The Frame

I love Paris! And the title of this film is Paris, I Love You! And it’s composed of short films from eighteen directors, many of whom I love! It’s almost a given that I would love this film. And I did. Is it really even and coherent as a whole? Well, no, probably not–but how could a film by eighteen very individual directors be anything but idiosyncratic? For what it is–a glimpse into Paris from eighteen different perspectives–it’s lovely. Particular highlights are Gurinder Chadha’s cross-cultural French-Muslim not-quite love-story, Isabelle Coixet’s bittersweet glimpse into the broken marriage of an aging couple, Wes Craven’s surprisingly endearing tale of an Oscar Wilde haunting, Tom Tykwer’s time-collapsing blind Frenchman-and-Natalie Portman romance, and Alexander Payne’s closing short depicting an American woman writing an essay for her French class about how she fell in love with Paris. In between are gothic vampires, Gus van Sant being less pretentious than usual, Alfonso Cuarón being a bit disappointing for once (though a disappointing Cuarón film is still better than most normal films), the Coen brothers with a quirky tourist tale, and a truly bizarre episode (the only one I actively disliked) involving an elderly gentlemen and an Asian hair salon. There’s something here for everyone, and if you don’t at least want to visit (or revisit) Paris by the end, I give you up as a lost cause. Word on the street is that the same producers are working on New York, I Love You.
Well Above Average