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Paris

EMAILPRINTIFC Films

Paris reviews
68
6.8 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 21 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 5 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info

Genre(s): Comedy  |  Drama  |  Romance

Written by: Cédric Klapisch

Directed by: Cédric Klapisch

Release Date:
Theatrical: September 18, 2009

Running Time: 130 minutes, Color

Origin: France

Language(s): French

Summary

RATING: R for language and some sexual references

Starring Juliette Binoche, Romain Duris, Fabrice Luchini, Albert Dupontel, François Cluzet, Karin Viard, Gilles Lellouche, and Mélanie Laurent

While waiting for a heart transplant that could save his life, Pierre reunites with his sister and her lively children. This rediscovery of his family and observation of the teeming streets outside his window give Pierre hope, and a new sense of how he might spend the time still left to him. A cinematic love letter to the city that seems to hide a story behind every shop window, small alley, street market or grand apartment building, the film explores the life and love possible only in PARIS.

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Klapisch's masterstroke was to place at the center of a movie a man, forced by circumstances, to stop and simply observe.

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90

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

Paris is a funny, sad, romantic and deeply felt love letter to a great city. If you can't book a trip now, it's the next best thing.

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88

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Every character has life and depth. It's unusual for an episodic film to involve us so well in individual lives; as the narrative circles through their stories, we're genuinely curious about what will happen next.

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88

St. Louis Post-Dispatch Joe Williams

This is a kaleidoscopic valentine to a great city from a director who knows and loves his subject.

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80

New York Daily News Joe Neumaier

Has a mature tapestry of characters, a welcome sense of humor and, most crucially, a lovely Juliette Binoche.

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75

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

The new film Paris by writer-director Cédric Klapisch was originally supposed to carry the subtitle "An Ephemeral Portrait of an Eternal City." That kind of sums it up.

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75

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Not much happens during the course of the movie but, as with all good dramas, the protagonists are richly drawn and the events of their lives become of interest.

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75

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

The actors, remarkable and seasoned, take care of their end of things, stylishly and (when and where it can be arranged) truthfully.

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75

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

It pulls together diverse residents of the city, from produce vendors to academics, and trains a loving eye on their unique environments and the urban landscapes they all share.

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70

Los Angeles Times Sheri Linden

If the idea of interconnectedness feels secondhand, what's fresh and affecting is the way Binoche's and Duris' characters navigate life and death.

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70

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

As a whole, though, Paris pulses with a contemporary version of the energy that animated Balzac's novels, or Colette's accounts of the life she observed from the window of her apartment in the Palais Royal.

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70

The New York Times Stephen Holden

There are enough intersecting characters from different classes and backgrounds in Paris to evoke the city as a complex, healthy organism, whose parts are all connected. If it is too lighthearted to show the actual political and economic machinery behind it, its celebration of how well that machinery works produces a pleasant afterglow.

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67

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

Paris flits from story to story and character to character without doing justice to any of them.

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67

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

There are too many secondhand characters roving through Paris.

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67

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

To a one, they're terrific. But in this overpacked ensemble cast, it's Binoche you want to see more of.

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63

Boston Globe Ty Burr

The best armchair holiday going - the cast is lovely to behold and the plot dips in and out of the arrondissements with panache. You almost don’t mind that none of it adds up to terribly much.

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60

The Hollywood Reporter Gregory Valens

Paris is a bittersweet film containing rare moments of comedy.

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50

Village Voice Nick Pinkerton

At a 124-minute runtime, though, the writer-director has stretched a wide canvas, and only sporadically found anything worth filling it with.

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50

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Soggy stuff from French director Cedric Klapisch (When the Cat’s Away), set in the title city and collecting the routine travails of various urbanites.

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50

New York Post Kyle Smith

The tales mostly drift along and wrap up unresolved. If this is an accurate slice of Paris life, I'll take the relative excitement of Topeka.

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40

Time Out New York David Fear

This could have been a true urban mosaic. Instead, we simply get a vision of Paris as the city of lite.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 6.8 (out of 10) based on 5 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Anthony B. gave it a10:
Powerful. Wonderful film. For those out there condemning the film for it's bleakness, you are very unaware of it's purpose. It's obvious Where The Wild Things Are has affected you deeply with it's near perfect representation of the human condition. What's so remarkable about this film is it's ability to express so much with such subtlety. No spoon-feeding needed. It's a painfully beautiful story full of monstrous and disorienting emotions; the core of humanity. This is not just a film for children(which it is,) but a film for any rational, inquiring, and compassionate person. So many people are arguing over whether it's appropriate for children. That the story too frightening and too adult. Not true. I remember these emotions. I remember these thoughts. Children are not and should not be excluded from humanity. Imagination is a person's mechanism for exploring life and it's challenges. It's often terrifying and it's often melancholy. Children will appreciate this movie and, with hope, be forced to think. It's foolish to believe children are devoid of confronting fears we all have.

Pat s gave it a4:
Two hours of misery, boredom, and irritation redeemed (?) by a ten-minute final sermon to ":seize the day." I sure wish that I had seized this beautiful fall afternoon in Minneapolis rather than sitting in a theater watching people whose vapid lives annoyed me. Hey, people, you can choose your attitude about things. You create many of the conditions in your lives by your behavior. Grow up! Grow out to others. And this comes from a retired French teacher, lover of Paris and most things French but, come to think of it, not of Parisian ennui.

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