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Yes, it came direct from Paris, France

Paris, je t'aime is a ridonkulously huge collection of famous directors (Joel and Ethan Coen, Gurinder Chadha, Wes Craven, Alfonso Cuarón, Sylvain Chomet) and actors (Steve Buscemi, Other People Who Aren't Steve Buscemi) in a series of short films about Paris. I actually wasn't expecting much, just because I find short-format films pretty hit-or-miss, but it was a cool mix of subjects and directing styles. It's hard to say which one was my favorite because there were so many good ones.

The last film is about a lonely American mail carrier who's studied French for two years in preparation for a six-day trip to Paris and who spends a lot of time wandering around Paris and reflecting on her life. It made me cry, because she was so foolish and ridiculous but it was all so true and realistic to the Parisian tourist experience, because I think we're all that foolish and ridiculous, no matter how hard we try. She had some really great observations on life and love and Paris, but no matter how profound they were, they were all presented in terrible classroom French. I really lost it when she said:

J'ai vu le tombe de Jean-Paul Sartre et Simon Bolívar. Mon livre dit que ils étaient deux fameux écrivains français et que ils s'aimaient beaucoup et c'est pourquoi ils sont enterrés ensemble.

I even almost liked the film about mimes (plural mimes!), because one of the mimes was Mme Wallace from Amélie and because of the use of the insult "fils de mime!" Fils de mime! You're a fils de mime! You're all fils de mimes!

Also, it didn't have a drunk Nick Nolte in it, which I'm pretty sure the following one did.

srah - Thursday, 29 November 2007 - 7:35 PM
Tags: mimes, movies, nablopomo, nablopomo 2007, paris, reviews, steve buscemi, travel

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