Dans Paris (France/Portugal; 92 min.)


directed by: Christophe Honoré
starring: Louis Garrel, Romain Duris, Joana Preiss, Guy Marchand, Marie-France Pisier		 Dans Paris
 

Bruce says: "Director Christophe Honoré has created a delightful offbeat comedy about family, friendship, love and loss. Louis Garrel begins by facing the camera and telling the audience he will be the narrator of the story. We don’t know who he is and for a number of minutes it is unclear that he is one of the principal characters. The device works much better than it sounds and the film continues on a strange pitch. It is not until almost the halfway point that the true subject of the film is revealed. At first, the central theme seems to be about the two main characters - brothers Paul (Romain Duris) and Johnathan (Louis Garrel) – not being emotionally stable enough to maintain meaningful relationships. Paul breaks up with his girlfriend Anna (Joana Preiss) and move back to his father’s apartment in Paris. Jonathan doesn’t seem able to keep his hands off women but his connectivity is strictly physical.

"The two brothers love one another but have difficulty being in the same room at the same time. Mirko (Guy Marchand), the boy’s father, busies himself around the apartment and rarely goes out. Jonathan and Mirko worry that Paul may be suicidal. A woman (Marie-France Pisier) arrives at the apartment and behaves mysteriously. It takes a while to realize she is the boys’ mother, not Mirko’s girlfriend. Describing too much about story would not do it justice and would spoil the subtlety of the shift in point of view.

"As a precursor to Honoré’s film LES CHANSONS D’AMOUR, Paul and Anna sing a love duet on the phone that comes out of left field with no warning. It is to Honoré’s credit that he carries off the scene so effortlessly. DANS PARIS becomes more in focus as one reflects on its various merits. Viewing DANS PARIS is similar to leafing through a scrapbook where snapshots are intermingled with party invitations, graduation announcements, formal photographic portraits, thank you notes, and newspaper articles. A complete understanding comes later, after the scrapbook is closed. Duris and Garrel are both superb and the supporting cast is excellent. 4 cats"
 
Michael says: "Christophe Honoré’s DANS PARIS is clearly meant to be an homage to great French filmmakers of the New Wave like Godard and Truffault. There are all sorts of cues and references that those familiar with the original works will no doubt delight in. Unfortunately, for those of us who are not so conversant in the source material, Honoré’s second feature (following the abysmal MA MÈRE) is an interesting, sometimes exciting, often frustrating and ultimately somewhat simple and pretty bit of celluloid. At the center of the film are two brothers, Paul, whose tempestuous relationship with Anna has recently crashed and burned, and Jonathan, the young grasshopper who is flush with youth and bounds from woman to woman while his brother drowns in a heartbreaking depression. Hovering over this yin and yang of emotion is their disgruntled father. He cares for his sons, but is frustrated by the extremes of their emotion. There is also a brief appearance of the pair’s mother, long estranged from their father, giving hints to the darkness hovering over this family like a shroud.

"There seems to be a lot made of life in Paris, and life outside of Paris. Paris seems to be the place of love, emotion, romance, passion; while the country seems to lead only to heartbreak and depression. Honoré uses the city to great effect, and the light-hearted scenes involving Jonathan do add some sparkle to the goings-on. Of the two actors, Paul’s Romain Duris (Chlotrudis nominee for THE BEAT MY HEART SKIPPED) is riveting, his lean form curled in on itself, his feral features hidden by a heavy beard. I’ll give Louis Garrel one thing; he did manage to shake off my distasteful memories of his starring role in MA MÈRE. He handles his light-hearted free spirit much better then the brooding twisted character from the previous film. A scene toward the end where Paul and Anna communicate by song over the phone is thrilling and strangely powerful, hopefully leading to promising things to come in Honoré’s next film, LES CHANSONS D’AMOUR, a musical that played Toronto which Bruce really enjoyed. I’m cautiously optimistic, hoping that this young filmmaker’s work just continues to improve. I was disappointed in DANS PARIS, after a fairly vibrant opening (after the unusual narrative device) but it was leaps and bounds better than Honoré’s previous work. I’m struggling between 2 ½ and 3 cats.