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Paris (2008)

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13 comments in total

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9 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :-
Paris seen from the inside, 24 février 2008

Author: vic_voile de Paris, France

Being a Parisian myself, and a great fan of all other Klapisch movies, I expected a lot about this one. Well, I was pretty satisfied: although it is no masterpiece, the global atmosphere, and especially the gorgeous views of the city are very well put together. The actors are very convincing too, especially Juliette Binoche, radiant, Luchini, a surprisingly good dancer, and Albert Dupontel. It is just a pity that there are so many simultaneous stories, some of them don't really bring much to the plot and could have been cut, to leave more time to the others.

Anyway, I recommend this movie for all people who want to get a feel for what Paris is all about!

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4 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Maybe the Finest movie about Paris since Paris vu Par, 9 mai 2008

Author: verododat de Limerick, EIRE

No one, but no one, makes movies that better capture a sense of place than Cedric Klapisch. Since the miraculous little When the Cat's Away (Chacun Cherche son Chat, 1996)) he's consistently been able to evoke a real sense of lived lives and inhabited city spaces. Wonderful then , to discover that after all the travels of The Spanish Apartment (2002) and Russian Dolls (2005) he's returned to Paris to make one of the best films ever made of those little universes within the City of Light. That said . if you know nothing about France or its history and culture you just wont get it!

The hook on which this multidimensional movie hangs is Pierre ( Klapisch favorite, Romain Duris), a professional dancer who's just learned that his heart is failing. A transplant may save him, maybe not. All this has echoes of the great Agnes Varda film, Cleo de 5 a 7 (1962) by (where Cleo, a young singer played by Corinne Marchand also gets a frightening diagnosis and she too, walks the streets of the city facing her own death), but maybe achieves even more as a kind of aubade or farewell to the dance of life that ceaselessly crosses Paris in time and in space.

The centre of the film is Pierre's sister Élise (Juliette Binoche in her most relaxed and charming performance in years). Elise moves in with Pierre ( along with her children!) to help out and her own little adventures as she shops at the local market opens out the film as we discover the complex and may layered live of the market workers, especially glum Jean Albert Dupontel and his soon to be ex wife Caroline (Julie Ferrier).

Another story thread follows terminally bored history professor, Roland Verneuil (Fabrice Luchini) embarking on a new career as a TVpundit : these scenes are beautifully satirical yet also curiously touching.

Among the many delights of the movie is a great dream scene where Roland's brother, architect Philippe Verneuil (François Cluzet) is plunged into the 3D Universe used to sell of one of his middle class housing Projects and floats like a tormented Mario Brother from some gleaming modernist disaster to rapturous potential buyers and back again. This delicious scene goes on just long bought to make more than a few silly dreams of home improvement (let alone all those fantastical TV Reality shows) seem, as they are, utterly absurd , yet also quite nightmarish in their silly faith in problem solving by buying stuff. For this alone the movie's worth the price of admission!

Interwoven, too, is the story of the anxious young Benoit in the Cameroon, adrift and about to try to join his Paris based émigré family in that most dangerous of was, the open boat from Africa to Europe. All French life, it seems is touched upon, not least the political morass facing governments as they grapple with the problem of the poor and dispossessed out in the projects . The music track is equally complex, with that old favorite (since Truffaut used it in Shoot the Piano Player almost fifty years ago!) Erik Satie's Gymnopaedie Number 1 again weaving it s extraordinary spell! You just have to be there!

Klapisch has done something marvelous here, a film full of ideas and humanity, yet one that somehow enables us to engage with and care for so many complex characters without ever having to resort to stereotypes. Its a great achievement – and a glorious movie about that city to which we must all return in our dreams: Paris.

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5 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
Hurray Klapish, 12 avril 2008

Author: mmunier de Australia

To day I went to see "Paris" and hoped to win a trip to Paris from Sydney out of it! I had seen L'auberge espagnole and had no idea of the link! To top this, by accident I caught a french movie on TV to night perhaps already running for 10 minutes and it was Russian Dolls! Again I did not realise it was related, even called a Sequel to l'auberge espagnole! I enjoyed the 3 movies each on their own way. "Paris", my birth city, I did enjoy immensely, yet I could have imagine its story in any other city. Although it was nice to catch up with sites I have not seen for 25 years and left nearly 40 years ago, but to me it was very much this cocktail of people and their personal situation that moved me so much. Just like everyday life with its humor, sadness and pain all this with a comfortable music that actually did ease a little the pain. Again I thank those who write so well here and gave a concise and very interesting account of this wonderful film. I think one of these writings should appear with the main page of the film rather than tentative account like mine. Bu if by chance you are reading mine I'd like to let you know that if you go to see this movie, just go with the flow and you should not be disappointed.

