Dans Paris (2006) User Reviews

Great performances

[samo68 · 7/10 · 15 June 2006]

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.

Paris as the typical city of love? Or as a means of breaking down those inside of it that love.

[johnnyboyz · 7/10 · 3 June 2009]

If Dans Paris comes across as inconsistent and a little bit wavy at times, then I suppose that's a good thing because all sorts of relationships can be exactly that; particularly as they near their end. What begins as a tale looking at the final days of a relationship between a man and a woman quickly develops into a tale about family relations between two brothers, their father (who's divorced) and the other brother's attitude to relationships with other women. The film carries a very deliberately wavy atmosphere: a light hearted and jovial, if a little annoying at first, aura before taking a step back and becoming more sombre before going back to being of a surrealist and attacking nature. The film's immediate closing tone, however, is one of small scale unity – one that taps into child-like innocence and brings everything back down to Earth.

Dans Paris, or 'In Paris' in English, is a film very aware of itself and where it places itself. Early on in the film, one character delivers a brief line of dialogue to the camera informing us that he is not necessarily the film's protagonist. When he does this, he is standing on the balcony of one of those typically Hollywood Parisian-set apartments that has a perfect view of the Eiffel Tower across the rest of the skyline. The intent is set up very early on, at least in regards to this particular character's actions. By identifying he is not the main character, he is disregarding his physical antics from the text as unimportant or not 'as' important as certain other characters'. But his substantial placement within the text is vital, as he and his entire ideation about the treatment of women is told in parallel with his brother's actions following his deeply unsettling break up.

Christophe Honoré's film tells the story of one man named Paul (Duris) going through a routine break up with a woman named Anna (Preiss); a failure to connect with her and her son Loup (Rambert-Preiss). But the director opts out of going down a specific tone via route of depression and sadness for the overall piece. Jonathan (Garrel) offers relief from what is, essentially, the primary focus, only not evidently so and his actions on a separate equilibrium offer the idea that everyone else's life goes on despite what's happening back at home involving loved one's and their problems. In this sense, the film might remind you of Nancy Myers' 2006 film The Holiday in its study of two people (women, in that film's case) at two different points in their lives regarding relationships. Only In Paris has a more affectionate study and its leads are slightly more tolerable.

Paul's actions very early on reflect uncertainty and are of a sporadic nature. He goes from seemingly suicidal when he takes a photograph of himself with many pills in his mouth to rather upbeat when he shares a joke with his brother and then back to being very angry again, all with in a small space of time. Rather than act as a distorted and inconsistent tone when studying the respective situation, I think the film is getting across the shock to the system following the break up and the sporadic, uncertain mindset the individual might find themselves facing as they come to terms with what's happened.

The film, I think, manages to just about balance its upbeat and surrealist scenes. The film will either revolve around Jon's goings on whilst on his way to the shops and the mis-adventures he gets involved in with other women; with the claustrophobic and darkly lit scenes of Paul and his father sharing a space inside, both left to stew over the fact that both of them have lost their female partners at some point in their lives. Brothers Jon and Paul act as binary opposites to one another: whilst one is cheeky, upbeat and enthusiastic and possesses the power speak to us; the other remains very much the opposite: serious and downbeat, even during the few scenes we see Paul early on with Anna, his partner. Writer/director Honoré delivers a look at how two different men act towards women and the prospect of loving women with Paul himself admitting he over evaluates things and situations with women, while Jonathan seems to jump from relationship to relationship without much in the way of problems or thought.

Honoré peppers the film with a variety of clocks or timepieces. There is also an emphasis throughout the film on time, perhaps alluding to the passing of time these characters require. What was refreshing was that the film realises that Paul's situation is far more interesting, overall, than Jon's and focuses on him more towards the end. Dans Paris is an odd experience, punctuated by 'funny' antics of one man and the downbeat antics of another. But overall, as a simultaneous study of colloquial romance and the aftermath of broken down romance, it works quite well.

...you're about as elegant as a pile of sh*t, sweetheart.

[lastliberal · 6/10 · 28 June 2009]

I liked Love Songs (Les Chansons d'amour); wasn't thrilled with My Mother (Ma mère); this film, also by writer/director Christophe Honoré, and based upon J. D. Salinger's Franny and Zooey fits in between the two.

