Paris, Je T'aime (2006)

Paris, the City of Love. Hilarity ensues as 18 filmmakers bring their own unique styles to five minute stories centered in and around Paris (and no, it isn't Paris Hilton, thank God.) 1) A man parks his car on a Montmartre street and muses about how the women passing by his car all seem to be "taken". Then a woman passerby faints near his car, and he comes to her aid. 2) A young man, hanging out with two friends who taunt all women who walk by, strikes up a friendship with a young Muslim woman. 3) A young male customer finds himself attracted to a young printshop worker and tries to explain that he believes the man to be his soulmate, not realizing that he speaks little French. 4) An American tourist (Steve Buscemi) waiting at the Tuileries station becomes involved in the conflict between a young couple after he breaks the cardinal rule of avoiding eye contact with people on the Paris Metro. 5) A young woman sings a Spanish lullaby to her baby before leaving it in a daycare. She then takes an extremely long commute to the home of her wealthy employer (whose face is not seen), where she sings the same lullaby to her employer's baby. 6) A beauty products salesman makes a call on a Chinatown salon run by a woman who proves to be a tough customer. 7) Prepared to leave his marriage for a much younger lover, a man instead decides to stay with his wife after she reveals a terminal illness - and rediscovers the love he once felt for her. 8) A mother (Juliette Binoche), grieving over the death of her little boy, is comforted by a magical cowboy (Willem Dafoe). 9) A boy tells how his parents, both mime artists, meet in prison and fall in love. 10) An older man (Nick Nolte) and younger woman meet for an arrangement that a third person ('Gaspard'), who is close to the woman, may not approve of. It is eventually revealed that the young woman is his daughter, and Gaspard is her baby. 11) An American actress (Maggie Gyllenhaal) procures some exceptionally strong hashish from a dealer. 12) An African man, dying from a stab wound in the Place des fetes asks a woman paramedic for a cup of coffee. It is then revealed that he had fallen in love at first sight with her some time previously. By the time she remembers him, and has received the coffee, he has passed. 13) An aging couple (Bob Hoskins and Fanny Ardant) act out a fantasy argument for a prostitute in order to keep the spark in their relationship. 14) A young backpacker tourist (Elijah Wood) falls in love with a vampiress. 15) While visiting Pere Lachaise Cemetery, a young woman breaks up with her fiance (Rufus Sewell), who then redeems himself with the aid of advice from the ghost of Oscar Wilde. 16) After mistakenly believing that his girlfriend, a struggling actress (Natalie Portman), has broken up with him, a young blind man reflects on the growth and seeming decline of his relationship with the actress. 17) A separated couple meet at a bar (run by Gerard Depardieu) for one last drink before the two officially divorce. 18) An American woman tourist, a letter carrier from Denver, Colorado on her first European holiday, recites in rough French what she loves about Paris.

Trivia: The original intention of the film was to represent each of the 20 arrondissements of Paris but this idea was abandoned together with filmed segments by directors Christopher Boe and Raphael Nadjari. The one with Nick Nolte (Parc Monceau) was shot in a single continuous shot. When the characters walk by a video store, several posters of movies by the other directors of Paris, je t'aime are visible in the window.

With directors like Joel and Ethan Coen, Alfonso Cuaron, Gus Van Sant, Wes Craven, and great directors from France, Austrailia, Japan, Brazil, Germany and Canada how could this movie go wrong? I really like the concept of different short films with one unifying theme and place. In this we had comedy, drama, live action cartoons (the mimes), Sci-Fi (vampires), even a little western thrown in (a cowboy riding a horse through the streets of Paris), just about everything you would want in a movie, well, except for explosions. And it was nice to see some of the International actors mixed in together, some actors we, as Americans, do not get to see very often. They are currently doing one for New York and one for Shanghai. My favorite segments were probably (as I numbered them above) #2, #5, #9, #12, and #16.