August 24th, 2008
PEN.com Torrent Kiss No. 1: Paris, je t’aime
First in our Torrent Kissing segment
I first saw Paris, je t’aime at last year’s Cinemanila, but I can’t help revisiting it as I hear the news about New York, I Love You in post-production for next year. And thanks to torrent technology, I don’t even have to buy my usual pirated DVD. There’s just so much to love and rediscover in this movie; I can’t complain about watching it over and over.
In Gus Van Sant’s segment, there’s Gaspard Ulliel who also played Manech, Mathilde’s (Audrey Tautou) lover in A Very Long Engagement.
There’s Steve Buscemi (with that WTF face I dearly love) who was given a leading role in the romantic comedy Interview.
In a similar metro scene I starkly remember from Maria, Full of Grace, hauntingly beautiful Catalina Sandino Moreno is a saint.
In the Bastille segment, a dying wife asks his philandering husband to read her Sputnik Sweetheart, which was my first Murakami.
Here a grieving mother, the forever young and very expressive (no need to talk) Juliette Binoche also played Steve Carell’s love interest in Dan in Real Life.
Posters of Gus Van Sant’s Elephant and Walter Salles’s Motorcycle Diaries (both of them directing their own Paris, je t’aime segments) are inconspicuously posted in Alfonso Cuaron’s long continuous shot.
The Maggie Gyllenhaal I love, different from The Dark Knight’s, is this discreetly lonely American actress shooting and getting drugged in France.
This backpacking Elijah Wood character still ain’t too far from a hobbit, but it caused a raucus stir among the snobbish Cinemanila crowd in its witty visual-driven horror-comedy sequence.
Just because. <3
A surprising finale performance by Margo Martindale–her faulty French, how she carried the button-down blouse with track pants, fanny pack, and running shoes, that last expression are made of acting win.
Finally, this movie is how I discovered the music of the fierce Leslie Feist. Now, if you’ll take a moment to listen to her La Meme Histoire.
(Probably) complete poster versions after the jump.
lTil next Torrent Kiss!
September 12th, 2008 9:07 am
[...] the pretty successful Paris, je t’aime, a collection of love stories shot across the different district of the French capital, which was [...]
January 30th, 2009 12:42 am
[...] from how I loved her work in Paris, je t’aime, Isabel Coixet comes up with something that isn’t just smart but also sexy although probably a [...]