Island News & Views
Events · 5th February 2008
Annette Yourk
NEXT AT FRIDAY FLICKS
PARIS JE T'AIME
February 15th. Q.C.C.
Adm: $5.00 – stu/snr $4.00
Doors 7:30 – Showtime 7:45
Ah, l’amour. you can smell it in the air, along with freshly baked croissants and uncorked vin rouge. Paris’ faith in itself as the city of love is somehow bound up in the spirit of the place. When Paris comes to the movies the heart always rules the head. PARIS, JE T'AIME brings together 18 short films by leading international directors who offer their reflections on passion and romance, as felt in the hearts of different generations, races and genders.
There are plenty of novels on the big screen, but this rare collection of short stories offers something completely different. Each of the five-minute meditations that form this cinematic love letter to Paris approaches its subject from a different angle, using a different district of the city as its starting point. The tales cover love lost, love found, love renewed, love exchanged and love unrequited.
Each vignette has its own unique energy, a spirit that suggests a competitive spirit between the filmmakers. Comedy sits alongside tragedy, the rich meet the poor, desire becomes drama, the French tongue is twisted into an international language of longing, and genre is as varied as the geography. In the end what unifies this collection is the city itself and the romance. The briskly clashing styles, tones and cultures that propel PARIS, JE T'AIME, all jostle and intermingle like passers-by in a crowded metropolis, and ensure that the cinematic pleasures come thick and fast.
The film as a whole is far greater than the sum of its parts, and each of those parts is a delight to look at, each being set, as they are, in a unique corner of Paris. This bittersweet love-letter to France's capital is as richly cosmopolitan as the city itself.
PARIS JE T'AIME
February 15th. Q.C.C.
Adm: $5.00 – stu/snr $4.00
Doors 7:30 – Showtime 7:45
Ah, l’amour. you can smell it in the air, along with freshly baked croissants and uncorked vin rouge. Paris’ faith in itself as the city of love is somehow bound up in the spirit of the place. When Paris comes to the movies the heart always rules the head. PARIS, JE T'AIME brings together 18 short films by leading international directors who offer their reflections on passion and romance, as felt in the hearts of different generations, races and genders.
There are plenty of novels on the big screen, but this rare collection of short stories offers something completely different. Each of the five-minute meditations that form this cinematic love letter to Paris approaches its subject from a different angle, using a different district of the city as its starting point. The tales cover love lost, love found, love renewed, love exchanged and love unrequited.
Each vignette has its own unique energy, a spirit that suggests a competitive spirit between the filmmakers. Comedy sits alongside tragedy, the rich meet the poor, desire becomes drama, the French tongue is twisted into an international language of longing, and genre is as varied as the geography. In the end what unifies this collection is the city itself and the romance. The briskly clashing styles, tones and cultures that propel PARIS, JE T'AIME, all jostle and intermingle like passers-by in a crowded metropolis, and ensure that the cinematic pleasures come thick and fast.
The film as a whole is far greater than the sum of its parts, and each of those parts is a delight to look at, each being set, as they are, in a unique corner of Paris. This bittersweet love-letter to France's capital is as richly cosmopolitan as the city itself.