Paris, je t'aime!

Yes!! One movie crossed off the list. After watching Kill Bill vol. 1 and 2 (vol 2 was an absolute crap, and very unlike Tarantino, more on that some other day), I was way too tired to do an entry on Paris, je t'aime. So here goes. The main deal is this - eighteen directors (from all over) were given around 5 minutes to do a short clip- using Paris' backdrop as inspiration. All the individual snippets then integrated to form - Paris, je t'aime. (Originally I thought this was going to follow the likes of 'Love Actually' .. but yes .. I was wrong .. and I'm glad that I was wrong). It was great to see the different styles, the different story telling, the different Paris .. (but boy, some clips were just RANDOM and downright crap) .. but the pro's outweigh the con's and the more I let each of the individual clips sink in (and then think about the integration as a whole), the more I find new things I like and ... I want to go to Paris. Popular culture has such a bad influence on me that it's not funny anymore.

Since I have plenty of time at hand, I'm going to talk about all eighteen snippets. (It'll be a very long one). [I just wiki-ed the thing and all of a sudden the whole thing makes sense .. each director was given a specific area of Paris (there are 20 sort of divisions referred to as the Arrondissements of Paris) and each snippet's name is named after one of the 20 places or is somehow related. These are just the sort of things we had done in English back in high school .. anyway].

1. Montmarte: I don't know much about the director except he was is this clip himself. Basically, (oh people must see it because describing it (by me) does not do it justice) being the first clip, I forgot some details (not that there is a lot to remember, I think the intention was to show Paris and not so much the characters) except that he was a handsome French-man. It's about those unexpected encounters - he wonders (while parked next to a footpath) why he can't find love in the city of love despite having an 'okay' sense humour and 'okay' looking, when a lady collapses on the sidewalk. The five or so minute clip ends with 'I will wait for you' (she had an appointment and he'd drive her there .. but yeah .. we all know what the 'wait' actually meant).

2. Quais de Seine: Trust Gurinder Chadha to stick to what she knows best. Put a girl from the sub-continent (with a hijab this time) with an insanely cute white boy and waalaa. I wish she'd stop following the same routine every time. As much as we (the friend I went with .. she just happens to a 'hijabi' as well) loved the cute French boy (and vowed we'd move to Paris) I'm just so annoyed at Chadha. The only thing I can praise is her taste in white men- Jonathan Rhys Meyers (Bend it like Beckham) I pine for, Dylan McDermott (Mistress of Spices) is an absolute hottie and Marin Henderson & Daniel Gillies (Bride and Prejudice) weren't all that bad either. [But the French boy in this clip .. such smile .. why do the West have all the good looking men and women?]

3. Le Marais: I can't remember which one this was. So I'm guessing it was .. one of those middle things .. (if it was crap, I would've remembered .. and if it was awesome, I would've remembered).

4. Tuileries: Okay, I read good things about this one since it's by the Coen brothers. I can see the humour but at the same time it was just absurd. I'm not sure if I like it. But I did laugh in the theatre, so the humour factor I hadn't missed.

.... Okay, at this point I'm getting a bit impatient. So I think I'll just stop.