Paris, Je T’aime (2006)

Seeing this movie was an exercise in mental and emotional stamina and ultimately ended in exhaustion of both.

Paris, Je T’aime is a film about love in Paris, to put it as simply as possible. The movie is broken down into 18 short films, each about 10 minutes long, each about different people and events, and none seemingly having any connection to the other. So there really is no plot. And I found that I had to work too hard while watching the movie to process what I had just seen and start fresh with a new set of characters and circumstances every few minutes.

It wasn’t that the movie was confusing. Each section of the movie takes place in a different area, or arrondissement, of Paris. Each section has a title shot with the name of the director before it begins. So it’s very clear that it’s a new story each time.

But it’s like reading a book of short stories. Things happen so quickly in the story, that by the time you think you understand what is going on, who the characters are and what motivates them or they trying to accomplish, the story is over, and a new story begins. You don’t really get a chance to get attached to the characters, to relate to them, to empathize with them, or to really understand all the subtleties of the story or figure out the symbolism.

And it was very emotionally exhausting, because each story is about love (a couple of them didn’t make any sense to me and I don’t see how they were about love at all, but anyway), so the characters are going through many different feelings. And because the segments are so short, you don’t have time to really process and recover from the first set of feelings, before moving onto the next, and the next, and the next.

Some of the themes on love were the death of a spouse, the death of a child, strangers connecting, divorce, putting work before family, satisfying your partner, young love, etc.

There was a huge cast, because each of the 18 arrondissements had a different set of actors. Some notables were Elijah Wood, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Nick Nolte, Bob Hoskins, Natalie Portman, Steve Buscemi and Juliette Binoche, and notable directors Alfonso Cuaron, Gus Van Sant, Joel and Ethan Coen, Wes Craven and Gerard Depardieu.

What was consistent throughout was the look of the film. The colors of the film were the same, and many of the camera angles were similar. It really did feel like you were watching one movie.

My favorite section was directed by Alfonso Cuaron (of Harry Potter fame) and starred Nick Nolte. It had a twist ending that was quite unexpected and delightful.