Paris Je t'aime review
Loving Paris, Je t'aime
Wide range of directors, actors tell stories about famous city
By BRUCE KIRKLAND, TORONTO SUN
CANNES -- They love Paris in the springtime, or anytime at all. So 18 international filmmakers, from the Coen Brothers to Alexander Payne, Gerard Depardieu, Gus Van Sant, Gurinder Chadha and Torontonian Vincento Natali, agreed to make five-minute shorts for the compilation film Paris, Je t'aime. The theme, of course, is romance.
A clutch of the directors involved, along with actors Gena Rowlands, Miranda Richardson, Elijah Wood and French hottie Ludivine Sagnier were on hand yesterday for the film's debut in the Cannes program Un Certain Regard.
Some highlights of their comments:
Wood (star of Natali's short): "For me, being part of this project was intriguing by the very nature of how it was put together, bringing all of these different directors from different parts of the world together to tell a story about love in Paris. It seemed a really interesting idea and something I wanted to be a part of. Then I found out I would be working with Vincenzo, whom I was a fan of, and the vampire story came afterward. I agreed to be a part of the project before I knew what my short would be about. So I found out that it would be a vampire story -- and that was icing on the cake."
Richardson (star of Isabel Coixet's short): "Eclectic. Anything eclectic floats my boat. And I've always been an advocate for the short story."
Rowlands (who wrote and co-starred with pals Ben Gazzara and Depardieu in a short co-directed by Depardieu): "It was just intriguing to me because the whole thing seemed impossible."
Natali (who jumped off stage later to snap 'paparazzi photos of the Sun with the Globe and Mail and just to say hi to Toronto): "I have to say I was shocked to see how much you could squeeze into five minutes because the rule of thumb for short films is 'less is more'."
Payne (who directed Margo Martindale in his short): "The beauty of a short is that it can be anything and it's not burdened with narrative expectations that we've come to have on a feature film. You can have cinematic ideas that will never find their way into a feature film but you still want to express them. I'm madly in love with short films.
"And Bruce, since you're Canadian, I'll make a plug for what I think is one of the greatest films of the new century, which is Ryan, which won the Oscar last year for best animated short film. It's 13 minutes -- and you get the world in 13 minutes!"
After the press conference, Payne told the Sun that he has seen Ryan, the National Film Board of Canada production, between 45 and 50 times "and each time I see something new. I now think it is a terrific film, an extraordinary film, and I can't say enough about it. So please tell Chris (director Chris Landreth) hello for me if you see him."
And I agree with Payne about Ryan. A brilliant film.
Wide range of directors, actors tell stories about famous city
By BRUCE KIRKLAND, TORONTO SUN
CANNES -- They love Paris in the springtime, or anytime at all. So 18 international filmmakers, from the Coen Brothers to Alexander Payne, Gerard Depardieu, Gus Van Sant, Gurinder Chadha and Torontonian Vincento Natali, agreed to make five-minute shorts for the compilation film Paris, Je t'aime. The theme, of course, is romance.
A clutch of the directors involved, along with actors Gena Rowlands, Miranda Richardson, Elijah Wood and French hottie Ludivine Sagnier were on hand yesterday for the film's debut in the Cannes program Un Certain Regard.
Some highlights of their comments:
Wood (star of Natali's short): "For me, being part of this project was intriguing by the very nature of how it was put together, bringing all of these different directors from different parts of the world together to tell a story about love in Paris. It seemed a really interesting idea and something I wanted to be a part of. Then I found out I would be working with Vincenzo, whom I was a fan of, and the vampire story came afterward. I agreed to be a part of the project before I knew what my short would be about. So I found out that it would be a vampire story -- and that was icing on the cake."
Richardson (star of Isabel Coixet's short): "Eclectic. Anything eclectic floats my boat. And I've always been an advocate for the short story."
Rowlands (who wrote and co-starred with pals Ben Gazzara and Depardieu in a short co-directed by Depardieu): "It was just intriguing to me because the whole thing seemed impossible."
Natali (who jumped off stage later to snap 'paparazzi photos of the Sun with the Globe and Mail and just to say hi to Toronto): "I have to say I was shocked to see how much you could squeeze into five minutes because the rule of thumb for short films is 'less is more'."
Payne (who directed Margo Martindale in his short): "The beauty of a short is that it can be anything and it's not burdened with narrative expectations that we've come to have on a feature film. You can have cinematic ideas that will never find their way into a feature film but you still want to express them. I'm madly in love with short films.
"And Bruce, since you're Canadian, I'll make a plug for what I think is one of the greatest films of the new century, which is Ryan, which won the Oscar last year for best animated short film. It's 13 minutes -- and you get the world in 13 minutes!"
After the press conference, Payne told the Sun that he has seen Ryan, the National Film Board of Canada production, between 45 and 50 times "and each time I see something new. I now think it is a terrific film, an extraordinary film, and I can't say enough about it. So please tell Chris (director Chris Landreth) hello for me if you see him."
And I agree with Payne about Ryan. A brilliant film.