Paris, je t’aime

 

Paris, je t’aime is a French film that is a collection of short films all placed together they are all based around Paris in different areas, I don’t want to talk about all of the films as some of them are slightly strange and ropey however  there are some which are beautiful and artful, this makes sense to look at a collection of short films as this is what I will be making. From watching this style of short films I’m beginning to understand that short films don’t have a beginning, middle and end, they mainly take one section of a narrative arc rather than doing it whole.

Tuileries is one of the short films that really stood out within about 17 of them, this short film shows a man who is waiting at a station to get a train we know immediately that he is a tourist from his mise-en-scene of reading a tourist information book. This short film explores the alienation of tourists within France and how scary it can truly be whilst visiting a foreign country, the short film was directed by Joel and Ethan Coel. The composition of the shots within the film are set to show the character is in a odd place, he is central underneath the sign which is quite odd when you come to think of it, nobody naturally sits in the exact middle.

The other short film that I think is influential is about two mime parents of a little boy and there love story. This Is the 7th short film in the whole film and it shows how lonely one mime artist is as he goes around the Eiffel Tower, his interpretations can often be thought of as offensive as no one understands him until he meets another person just like him and now they can offend people together (I actually love this storyline) the short story is mostly a flashback apart from the start and end where we see the little boy is narrating what happened between his parents and perhaps its an exaggeration from his part but still.

 

 

After watching this I’ve began to question my own short film idea as I know now that I need to condense the storyline and not have as much of a narrative and more like a snippet of the narrative arc. None of the short films within Paris, je t’aime are anything like what my idea for the short film but still I cant decide whether im being original or if im being stupid.

I guess we will find out.