Highly Overrated But Still Good

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

one of films who see for rediscover yourself. like each simple film about basic truths about family, siblings relations, about force of words and about the acceptance of the other and the acceptance of yourself, a film who reminds Ingmar Bergman cinematography and New Wave. in fact, the film of happy meet between great actors - Romain Duris remains one of my favorites - . and a film about near every day reality. and nothing more.

Apparently this rather languid French flick is something of an homage to the New Wave. There's quite a bit of all manner of homage running throughout in fact, with symbols namechecking JD Salinger and even - with a bedtime story concerning a cartoon wolf called Lulu - the resonance of another unrepentantly Parisian film, la Séparation. If Christian Vincent's film is about the rupture of a family unit then Honoré's concerns is re-composition, two brothers and estranged parents grope to rediscover their mutual centre of gravitation.Inevitably it's all about style though, which often means simply filming on location, Dans Paris indeed. There are a number of quirks to make us mindful of the disjunct connections the family have to one another - an early break in the fourth wall as Louis Garrel addresses the camera, sped-up and fast-cut sequences, a touching final phone call where Romain Duris and his estranged girlfriend begin to sing their conversation along with the (non-diegetic) soundtrack. I found the capricious narrative trying and the tale wilfully inconclusive, despite a suggestion of schematic form. The acting's average too. 4/10

After the turn-off of his previous Ma Mère and the gloomy intensity of previous films, Christophe Honoré has produced a fourth feature that's economical and entertaining, a remarkable balance of moods that (as before) studies parental and sibling relationships, this time with elegant dialogue and amusing contrasts of scenes and characters and an evocation of the French New Wave that gives two of France's best and hottest young male film actors a chance for virtuoso performances.Dark and light come in the form of the two brothers these actors play. One, Paul (Romain Duris), has broken up with his girlfriend (Joana Preiss) and, depressed after a series of disastrous scenes which we observe early on in back-and-forth jump-cut sequences that are intentionally confused in chronology, goes back to live with his caring father.Though Paul's younger brother Jonathan (Louis Garrel), who's never left the paternal nest, tells us speaking into the camera in an early shot (which establishes the light and detached side of the film), that he's the narrator but only a lesser character in the story, he emerges also as an essential foil to Paul because of his success with the ladies and his larky attitude. He's as frolicsome as his brother is worrisomely dark-spirited and hopeless.When not reading La Repubblica and watching Italian TV, Papà Mirko (Guy Marchand) does domestic things like make chicken soup and drag home a big Christmas tree he decorates alone.Jonathan makes it with three girls in one day while trying to lure Paul shopping for presents at Monoprix. Dad summons his estranged wife and the boy's mother (Marie-France Pisier, of Jacques Rivette's 1974 Céline and Julie Go Boating, which this film evokes) to cheer up Paul too. And she succeeds: Paul's depression isn't seen one-dimensionally. Dad is amusingly cuddly, while Garrel's high spirits constantly contrast with Duris' glumness and relative inertia. But that inertia also has its sudden interruptions: he goes out early in the morning and jumps into the Seine, then returns wet and surprised at what he's done -- and at still being alive. Jonathan/Garrel is also clearly the Jean-Pierre Léaud of our days, and a bedroom shot links him with Godard's Belmondo. (Garrel is well-suited as a reborn Sixties icon after starring in his father Philippe's great 2005 evocation of '68, Regular Lovers as well as the earlier Bertolucci '68 piece The Dreamers, and his looks match the dash of Belmondo with the polish of Léaud. Duris has already shown his mercurial potential in a string of romantic comedies and his starring role in Jacques Audiard's dark, brilliant 2005 crime/art film, The Beat My Heart Skipped.There's a lot of formally written and frenetically spoken French dialogue; Garrel is a master of the pout, snicker, and slurred one-liner; Duris emerges as the actor with more depth, while Garrel shows a new light, comedic side we haven't seen much of before. Marchand is appealing, and the movie has energy. Inrockuptibles, the influential and hip French review, calls this "The best French film of the year." Dans Paris is an actors', writer's, editor's tour de force that creates its own unique tragi-comic mood.

I saw many movies in Cannes last month and this was one of them. I was impressed by the performances of leads Romain Duris and Louis Garrel, who play brothers. Garrel narrates the story of his brother Duris who leaves Paris to live in the province with his girlfriend and her son.I saw director Christophe Honoré's last movie Ma mère starring the always great Isabelle Huppert also in Cannes two years ago and was very disappointed, even if I liked all the actors in that movie. However, this was a much better developed movie that shows more promise. Dans Paris also reunites two actors from that last movie of Honoré, Louis Garrel and Joanna Preiss.The influence of New Wave director Truffaut is obvious and sometimes, Louis Garrel reminded me of a young Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Léaud). What I liked the most about this movie is that the plot is not like the typical Hollywood movie. It is about the emotions and relations of these brothers, their father and the other people in their lives. It will come out in France in October. I hope it shows in other countries too, because it is a worthy film. Maybe in the states it will come out on DVD at least.