Paris Je T’aime

Edit: A warm welcome to my Kiwi, Brasilian and Portuguese IP addresses/readers. ¡Cumprimentos, esferas Portuguese do olho!

Someone tell that voice in my head to shut up, already. I’ve heard enough “You should really be cleaning” to last me a lifetime or three. I’m quite excited that I’ll have the option to hire a cleaning lady in Fontainebleau, though for the price, she’d better beat the socks off of Rosie.

Every once in a while, I’m possessed by the inexplicable urge to watch a film, in a theater. Mind you, I’m not a theater person for many reasons, including the usurious €10 that cinemas charge to strain my already bad eyeballs in a dirty seat next to hordes of tweens swooning over every shot of Orland Bloom. Ugh.

Which is why I prefer independent movies, in even dirtier, second-tier theaters. Having seen a preview for The Namesake and hearing rave reviews from a Bengali friend, I was curious to see if it would live up to the hype. Then, halfway to the theater, I realized that watching a serious, heart-wrenching tale of immigrant life, solo, on a Saturday night, would probably not do wonders for my mood and decided to change course and see Paris Je T’aime instead.

The movie is made up of a series of vignettes, all shot by different directors, some well-known, some not. The theme of each segment is,

<Drum roll>

Wait for it

Wait for it

Yeah, you guessed it

Love

In Paris

Go figure. If for nothing else, you should go see it for a great performance by Nick Nolte. No, really; he was pretty good. If you prefer brilliant, stunning, actresses named Natalie Portman, over old, haggard, alcoholic actors, then this movie is also for you. For the aforementioned tweens, Elijah Wood pops his pre-pubescent looking head in as well.

My favorite clip was a touching short about interracial, love titled ‘Quais de Seine’. I think I’ll put off laundry and go find more works by Leïla Bekhti instead.