Just saw the lovely collection of five-minute short films, Paris, je t'aime. Not only do the twenty different films offer up so many different views of Paris, they made me both wistful about visiting again (ah, Montmartre! we'll be back in our little flat soon, you wait and see!) and happy that I've visited at all.
What struck me most, however, about this collection of films was how akin they are to short stories. Starting halfway through the action, right in the middle of a moment. Ending in the middle of another. No clear resolution per se...not on either side of the story. But an engrossing glimpse into a moment in time. The way characters are introduced, the way so much about them is communicated in such a compressed amount of time - brilliant stuff and so closely tied to the structure of my favorite short stories.
I'm not a professor. I'm not a creative writing instructor. But if I could somehow teach a class on how these films represent the best of short story writing, I would. Really. Excellent, excellent stuff and I highly recommend it.
If the lure of short films as short stories doesn't offer quite the pull I'd hoped, I point you to the list of directors who participated in this collection:
| Olivier Assayas | (segment "Quartier des Enfants Rouges") | |
| Frédéric Auburtin | (segment "Quartier Latin") (transitions) | |
| Emmanuel Benbihy | (transitions) | |
| Gurinder Chadha | (segment "Quais de Seine") | |
| Sylvain Chomet | (segment "Tour Eiffel") | |
| Ethan Coen | (segment "Tuileries") | |
| Joel Coen | (segment "Tuileries") | |
| Isabel Coixet | (segment "Bastille") | |
| Wes Craven | (segment "Père-Lachaise") | |
| Alfonso Cuarón | (segment "Parc Monceau") | |
| Gérard Depardieu | (segment "Quartier Latin") | |
| Christopher Doyle | (segment "Porte de Choisy") | |
| Richard LaGravenese | (segment "Pigalle") | |
| Vincenzo Natali | (segment "Quartier de la Madeleine") | |
| Alexander Payne | (segment "14th arrondissement") | |
| Bruno Podalydès | (segment "Montmartre") | |
| Walter Salles | (segment "Loin du 16ème") | |
| Oliver Schmitz | (segment "Place des Fêtes") | |
| Nobuhiro Suwa | (segment "Place des Victoires") | |
| Daniela Thomas | (segment "Loin du 16ème") | |
| Tom Tykwer | (segment "Faubourg Saint-Denis") | |
| Gus Van Sant | (segment "Le Marais") |
The list of collaborating writers and actors is equally impressive.
