Paris, je t'aime (2006)

Through the neighborhoods of Paris, love is veiled, revealed, imitated, sucked dry, reinvented and awakened.

Directors:

Olivier Assayas, Frédéric Auburtin,

Writers:

Emmanuel Benbihy (transitions), Bruno Podalydès (segment),

Stars:

Florence Muller, Leonor Watling, Juliette Binoche

1 win & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Florence Muller	...	La jeune femme (segment "Montmartre")
Bruno Podalydès	...	L'automobiliste (segment "Montmartre") (as Bruno Podalydes)
Leïla Bekhti	...	Zarka (segment "Quais de Seine")
Cyril Descours	...	François (segment "Quais de Seine")
Marianne Faithfull	...	Marianne (segment "Le Marais")
Elias McConnell	...	Elie (segment "Le Marais")
Gaspard Ulliel	...	Gaspard (segment "Le Marais")
Steve Buscemi	...	Le touriste (segment "Tuileries")
Julie Bataille	...	Julie (segment "Tuileries")
Axel Kiener	...	Axel (segment "Tuileries")
Catalina Sandino Moreno	...	Ana (segment "Loin du 16e")
Li Xin	...	Madame Li (segment "Porte de Choisy")
Barbet Schroeder	...	Monsieur Henny (segment "Porte de Choisy")
Miranda Richardson	...	La femme au trench rouge (segment "Bastille")
Sergio Castellitto	...	Le mari (segment "Bastille")

Storyline

Paris, je t'aime is about the plurality of cinema in one mythic location: Paris, the City of Love. Twenty filmmakers have five minutes each; the audience must weave a single narrative out of twenty moments. The 20 moments are fused by transitional interstitial sequences and also via the introduction and epilogue. Each transition begins with the last shot of the previous film and ends with the first shot of the following film, extending the enchantment and the emotion of the previous segment, preparing the audience for a surprise, and providing a cohesive atmosphere. There's a reappearing mysterious character who is a witness to the Parisian life. A common theme of Paris and love fuses all.

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Plot Keywords:

love | tourist | restaurant | actress | oscar wilde | 

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Taglines:

Fall in Love 18 Times

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language and brief drug use

Details

Official Sites:

First Look Studios [United States]

Country:

France Liechtenstein Switzerland Germany

Language:

French English Spanish Mandarin Arabic

Release Date:

21 June 2006 (France)

Also Known As:

Paris, I Love You

Filming Locations:

Quartier Latin, Paris 5, Paris, France

Box Office

Budget:

$13,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$39,242 (USA) (4 May 2007)

Gross:

$4,857,376 (USA) (3 August 2007)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Victoires International, Pirol Stiftung, Filmazure

Technical Specs

Runtime:

120 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Julio Medem was attached to the project for a long time. He was supposed to direct one of the segments, but he finally fell off because of schedule conflicts with the filming of Chaotic Ana.

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Goofs

In the last segment, where the grave of Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir is shown, the audio and subtitles both say Simon Bolivar. This is not a goof; rather, it is showing that Carol (Margo Martindale's character) is not completely confident in French and/or history.

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Quotes

Carol: And then something happened, something that is hard to describe.
[looks around at people around her in the park]
Carol: Sitting there in a foreign country, far from my job and all the people I knew, a feeling came over me. As if I recalled something, smething that I had never known and for which I had been waiting.
Carol: But I didn't know what it was. Maybe it was something I had forgotten. Or something I had missed my whole life. I can only tell you that at the same time I felt joy and sadness.
Carol: But not a ...
[...]

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Connections

Followed by Moskva, ya lyublyu tebya! (2010)

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Soundtracks

"Tian Kong (The Sky)"
Written by Huang Kuai Lan and Yang Ming Huang
Performed by Faye Wong

User Reviews

Wonderful love declaration to a beautiful capital

I watched this movie a couple of days ago in a small independent cinema in Paris. It was my last evening in the French capital and the best good-bye I could have chosen. These twenty episodes made me relive the impressions I had collected in Paris in a heart-warming manner without drifting off into kitsch or sentimental schmaltz. Each episode is full of surprise, strong emotions and suggestive pictures and each short-film is directed according to the rules of a good short story. To me this kind of movie demands a lot more talent and qualities of a director and a story board writer than any epic two hours drama and all of them succeeded in their task excellently! The stories were chosen carefully with regard to their matching Arrondissement and express the respective flair perfectly. Each episode was seen from a different ankle, had a different topic, a different style and still the twenty stories result in a harmonic orchestra of films. The most outstanding advantage with the concept of an episode movie in my opinion is based in the fact that you can switch in between a large variety of feelings and moods without the danger of overload, just the other way round: the melange of sadness, melancholy, pure joy, despair, wrath, anxiety, curiosity or passion gives this movie a unique freshness and harmony. And not to forget the all over topic of love! Love between the characters, love between the characters and Paris and also the love of the directors and actors/actresses for this project. I don't want to go into the details of the episodes since there are so many, but I must highlight the range of world famous actors and actresses from all over the world and their approach to this project. Some played with their image, some broke it completely and some interpreted the stereotypes connected with their home country or the roles they had played before, so intertextuality was given all through the movie. All in all I can absolutely recommend this great collage and will be looking forward to its release on DVD.