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List Price: $19.98 | | Label: First Look Pictures
Salesrank: 820
Released: November 13, 2007 |
| Our Price: $11.40 |
| Used Price: $5.29 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
In PARIS, JE T'AIME, celebrated directors from around the world, including the Coen Brothers, Gus Van Sant, Gurinder Chadha, Wes Craven, Walter Salles, Alexander Payne and Olivier Assayas, have come together to portray Paris in a way never before imagined. Made by a team of contributors as cosmopolitan as the city itself, this portrait of the city is as diverse as its creators' backgrounds and nationalities. With each director telling the story of an unusual encounter in oe of the city's neighborhoods, the vignettes go beyond the 'postcard' view of Paris to portray aspects of the city rarely seen on the big screen. Racial tensions stand next to paranoid visions of the city seen from the perspective of an American tourist. A young foreign worker moves from her own domestic situation into her employer's bourgeois environs. An American starlet finds escape as she is shooting a movie. A man is torn between his wife and his lover. A young man working in a print shop sees and desires another young man. A father grapples with his complex relationship with his daughter. A couple tries to add spice to their sex life. These are but a few of the witty and serendipitous narratives that make up PARIS, JE T'AIME.
Description of Paris, Je T'Aime (Paris, I Love You):
Even with the impressive talent involved, Paris, je t'aime could've ended up like a fallen soufflé. Though all 18 films aren't equally successful, they hit the mark more often than not. Romantics anticipating happy love stories set amongst the City of Lights may be disappointed to find that many are quite sad and that some parts of Paris are less inviting than others (each takes place in a different district). Further, the shorts aren't all en Français, since the actors and directors hail from around the world, but their outsider perspectives lend the project depth. The strongest entries are provided by Gurinder Chadha (Quais De Seine), Gus Van Sant (Le Marais), Oliver Schmitz (Place des Fêtes), and Alexander Payne (14ème Arrondissement), but all find interesting ways to explore cultural misunderstandings. In Joel and Ethan Coen's tragic-comic Tuileries, tourist Steve Buscemi angers a couple simply by making eye contact. Like Miranda Richardson in Isabelle Coixet's heartbreaking Bastille, he does all his acting with his expressive face. And while Maggie Gyllenhaal speaks the language adroitly in Olivier Assayas's intriguing Quartier des Enfants Rouges, Nick Nolte (purposefully) mangles it in Alfonso Cuarón's surprisingly weak Parc Monceau. The anthology ends with Payne's audio-postcard, in which Margo Martindale's postal carrier narrates her vacation in awkward, but endearing French. Instead of another person, she falls in love with Paris, simply for allowing her to be herself. It's the perfect finish to a poignant repast, like strawberries dipped in chocolate--sweet, but not cloyingly so. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
Paris, Je T'Aime (Paris, I Love You) Reviews:
nice movie if you want to reminesce about Paris - story lines dont tie in together 
2008-07-22 - Wish the stories tied in some - some worked some a little obscure or tried too hard to be creative
Too many Americans in Paris ... 
2008-07-16 -
This movie started out very well, very touching and absolutely riveting. The opening stories had my complete attention and even if they seemed `well-acted' they had a ring of sincerity and honesty about them. The story about the woman fainting and then getting a ride from the nervous and always single bachelor to the woman who sings to her child with love and then moments later sings the same song to a different child in complete apathy was heart-wrenching and a little hard to watch.
But then, somewhere along the way, someone thought it was a good idea to start to bloat the screen with bloated, train-wreck television Americans and other over-exposed celebs. Leading the assault with Nick Nolte looking and sounding like he did the night he got pulled over in Malibu.
Then we have to endure a coke addled Maggie Gyllenhaal in her most ridiculous appearance on film yet. Yes ... playing herself as a drug addled American Film Actress abroad. Good lord, people can it get anymore mundane than Maggie Gyllenhaal not only acting flat, but being her usual flat performing self? She's made a few gems along the way with Secretary and Donnie Darko, but the bulk of her work is forgettable. What next ... a two hour movie with her sleeping, shot with a green night-vision camera? I wouldn't be surprised if someone is trying to pitch that project right now. And then roll out a few more celebs like Elijah Wood, Natalie Portman, Willem Dafoe, Gena Rowlands, Rufus Sewell, Bob Hoskins, Maggie Gyllenhaal, ad infinitum ad naseum. The end result being that whatever integrity this film had and whatever level of sincerity about love that there was in the beginning gets completely flushed down the toilet and wiped off the coke mirror laying on the trailer make-up counter.
Perhaps if they would've left the A-list / B-list people alone after Steve Buscemi, who was actually good in this, it would've been a lot better.
If the film had a lot less `cameo appearances' of these over-paid and over-exposed celebrities and more stories of everyday people in Paris, this movie would've ended up being one of the great classic films of this age. If they thought that star-power and name recognition was a good addition to this, they were wrong. I found more interest in watching Winged Migration. If you want to see a really good film about falling in love in France - try 37°2 Le Matin, or Betty Blue as it was titled for English speakers.
Great human taste 
2008-06-28 - It is an amazing point of view of what we are, the humans. I think not only in Paris but indeed it is the city which underlines all the people life sensations.
Great tour of Paris life
2008-06-15 - The stories were sometimes mediocre, some were very good. They all told a story in a way as if your livings bits of your life in Paris rather than being on a tour. I enjoyed it.
Left with a feeling of bewilderment
2008-06-14 - While Paris, Je T'aime includes an all-star cast of famous actresses and actors along with many great directors, the films didn't necessarily relay the message within the title. Yes, they were set in Paris, however all the short films were very loose in structure.
It is inevitable that some of the short films were going to be better than the others, so I would not rush out to buy this, but it will not be a waste of time if you're curious to watch it.
