Lyssa Beyer

After seeing “Paris, je t’aime,” it’s clear its goal was to create a vision of Paris that you don’t get to see in everyday cinema. In this sense, it succeeds, as much of what is portrayed of the city are things rarely ever presented to mainstream American audiences. Although what the city has to offer is shown, such as the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe, they never become the main attraction of the film. The film itself weaves together a series of short films by different directors in an apparent attempt to point out how interpretable the city can be to everyone around the world.

The film starts off slow, which is surprising to see when taking into account its unique style and construction. With these short films being intertwined, starting off on a high note was to be expected in order to grab the viewer right from the beginning and keep them interested in a film with no main character. However, it isn’t until the third short, director Gus Van Sant’s “Quais de Seine,” that things pick up and some of the shorts get to the point where they seem to at least have a purpose of entertaining.

This short is then followed by one directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, who use their seemingly favorite movie star, Steve Buscemi, to humorously portray how miscommunication in the city can get out of hand in a hurry. It is a hilarious point in the film, and may be the best short and funniest the film has to offer. It easily sticks out, but maybe not so much in a good way.

What the Coen segment brings to light, after seeing other ones that weren’t up to par with it, how easy it is to predict how well one of the film’s segments will be based upon who was either directing it or actually starring in it. The film as a whole has a star studded cast, but not one of them is in the film for any extended period of time. Each time a new short begins the director and title of the segment are displayed, and unless the name of the director of the short was recognizable or a star was introduced early enough in the short to connect with, it was easy to see what the eventual outcome of the short was going to be.

The more experienced directors go as far as to develop their characters as quickly as possible in order to make the short work, like Alfonso Cuaron and his short starring Nick Nolte about him baby-sitting his grandchild. Other ones however rely on the stars to carry the short, and in the ones with Elijah Wood, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Bob Hoskins and Natalie Portman, it just doesn’t quite work.

“Paris je t’aime” isn’t so much a rollercoaster of emotion, but more of a rollercoaster of content. There are about three shorts directed by relatively unknown or unheard of directors that were genuinely enjoyable. But instead of serving a purpose of showing off a side of Paris hardly ever shown, the film comes across as a film that could be shown to a filmmaking class, to demonstrate how good directors make good films and how bad ones, or at least less experienced ones, need to get more practice in order for their work to be good.