Irish Film Institute -PARIS

PARIS

Director: CEDRIC KLAPISCH

FRANCE • 2008 SUBTITLED • COLOUR • ANAMORPHIC • DOLBY DIGITAL STEREO • 130 MIN


WITH A BRILLIANT FRENCH CAST HEADED BY JULIETTE BINOCHE AND ROMAIN DURIS AS SIBLINGS MENACED BY TERMINAL ILLNESS, AND THE PARISIAN BOULEVARDS AND BACKSTREETS LOOKING UTTERLY GLORIOUS IN WIDESCREEN, THIS EXPANSIVE ENSEMBLE DRAMA FROM CEDRIC KLAPISCH COULD HARDLY GO WRONG—AND IT DOESN’T.
Duris, who first shone in Klapisch’s 1996 charmer ‘When the Cat’s Away’, is on typically assured form as a cabaret dancer who’s just had some chastening news from the doctor, and spends his days peering from his apartment balcony at the bustling neighbourhood below. Binoche, dressed down for the occasion, also excels as a much-hassled social worker who puts her job on hold to care for him, finds family bonds renewed in these testing circumstances, but also takes a shine to kindly fruit stallholder Albert Dupontel—a man with troubles of his own. Meanwhile, across the street, history student Melanie Laurent finds herself pursued by her professor Fabrice Luchini, a cultural snob enjoying an unlikely lease of life after his father’s recent passing.
As one of Luchini’s lectures explains, the survival of a city depends on a continual process of renewal, and that’s played out on a personal level in the myriad subplots. If that results in a sort of classy soap opera, then the film’s none the worse for it, breezily put together, shifting effortlessly from comedy set-pieces to moments of disarming intimacy. Klapisch evidently loves his actors (understandably so), ensuring that everyone gets their party-piece, and though Binoche’s half-joking striptease is surprisingly sweet, Luchini’s faux-’60s dance moves to Wilson Pickett might just be the funniest thing you’ll see on screen this year.—Trevor Johnston.

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