Despite several winning performances, writer/director Christophe Honoré's Dans Paris (“Inside Paris”) is not a particularly good film. But it is shot in the City of Light, so viewers might still enjoy daydreaming about how cool it would be to live in a lovely apartment with a view of the Eiffel Tower across the rooftops. A room with a view doesn't matter much to Paul (Romain Duris): devastated by his breakup with the lovely Anna (Joana Preiss), he moves in with his divorced dad (Guy Marchand) and womanizing brother Jonathan (Louis Garrel). Paralyzed with grief (understandable; his girlfriend informed him that he's “as elegant as a pile of shit”), Paul is barely able to get out of bed, despite his father's well-intentioned but clumsy efforts to help comfort his son. Meanwhile—in this film that transpires over a 24-hour-period—Jonathan manages to seduce three young women in a single day; the boys' mother (Marie-France Pisier) arrives for a visit and ends up squabbling with her ex; Paul jumps into the Seine at 4:00 a.m., and, well, the whole shebang stumbles to a not-very-satisfying conclusion. Dans Paris is neither original (as one critic put it, the film "plays like a pastiche of French cinema clichés through the ages”) nor consistently interesting, but Alex Beaupain's jazzy score has some lovely moments, and the scene in which Paul and Anna sing to one another on the phone is charming. Optional. (S. Graham)
Dans Paris
Genius, 92 min., in French w/English subtitles, not rated, DVD: $24.95, May 6 Volume 23, Issue 4
Dans Paris
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