This is the first film by Claude Lelouche that I have ever seen, but it wasn't to my liking. Either it was way over my head, or it's a lemon. "Les Parisiens" is the collection of very loosely interwoven stories, but it is a far cry from Pasolini's "Decameron" or Robert Altman's "Short Cuts." Only in the second half of the story does the main thread emerge, the story of an Italian street singer (Massimo) who takes on a female shoplifter as his singing partner. They are invited to sing in a bar and enjoy some moderate success as a team. A record producer sees their act and offers the girl a recording contract. She is forced to decide to abandon Massimo and accept the recording contract or to turn it down. She decides to dump Massimo, and gains fame as a single act. Massimo is forced to go solo, but ends up a bigger success than his former partner. She regrets her decision and writes a book detailing her betrayal of Massimo. I found the story rambling, to the point where I dozed off during the first half, something I haven't done in a movie theater since "Peter Pan" when I was 5 years old. The characters all struck me as quite superficial and the story uncompelling. The film did get some applause at the end, and I heard a woman being filmed outside the cinema complex state that she loved the film. I'm glad I got a free ticket to see it because this way I didn't waste my money on it.
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