Paul (Romain Duris) is a real jerk. This may be a typical French male, but I have no sympathy for him. His girlfriend Anna (Joana Preiss) breaks up with him, and he returns to Paris to live with his father (Guy Marchand) and brother (Louis Garrel). He is in a deep depression over the breakup and makes life miserable for everyone. Everyone except his younger brother, who seems to enjoy his life and loves.

While Paul sits home moping, Jonathan (Garrell) is heading to Bon Marche. It's a long journey as he has to stop frequently along the way to screws every woman (Héléna Noguerra, Judith El Zein, & Annabelle Hettmann) he meets. Along the journey, he keeps calling his brother to join him. No luck. he revels in his nasty mood.

Marchand, as the father turns in the best performance of the film.

Brother is the camera who gazes on the other brother's nude girlfriend

[fablesofthereconstru-1 · 7/10 · 10 March 2008]

Paul(Romain Duris) can't live with or without Anna(Joana Preiss). Jonathan(Louis Garrel) broke the fourth wall in the opening moments of "Dans Paris" and announces that the movie won't have a narrator. He's not the main character; Paul is, according to Jonathan. The narrator is lying. Jonathan's the main character because "Dans Paris" is about narration. Like most films, "Dans Paris" will proceed with omniscient narration. Unlike most films, however, the audience isn't made aware of this given. There's a tacit agreement between the filmmaker and moviegoer that the film begins where the backstory leaves off. But Jonathan speaks directly to the camera, forcing the viewer out of his passive stance. Jonathan isn't Paul's big brother, but he is "big brother" in the Orwellian sense of the word. Jonathan is literally, the omniscient narrator.

"Dans Paris" breaks down its story into two sections: Paul with Anna, and Paul without Anna. This compartmentalization extends to the mode of narration. When Paul and Anna are together, "Dans Paris" records their relationship in a non-linear fashion. When they're apart, the story becomes more sequential in its telling. The first part is told in non-sequential order because Jonathan picks and chooses what interests him the most; not surprisingly, most of the scenes feature Anna in a state of undress. Personal hygiene, or the lack of personal hygiene, is a subject that Anna broaches when Paul leaves their bed to take a shower. Anna believes Paul is leading by example. Paul's decision to lather up, Anna thinks, is tied in to the hope that she'll follow suit. Accused of being rank in a passive-aggressive fashion, Anna flips her lid. Since it's unlikely that Paul would share this moment with Jonathan, the viewer is led to believe that the younger brother is a filmic interloper, the camera's eye in the flesh. When Jonathan bumps into an old flame, this ex-lover cites personal hygiene for their break-up. In other words, "Dans Paris" has echoes. If Jonathan "controls the vertical and the horizontal", he controls the story of his life that's being narrated. Three women in one day, hmmm. We see it. But we see what he wants us to see.

A cursory glance at "Dans Paris" suggests that this neo-French New Waver is about a sad man who lost his girlfriend, but if you're attuned to the self-reflexive opening, you'll understand that it's really about narration.

thought provoking

[brendastern · 7/10 · 17 October 2006]

I saw Dans Paris in Paris during October, where it is showing in a number of theaters. It is a thought provoking movie about the relationship between siblings and how it can shape their lives. Part comedy, part tragedy, and at time a mixture of both, it is worth seeing. The photography is beautiful and it has a lively sound track. Dans Paris makes me optimistic about French cinema which has been deteriorating into commercialism. i.e. movies that can easily be ripped off and remade in English. Granted, someone might try to take the plot line of Dans Paris and turn it into a vehicle for the Wilson Brothers. But before that happens, try to see this if it comes your way.