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8 out of 15 people found the following comment useful :-
Round and round we go, 20 février 2008

Author: Chris Knipp de Berkeley, California

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Auberge Espagnole director Cedric Klapisch has made another lively ronde of people's stories centered on the French capital and Africans who want to migrate there. Featuring Klapisch regular Romain Duris and a brace of other popular French film actors, including Juliette Binoche, François Cluzet, Fabrice Luchini, Albert Dupontel, Karin Viard, lovely almost-newcomer Mélanie Laurent, Zinedine Soualem and others, Paris will show at the Lincoln Center French series ten days after its opening, today (February 20, 2008) in the city of the title.

If this movie is "about" anything, it's about loving life, appreciating what you've got. If you're just wandering the streets of Paris with nothing to do, Pierre (Duris) thinks, you're pretty darn lucky. Pierre, a dancer, should know. Life tastes pretty sweet to him because he's on his way to a heart transplant and his chances of surviving beyond his mid-thirties where he is now are iffy. His sister Élise (Juliette Binoche), a single mom and social worker, brings her little kids to stay with Pierre, who spends a lot of time looking out his window. Across the way he sees Laetitia (Mélanie Laurent), who soon starts an affair with Rémy (Joffrey Platel), but is also being wooed by a Sorbonne prof and longtime bachelor Roland Verneuil (Fabrice Lucchini), who's brother Philippe (François Cluzet) supervises big new construction projects on the outskirts of the city, is comfortable with his life, happily married, and soon to become a father. Roland is a historian and his subject is Paris. He consents to a do a TV series "popularizing" all that but he loses heart, and his little affair with Laetitia fizzles, and he goes to see a shrink (Maurice Bénichou). Élise shops in a market where she meets Jean (Albert Dupontel)--and there lies another tale: his ex-wife Caroline (Julie Ferrier) still works side-by-side with him, but is now involved with Franky (Gilles Lellouche). And there's more. . . probably a good deal too much more. It's true that playfully investigating a variety of characters, lives, and social situations has always been Klapisch's forte and his passion. But perhaps with Paris his resources and his enthusiasm were too great. There's a bakery where the proprietress (Karin Viard) hires a "Moroccan" girl, Khadija (Sabrina Ouazani, another lovely not-so-newcomer). At one point when we're in an ordinary restaurant with a bunch of people, including Jean, Caroline, and Franky, I started to wonder: what the heck are we doing here? How am I supposed to care about all these different people at once? It's the filmmaker's way to work with vignettes, the contemporary filmmaker most especially. The trick is making them count, and integrating them together into a successful film. Perhaps because of the presence of Binoche, I began to think of Kieslowski's masterful Red, which is about connections, and chance, and has a haunting immediacy and poignancy Klapisch may be striving for here. Klapisch is a gifted filmmaker and an understandably popular one. He knows how to make us care about people (most of the time anyway); he's great with actors; his camera is fluid; he can make things move. He knows the magic of editing, locations, coincidences. The balance between the wishful enthusiasm of Romain Duris' character and the wit and self-aware foolishness of Fabrice Lucchini makes a lovely contrast that seems at the heart of the film. It was Lucchini in another film 24 years ago who repeatedly declared that Paris is "the center of the world." That may be true. But Klapisch's Paris doesn't quite have a center. His film has too many people who carry too close to equal weight. They force their identity and their situations on us so rapidly it's as if they were holding up a sign. This is the pitfall of the "choral" film: of achieving a brief illusion of complexity at the risk of lacking depth.

Happily, it all ends with a taxi ride, with the driver cursing the day's demonstrations, which are going to tie up many sections of town. Somehow, he and his rider, Pierre, are going to get to their destination anyway. And if this isn't a masterpiece, Klapisch and his top flight crew and terrific actors still arrive at their goal of delivering much to ponder and enjoy.

And the Africans? They don't make it.

Shown as part of the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Lincoln Center, New York, February 29-March 9, 2008.

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Very good, 13 juin 2008

Author: minxin de Switzerland

I saw this film on an airplane to Paris. At first I didn't pay too much attention as I was also reading a book as the same time, and simply use the film as a background to practice my French listening (the film is in French with English subtitle). But as the film developed, I became more and more intrigued, and finally dropped my book reading completely to watch the film.

The plot is very well conceived, and a nice thread is used to connect the lives of several groups of people living in Paris to show aspects of their lives. I admit there are many characters not fully developed, but they still feel very alive and real. An intelligent viewer would be able to follow the diverse characters and get a sense of real life stories depicted here. (Indeed this is not a feel good story, but instead feels very real.)

After finishing the film, I went back to the earlier parts I missed and finally connect the ends to a whole pictures. I recommend to watch twice if you didn't follow the diverse characters and threads at the first time.

