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The box for Paris, Je T’aime tells us that the film is going to make us “Fall In Love” with the city, but, while the city is the setting for each of the 18 vignettes, it really isn’t the focus of the film.

Paris is really about the people of the city. In particular, it’s largely a movie about the bonds forming, changing, and ending between those people. In addition to dialogue, the movie also puts a huge focus on non-verbal communication between people, as the viewer and the characters both get just as much out of what isn’t said as what actually comes out.

Paris is also equally about the people behind the camera, directing each scene, as it is about the people in front of the camera acting them out. Each director firmly places his or her stamp on their portion of the film.

Paris is really just an anthology of 18 short stories set in the city. I’m not sure if this is the packaging’s fault or my own, but I went into this movie anticipating it to be more in the vein of Magnolia or Traffic, two of my all-time favorites. What I mean by that, for those of you who haven’t seen either of those two pictures, is a series of initially independent or loosely related stories that gradually merge into a cohesive unit and end with a unified, interesting resolution.

What I got, however, was a series of totally independent stories that, for the most part, never overlapped or had a defined resolution.

That isn’t to say that the film is devoid of value, because it certainly does have some strengths. Paris‘s strengths come from the performances of its powerhouse list of directors (22 total) and actors (some pretty big names).

I love watching a really well directed movie, seeing how a director uses camera angles, lighting, pacing, etc. to convey the message of a scene. Paris really does something very interesting by changing directors from story to story; you get to see all of these different styles contrasted with one another back to back to back. This makes it easier to appreciate how unique and talented each one is when you see how they do things differently from everyone else. Some of my favorite directorial performances in the film were those of Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run), Joel & Ethan Coen (No Country For Old Men, Fargo), Vincenzo Natali (I didn’t recognize any of his previous work, but his Paris segment “Quartier de la Madeleine” featured some visuals reminiscent of Sin City), and Isabel Coixet (a Spanish director who I’ve never heard of either, but will hopefully get to see more of). Wes Craven’s scene, which was unsurprisingly set in a graveyard, was also one of my favorites, but, despite the setting, was something pretty different from what you would expect from him.

As for acting performances, Buscemi does a great job working wit the Coen brothers again, the always beautiful Natalie Portman does a good job in Tykwer’s scene which reminds me somewhat of her role in Garden State, Juliette Binoche (Chocolat, Cache) is very convincing as a mother struggling with the loss of her son, and Gena Rowlands (The Notebook) has a very witty and powerful dialogue about the end of a long marriage with Ben Gazzara (The Thomas Crown Affair, Happiness). Some other random names you may recognize who show up briefly include: Willem Dafoe, Nick Nolte, Elijah Wood (in Natali’s scene), and Maggie Gyllenhaal.

Overall I’d say I really enjoyed about 50-60% of the 18 vignettes. Some were just too weird for me, including one strange stop-action story that involved two mimes and another that included several very angry Asian women, and some were just lacking enough substance to really pull their own weight.

As for a recommendation, to me it was definitely worth renting. If you’re someone who is big into the directorial aspects of filmmaking then this is as intriguing a movie as you’re going to find. If you enjoyed the story format of Waking Life then this is something that you’ll probably be glad you checked out as well, because they are somewhat similar in format.

However, if you’re just looking for something entertaining to pick out while you’re at the video store or picking something out for a movie night with some friends, you’re better off looking somewhere else.

I should be getting We Own The Night and Gone Baby Gone in the mail tomorrow from Blockbuster, so you can expect to see something up on both of those within the next week.

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