Wonderful anthology film, bunch of episodes connected with unexceptional cityscapes shot by one of the producers. I don’t know anything about the neighborhoods of Paris, but I guess each short is supposed to have its own local tone to it.<\/p>\n
Montmartre<\/strong> Quais de Seine<\/strong> La Marais<\/strong> Tuileries<\/strong> Loin du 16\u00e8me<\/strong> Porte de Choisy<\/strong> Bastille<\/strong> Place des Victoires<\/strong> Tour Eiffel<\/strong> Parc Monceau<\/strong> Quartier des Enfants Rouges<\/strong> Place des F\u00eates<\/strong> Pigalle<\/strong> Quartier de la Madeleine<\/strong> P\u00e8re-Lachaise<\/strong> Faubourg Saint-Denis<\/strong> Quartier Latin<\/strong>
\nMan is cursing traffic, cursing everyone, alone and angry, then woman walks by and passes out next to his car. He acts the husband to other onlookers and lays her down in the backseat. She wakes up, they kinda like each other, she’s off to her tobaccologist (?) but they’ll meet up later. A nice opening piece, more like the kind of short that plays the film festivals than most of the other segments turned out to be… they were more episodes, excerpts, not stand-alone stories.
\nDirector Bruno Podalyd\u00e8s starred himself, along with Florence Muller of Resnais’s Coeurs<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n
\nBoy’s friends are yelling insulting things to every woman who walks by, so boy gets away from them and helps up muslim girl. They like each other, it’s cute, her grandfather is nice to him, awww.
\nDirector Guriner Chadha made Bride & Prejudice<\/em> and Bend It Like Beckham<\/em>.<\/p>\n
\nJokey bit where dude helping artist Marianne Faithful at a press falls immediately for guy sitting on floor. Dude talks to him forever, tells him how they were destined to meet, gives his phone number, walks off, turns out guy on floor speaks no French, har!
\nDirector Gus Van Sant lovingly photographs Gaspard (the boyfriend in A Very Long Engagement<\/a><\/em>) and Elias (Elephant<\/em>) in mostly long takes.<\/p>\n
\nAmerican tourist Steve Buscemi is waiting for his subway train and breaking the rules in his tour guide (“don’t make eye contact”), getting himself involved in the power games of two young lovers across the station and leading to his being beaten up with his souvenirs dumped all over him. Poor guy.
\nDirectors Joel & Ethan Coen almost make up for The Ladykillers<\/em> with this one. Katy was defeated by too-high expectations.<\/p>\n
\nGirl puts her own baby down at the babysitting place, then rides public transit to her job taking case of some rich lady’s baby, sings the same sweet song to both babies. One of the more obvious message-movies, but nice.
\nDirector Walter Salles (Motorcycle Diaries<\/em>) cast Catalina Sandino Moreno, of Fast Food Nation<\/a><\/em> and Maria Full of Grace<\/em>.<\/p>\n
\nOkay, Barbet Schroeder is a bald hair-care product salesman who goes to hardass Madame Li’s place to sell her stuff. First meeting doesn’t go well but she tries the stuff and calls him back, delighted. Sort of a choreographed musical comedy. Makes no damn sense. Best part is when he’s between meetings, bowling at a monastery and monks take away his cell phone.
\nDirected by Christopher Doyle, who I see is shooting a Rufus Sewell thriller and Gus Van Sant’s Paranoid Park<\/a><\/em> next.<\/p>\n
\nGuy meets his wife for lunch, intending to tell her he’s leaving her for his mistress, but first she hands over a doctor’s note saying she has terminal leukemia. So he “rises to the occasion”, dumps his girlfriend, and spends the rest of his wife’s life doing things they used to love to do together, falls back in love with her and is destroyed when she dies. The only piece with a 3rd-party narrator, and one of my favorites.
\nDirector Isabel Coixet made The Secret Life of Words<\/em> and My Life Without Me<\/em>… stars a guy from Va Savoir as the husband, the girl in a coma in Talk To Her<\/a><\/em> as the mistress, and Miranda Richardson as the wife.<\/p>\n
\nKinda crappy despite two fave stars Willem Dafoe and Juliette Binoche. Her son died a week ago and she follows his phantom voice out to the plaza where Dafoe is a cowboy on a horse who lets her see her son once more. Katy liked it, I thought it was David Lynch-derivative.
\nDirector Nobuhiro Suwa made some well-regarded Japanese movies I’ve never heard of before.<\/p>\n
\nKid describes how his mime parents first met. Awesome, funny, features identical twins, imaginary cars and lots of miming… the one short that the whole movie would be worth seeing just to catch.
\nDirector Sylvain Chomet’s follow-up to the perfect Triplets of Belleville<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n
\nIn a single shot, father Nick Nolte walks down the street with his daughter to where a friend is watching her son. He takes over babysitting and the friends go off together. Jokey because the dialogue at first makes it sound like she’s cheating on her husband (actually the son) with Nolte.
\nDirector Alfonso Cuar\u00f3n is into long takes now. I told Katy I was waiting for something to explode but she didn’t get me.<\/p>\n
\nOne of the better ones… Maggie Gyllenhaal has a kinda cute encounter with her drug dealer, then calls him up to order more (really to see him again), but he sends a flunky instead who steals her watch.
\nDirector Olivier Assayas has apparently completed his new Asia Argento \/ Michael Madsen thriller<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\nAnother great one, man gets stabbed and as he’s dying, a girl he recognizes is trying to help him. He flashes back to his not-so-easy life in Paris and all the times he’s tried to talk to her. Sad movie.
\nDirector Oliver Schmitz has made a buncha German films. The girl is A\u00efssa Ma\u00efga, the lead (bar singer) in Bamako<\/a><\/em> and also appeared in Cach\u00e9<\/em>.<\/p>\n
\nGuy is trying to have a role-playing night out with his wife – it doesn’t go as planned but they’re still alright.
\nDirector Richard LaGravenese made Freedom Writers, seems a weird choice for this. Bob Hoskins stars with Fanny Ardant, whom Katy recognized from 8 Women<\/em>.<\/p>\n
\nOn a creepy street with desaturated colors except for bright-red blood, model Olga Kurylenko is devouring Wes Craven when Elijah Wood interrupts her. Vampire love ensues.
\nDirector Vincenzo Natali made Cube<\/em> and Nothing<\/em>, and has seen Sin City<\/em> more than once.<\/p>\n
\nSpacey, businesslike guy’s on a pre-wedding honeymoon with cute girl, she kisses Oscar Wilde’s grave then decides he’s not romantic enough for her and storms off. He talks to Wilde’s ghost briefly then runs after her and quotes her some Wilde, which idiotically makes her fall back in love with him.
\nDirector Wes Craven isn’t known for this kind of thing. Rufus Sewell and Emily Mortimer are the couple, Alex Payne plays Wilde.<\/p>\n
\nBlind boy gets phone call from girlfriend, apparently breaking up with him. He flashes back in high-energy Lola-style through their relationship, how he first met her thinking she was in trouble, falling for her rehearsal performance (she’s an actress). He’s fallen for it again and she’s not really breaking up with him. One of my faves.
\nDirector Tom Tykwer made Perfume<\/em>. Natalie Portman is the girl. This apparently existed as a separate short back in 2004.<\/p>\n
\nGena Rowlands and Ben Gazzara get together at a cafe to talk over their divorce at the end of a long marriage. Good one, Rowlands wrote.
\nDirector G\u00e9rard Depardieu is probably a big John Cassavetes fan, appears himself as the waiter.<\/p>\n