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1 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Paris, 17 juillet 2008

Author: Raj Doctor de Amsterdam, Netherlands

I had heard about this movie, and just because it was in French with Dutch sub-titles, I did not go and see it. While traveling in Air-France, this was on the list with English sub-titles and how can I then miss it? The movie is about a dancer Pierre (Romain Duris), who is suffering from a heart ailment, and would require an operation. He does not know whether he will live or die. He stands on his apartment balcony and watches people who pass by. The story takes a peep into the lives of those characters – an over-middle age professor Roland Verneuil (Fabrice Luchini) flirtation with his young female student Laetitia (Melanie Laurent) who stays opposite Pierre's flat, Pierre ex-wife Caroline (Julie Ferrier) and her interactions with various men in her life, There are a few other stories too. In the end, while Pierre is driving to the hospital and on the way watching this characters still struggling with their own stories in life.

The movie though clichéd at times – in its narrative, has absorbing moments, and that makes the interwoven of events interesting to watch.

Romain Duris is good, so are all the other actors. The main actor in this movie is its script. Film Teacher and Director Cederic Klapisch does a fine job in presenting various facets of Paris and its life in a narrative that leads to a comprehensive whole story.

This movie is an enjoyable treat to watch. I recommend it.

(Stars 6.75 out of 10)

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0 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Mature, beautiful, elegiac, 20 avril 2008

Author: its-gordo de Australia

Klapisch demonstrates his maturity as a film-maker in this wonderful vignette of Parisian life. He illustrates his themes of loss, mortality and ennui through various characters, from the haunting Duris, his companion the composed and exceptional Binoche, to the satirical Luchini.

Duris's performance is particularly moving. Many scenes involve his character dolefully reflecting on his serious illness; but rather than being sentimental or clichéd, Duris brings an emotional realism and subtlety to the role that is truly refreshing. Duris has an immense screen presence - you simply can't look away from him.

This is one of the best films I seen for years, however I think traditional Klapisch fans will find it distinctly different in tone and purpose to his earlier films. Hopefully that will not discourage them from experiencing the quality and beauty of this story though.

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0 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Another great Klapisch's movie, 15 mars 2008

Author: elpopieto de Australia

I saw this flick yesterday, and I have to say that I loved it. I am a big fan of Klapisch earlier work( Le peril jeune, Peut etre, chacun cherche son chat,...), but I am yet to see Russian dolls and the Spanish apartment.

I have found this movie in line with the other movies. Not frankly funny, but not only depressing. I thought that all characters are driven by one main emotion, which categorises them into the different stereotypes of Parisians: The intellectual, the artist, the grocer, etc. I have found hard to identify to only one, but rather you can connect with all of them at the same time. I have found out that all of the characters are, in fact, Paris, and I loved the movie for it. Klapisch is a great director and has always been able to capture a lot of complex emotions on camera. I have to say that he did it again in this opus.

His big talent is that he is able to make us reflect on our own lives through trying to understand his characters, and I guess that is why some people did not particularly like this movie as they were forced to have an inside look, but personally, I find it a great exercise.

The photography, avoiding clichés, is great and shows a different side of Paris. It is showing the Paris where people live, and not particularly where people holiday in.

All in all, a great performance by the whole cast and crew. Thanks again mister Klapisch!!!

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2 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
So So Boring, 4 juillet 2008

Author: avimeller de Israel

Sorry, but Paris was never so boring. Beware, this film will have you snore for 130 minutes. Nothing in the plot is interesting - just your average day by day life portrayed in a very dull and uninspired manner. It looks as if Klapisch believed that the beautiful sights of Paris will be enough to capture the attention of the viewers, and he may be right - judging by the comments of the viewers so far. But he cannot fool everybody all the time: The film is empty. The dialogues are hollow. Nothing develops into something of substance. Actually it is so dull that even peppering the movie with life and death ideas - does not save it from total failure. I am astonished Binoche agreed to take part. Don't you.

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2 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
extraordinary, 27 avril 2008

Author: gyurmi3 de Hungary

This is a great, lovable film. I am still under the influence of it. Me and my girlfriend simply had to sit in a good restaurant in town afterwards to discuss it over a bottle of Chardonnay. This is so much about life! The director wisely lets the viewers to decide about some points that have been intentionally left in a subtle haze. And he does not want to teach us, does not want to moralize and tell us a great story. This is a fresh, very French movie which is just a great start for the new spring season. It is 130 minutes long, still a lot of people (including us) were reluctant to stand up at the end and leave the room seeing the "Fin" sign. Thanks Monsieur Klapisch for the great evening, and of course everybody who contributed his film, first of all the actors - all of them were very credible and smashing. Sorry if I sound overenthusiastic, but - for me - this was a great experience, indeed. I can only recommend it to everybody. Go, and see it, and make yourself a great evening!

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