Paris

I so wanted to really love the film Paris (2008) Director Cedric Klapisch characteristically approaches this comedy with a over abundance of ideas, characters, scenes, dialogue, all of them dissociated and dislocated, and he clearly hopes that one ingredient will bind them together. This ingredient is the magical city of Paris itself. The city indeed does appear quite beautiful as we look at it through the eyes of a dying young man Romain Duris . He portrays an ex dancer who is dying of a severe heart condition, trapped by fatigue and depression his life revolves around the voyeuristic pleasures of watching his neighbours' lives and the contact he has with his carer sister (Juliette Binoche)
Weaved in and around all this klapisch adds the romantic complications of a host of market traders, an academic's mid life crisis and troubled relationship with his brother, a racist Bakery owner's effort to find an assistant and a harrowing tale of an illegal African immigrant who has a misconceived crush on a beautiful Parisian model.
The idea of all these people struggling with the trials and tribulations of life under one shared French piece of sky, sounds wonderful, and for the most part the film does deliver a sort of grittier Amelie-esque fairytale.However to be honest there are just too many strands and stories to cope with, and the audience is occasionally left slightly overwhelmed with it all.

Having said that, the real heart of the film remains intact, and that is the portrayal of the understated and moving relationship between sister and brother. Duris, gaunt, sickly and stubbly French almost steals every scene he is in, but in the end it is a slightly shopworn but luminous Binoche, that nabs the real honours.