remember seeing was the Academy Award nominated film, Entre Les Murs (The Class), which I really didn't care for! I get what they were going for, and I can appreciate it, but I just thought it lacked a lot - primarily a plot! (?) 

Back to Paris, the main story, from what I could tell, was about a man named Pierre (Romain Duris), who has a heart condition to which he needs a transplant, and his sister Élise (Juliette Binoche), who is divorced with 3 kids, all of which move in with Pierre to help him and spend as much time as possible with him in case his condition is terminal. Pierre likes to observe people from afar to see people enjoying life, but also feels like most people don't appreciate what they have or live their life to the fullest. There's a few sub-plots in the film, one being about a college professor who ends up having a relationship with a student, who is also in another relationship, and how he just doesn't feel like his life is normal like his brother's (who is married with a baby on the way). The student, Laetitia, is just kind of an "I do what makes me happy" type of person. She's played by Mélanie Laurent, who also played Shoshana Dreyfus is Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, and was great in both films. 

 

In other sub-plots, there were people from a local outdoor market that were onscreen from time to time. one of the women dies in  motorcycle accident, and while we see that onscreen, it serves no other purpose in the plot. Worse than that, a character named Benoît is trying to make it to France from somewhere else, and his boat of illegal immigrants crashes or capsizes and people go missing. We see him at the end of the film, so obviously he makes it, but he has so little screen time and is not really connected to ANYTHING else in the story, that I wonder what the point of his character is. The performances from most of the cast were great, but I could feel myself sitting there with a confused expression on my face for probably 75% of the film. Maybe French films lose a bit of there charm in English subtitles, but I just don't get them. Paris ended somewhat tied up, but not entirely. At just over 2 hours I found myself wishing that I was wearing a watch to see how much more I had to endure. That's not a good sign.

Overall, thums down! Je suis désolé.