Paris (2008)

Touches You

Simply A Masterpiece

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Like all of Cedric Klapisch's films I've seen so far, this one is a true work of art. It takes it's material directly from real life, all the characters, places, situations are living, breathing insights into the human condition, into life, death, misery, loneliness, love, and so much more than can be put into words. There is no main plot, there is no main character (except for maybe Paris, the city), but all the characters and their lives (even the ones who only appear for a few seconds) are given such attention, that the audience gets an intimate and full insight. Roman Duris is of course incredible as a weak has-been nightclub dancer whose thrilling life suddenly ends when he gets a weak heart and is told the chances of survival are slim. I love how this actor can immerse himself so fully in the mood of his character, he's absolutely at rock bottom, with no future, hardly any present, he is just too weak to be violently miserable, so he is quietly miserable. The thing he gets a kick out of is drinking in the lives of the people he sees from his window. Then there's a good mood kind of day, he sits on the floor listening to music and looking at old photos, and his whole face just lights up (I know it's cliché) when he remembers the past. I don't want to bore anyone and go into all the other characters, the film does it better in several seconds than I could in a whole book, but one that particularly stood out was a Parisian history professor, intelligent and with a sharp tongue he is suddenly faced with emotions he can't battle with words and a quick intellect. A terrific film, as close to perfect as anything is ever going to get.

I din't love it, but I liked it for sure. Typical French movie showing no exceptional events, just ordinary lives, a lot of ordinary lives to which you finally get attached. Three characters in different scenes, speaking of the fact that they hadn't had sex or had been single for a long time: "During Middle-Age. I will need to check my dick with carbon 14 to be sure"; "I think even my cat would like to dump me"; "My legs aren't waxed..." "...Don't worry, at this stage I can't care". This summarizes all the topic: ordinary lives are lonely, all lives are lonely. At last a so realistic ignorant racist baker wonderfully played by Karine Viard: the France I hate, but who exists whatever I think and want; just wanted to slap her.

Many parallel stories here; many of them taking place under the eyes of this young dancer with a heart disease, who watches them from his balcony.He's jealous of these lives and communicates with them mostly through his sister, who after all perhaps is the only real character he knows. She's living, while others perform a kind of theater, from the racist lady in the baker's shop to the professor who tries to have a ridiculous affair with one of his students.The script functions well sometimes and less well other times. A movie to watch or just let go.

The movie is mostly made of vignettes following several characters, loosely interconnected in the city of Paris. Sounds familiar. To be honest, I've grown tired of the many dramas borrowing that formula. It's become an epidemic, especially since Magnolia. And so, I did not expect to enjoy Paris all that much. But I loved it and it moved me by its stripped down, sincere approach.Director and writer Cédric Klapisch, unlike several of his contemporaries, did not feel the need to employ convoluted means to link these characters, or end the movie on some sort of unifying, highly artificial bang. Klapish wisely elects to concentrate on building strong characters. He succeeds, so much so that it becomes easy for him to create simple, believable story lines for them. The real link between them? They are fallible, restless, tentative, longing... in other words, they are human.There's a large cast here and Klepish mostly concentrates on a few of them. Many of the smaller parts are actually as intriguing as the bigger roles and I caught myself wondering what would happen to those characters. But Klapisch stays the course and ends the movie much like it began. A lot is left unresolved, much like life. No Hollywood ending here but I could certainly have followed those characters for another hour if need be.A beautiful, stripped down story but enough subtext and genuine quality to make for a great and lasting movie experience.