PARIS, JE T’AIME. Dir Various. 2006

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Twenty-one directors contribute a short film each to make up this homage to Paris, and the international cast make this a cosmopolitan collection.

There are cranky American and British divorcees (incl Bob Hoskins), a grieving Frenchwoman (Juliet Binoche), a stoned actress (Maggie Gyllenhaal), amongst the characters, and there is more than a hint of the mystical in many of the shorts.

They range from the comic and surreal to the poignant, and there’s even a vampire romance. Watching these quite different films one after another plays havoc with the emotions; each film draw you in, absorbs you in its mini drama, then abandons you, only for you to be picked up by the next story and manipulated all over again, twenty-one times, with no time to let the sensations settle. So much material, so many storylines, baffling, charming, quirky and delightful.

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OLD JOY. Dir Kelly Reichardt. 2005

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