Paris, je t'aime (2006)

An omnibus-film by 18 different directors, some more known than others. A star-spangled cast and a common theme to which everybody has something to say: Paris, the city of love, the city of light, maybe also the city with riots in the suburbs.
Tom Tykwer initially directed a short that became Faubourg Saint-Denis. This spawned the idea to make a short tale about each of Paris' districts. 18 were realized. Most of the films don't relate specifically to their district. For that matter most of the segments could have been placed in almost any big city.

Montmartre (Bruno Podalydès)
A man drives around looking for a place to park his car; then drives away with a woman that fainted on the street - poor.

Bruno Podalydès

Quai de Seines (Gurinder Chadha)
Young men annoy women passing by, one becomes friend with a Muslim girl. Her scarf gives her faith and identity - interesting.

Cyril Descours

with LeÏla Bekhti

Le Marais (Gus Van Sant)
A customer talks to a worker. He believes they are soulmates, but the other one does not speak his language. Nice.

Gaspard Ulliel

Elias McConnell

Tuileries (Joel and Ethan Coen)
A tourist is beaten up, because he allegedly stares at his girlfriend, although his guidebook alerted him not to stare at people in the Metro. Coen'ish with an ironic twist.

Steve Buscemi

Don't look now ...

Loin du 16e (Walter Salles / Daniela Thomas)
An immigrant woman leaves her baby alone, takes a long trip to her rich employer. She sings the same lullaby to both babies. Interesting.

Catalina Sandino Moreno

 Porte de Choisy (Christopher Doyle)
A salesman tries to sell his products in a Thai beauty shop. Poor.

Bastille (Isabel Coixet)
A man gives up his plans to divorce when his wife discloses that she has a leukemia. Interesting - almost a feature film plot packed in a short segment.

Places des Victoires (Nobuhiro Suwa)
A woman's grief work about her dead son. An imagined cowboy helps her to continue her own life. Interesting.

Juliette Binoche

Willem Dafoe

Tour Eiffel (Sylvain Chomet)
A boy tells how his parents, both pantomime artists, met. Poor.

Parc Monceau (Alfonso Cuarón)
A man and a woman talk about a third person, Gaspard, and the influence that person has on the woman's life. We see that Gaspard is the woman's baby boy. Very interesting.

Quartier des Enfants Rouges (Olivier Assayas)
An actress has a favorite drug dealer. Disappointing.

Place des fêtes (Oliver Schmitz)
A Nigerian man tells about his life after a brief encounter they had before. Mediocre.

Pigalle (Richard LaGravenese)
An elderly couple spices up their marriage by fantasies about hanky-panky. Poorly executed.

Bob Hoskins and Fanny Ardant

Quartier de la Madeleine (Vincenzo Natali)
A vampire fanatasy. Poor.

Elijah Wood

Olga Kurylenko

Père Lachaise (Wes Craven)
The spirit of Oscar Wilde saves the marriage of a young couple. Nice, but not special.

Emily Mortimer, Rufus Sewell

Faubourg Saint-Denis (Tom Tykwer)
An actress tests the quality of her performance on her blind friend. Intersting idea, poor execution.

Melchior Beslon

Natalie Portman

Quartier Latin (Frédéric Auburtin / Gérard Depardieu)
An couple has one last drink before their divorce. Normal.

Ben Gazzara, Gena Rowlands

14e arrondissement (Alexander Payne)
An American tourist tells in horrible French what she loves about Paris and how she feels that the city is aboutto love her back. Charming.

Margo Martindale

Altogether: 6/10