‘Paris’ Coming to America

After years of production and anticipation, a seemingly revolving door of talent coming and going, and the addition then subtraction of the greatest living director Jean-Luc Godard
(in my opinion anyway), the colossal Paris, je t’aime is finally branching the Atlantic. The project showcases twenty-two of the top directors in the world (I count the Coen brothers as one person) as they each direct a segment that doubles as both a brief romantic encounter and a romantic ode to the city of Paris. Each segment is broken up into arrondissements, which is French for ‘counties’ I think, where each filmmaker will showcase their particular story in a different part of Paris. First Look Pictures has thankfully picked up the North American rights, ensuring cinephiles here will finally get to see this film, which seemed to exist solely on an Imdb page for about five years until its premiere at the Toronto Film Festival. First Look is looking to make an even bigger splash with this release, having already released Austrailian neo-western The Proposition and Sundance fave A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints.

In an effort to keep this under word count, I won’t list every star/director involved in this project, but I will mention some of the highlights. Alfonso Cuaron, who might be smelling Oscar with his Children of Men, filmed his segment, which stars Nick Nolte and Ludivine Sagnier (Swimming Pool), in a single take. In the portion named “Tuileries,” The Coen Brothers re-team with their oddball muse Steve Buscemi. Famed cinematographer Christopher Doyle assumes directorial duties in the “Porte de Choisy” segment, where he directs French director Barbet Schroeder. In the strangest inclusion, Wes Craven directs Rufus Sewell, Emily Mortimer, and Alexander Payne, who also directs his own segment. Other segments of note include Gus Van Sant directing Marianne Faithfull and Natalie Portman in the Tom Tykwer short.

And I’m not even skimming the surface of the international star/directorial power that this film has. But the question is: will all this talent result in a great film? Consider it the “USA Basketball Theory,” very often in these situations, the product never equals the sum of its parts. The great 50/60s European directors tried a similar approach with RoGoPaG (which featured Godard, Pasolini, and Rossellini), Boccaccio ’70 (Fellini, Visconti, De Sica, Monicelli), and Love and Anger (Godard, Bertolucci, Bellochio, Pasolini), which all are good films, none of them amount to anything in the higher echelon of any of the director’s work. The Americans tried it with How The West Was Won, which featured a past-their-primes John Ford and Henry Hathaway. It is a good film, made by the greatest Western director, yet it falls well below masterpiece. And who could forget the much-maligned New York Stories, which squandered the potential of a Martin Scorsese/Woody Allen/Francis Ford Coppola project. The problem is often one of the directors make a segment that weighs down the rest of the project. It’s like having a bad song on great album. For me, Cameron Crowe’s Singles soundtrack is the greatest soundtrack ever, but The Lovemongers’ version of “Battle of Evermore” is so bad that it prevents it from Perfect Album status. And thus is why these films often don’t work. But hopefully this one does.