MovieTime

Review

by Jason Di Rosso

A multi-strand portrait of Paris as cinema loves to depict it: with impossibly chic, centrally located apartments and narrow streets teeming with life and love. We meet Romain Duris, a dancer who needs a heart transplant, and the sister who cares for him (Juliette Binoche), a divorcee social worker with three young kids who's given up ever finding someone new. Then there's the warm-hearted stall owners down at the street market, an old fashioned community in the atomised metropolis, and the architect and academic brothers who are both negotiating some mid-life speed humps.

The film touches briefly on more political issues, too, with glimpses into the world of high fashion and African immigration that offer insights into French racism and the class divide. But this isn't really a political film, it's Klapisch's love letter to Paris, well made and unashamedly sentimental. Ultimately he's juggling too many balls and doesn't tie up all the strands successfully, but his love for Paris is contageous.

Director: Cédric Klapisch
Cast: Juliette Binoche, Romain Duris, Fabrice Luchini, Albert Dupontel, Francois Cluzet, Karin Viard, Gilles Lellouche, Melanie Laurent, Zinedine Soualem, Julie Ferrier
Producer: Bruno Levy
Script: Cédric Klapisch
Cinematographer: Christophe Beaucarne
Editor: Francine Sandberg
Music: Loic Dury
Running time: 129
Australian distributor: Icon
Language: French
Classification: M