Very French, very philosophical

[sheilacornuk · 7/10 · 1 November 2006]

I liked the avant-garde touches such as the address-to-camera in the opening, the speeded-up lovers cavorting by the Seine and touches like Jon reading a copy of 'Franny et Zooey' (another story with a dead sister)or that he stops in front of two film posters in the street, neither of which I've seen but both of which I'm sure are relevant. The conversation Paul has with Jon's forlorn girl-friend about his theory of sadness is also very moving, as is Paul's reading of the children's storybook to his younger brother, if both are somewhat obscure.The father preparing dinner whilst his estranged wife outlines the difficulties of their previous relationship seems rooted in reality. Paul's self-destructive behaviour and the see-saw moods of his relationship are bizarre believable. The relationships are discussed in a way that is both reflective and expressive, such a change from the cutesy-clichés of American romances.

Stale ratatouille for nostalgic "nouvelle vagueurs", though Louis Garrel is compulsively watchable

[debblyst · 4/10 · 12 November 2007]

After the ambitious and catastrophic "Ma Mère" -- which bowdlerized Georges Bataille and cheapened Isabelle Huppert's considerable talents -- director/writer Christophe Honoré tucks in his tail and tries to woo the audience with this moldy, silly, instantly forgettable feel-good Christmas movie (à la française, bien entendu) addressed to nostalgic "nouvelle vagueurs" and middle-aged couples (gay and straight).

Godard and especially Truffaut are major influences here, from the casting of Louis Garrel in a mix of the Belmondo/Brialy/Léaud inconsequential womanizers, to the presence of Truffaut habitués Guy Marchand (as the insufferable father) and Marie-France Pisier (as the phallic mother). It features a rip-off of, uh, homage to the jump into the Seine from "Jules et Jim"; a singularly unattractive exploration of wintry Paris (the film is called "Dans Paris", but the title should have been "Dans un Appartement Vachement Laid à Paris"); and the insertion of Godardian tricks (those neon signs and a "naturalistic" musical number over the telephone that will make you cringe with embarrassment for poor Romain Duris). Briefly, "Dans Paris" is an unexciting, visually mediocre cinephile's tribute to the French New Wave with nothing new, funny or witty to say: it's as stale as last week's ratatouille.

"Dans Paris" also advocates the arguable notion that depression can be cured by family love and chicken soup. The women in the film are either insensitive phallic bores (the Mother, Anna), dim-witted disposable sex toys (Jonathan's lovers) or dead (the sister). On the other hand, the men ooze warmth, sensitivity and emotion: they're so full of love and they show it so much and so often (the real love scenes are between the men here) that by the end you start wondering why families need women again, except for that nasty job of procreation.

The only reason to watch "Dans Paris" is that screen magnet Louis Garrel: with his silent movie star good looks (he's got Louise Brooks' eyes and eyebrows, his profile belongs to a vintage Art Déco poster) and uninhibited physicality (he's got no problem with parading naked, as we know by now), Garrel reunites Léaud's gauche charms, Belmondo's non-chalance and self-confidence, Brialy's ambiguous sexuality, and an emotional availability that renders him instantly likable in any part. A young star in the great tradition of the handsome, talented French "jeunes premiers", Garrel is definitely here to stay, and ready to create memorable characters like his François Dervieux in the magnificent "Les Amants Réguliers" -- all he needs is a decent role and a good director (none of which can be found here). Because of him, I'll give "Dans Paris" these 4 stars the film itself doesn't remotely deserve.

A manic-depressive dive back into the New Wave

[Chris Knipp · 9/10 · 1 November 2006]

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.

Look in the mirror laughing - you'll see yourself shivering

[N_Sgo · 7/10 · 8 April 2010]

A very nice and touching film by Honoré, its resonances with the works of Truffaut, Eustache, Garrell, are obvious and magnificent (the Garrell and Truffaut links are even physically enacted in the presence of young Louis, an updated version of Jean-Pierre Léaud, his godfather): Narcissism and suicide, narcissism as suicide, as well as its antidote.

The Frame: A tableau of the rigorous impossibility of mutual caring and love which isn't, also and at the same time, an act of mutual destruction. And the Truffaut-Desplechin principle: each minute, five new ideas.

The pattern: A man comes back to live in his father's house, where he meets his younger brother, himself in a previous stage. He has played with love and met his match, a woman more powerful than him, more narcissistic, one who managed to play with h i s love. He has come back shattered, back to his childhood house, watching his brother wrecking the lives of young women and identifying with his dead sister, a position he slowly moves into. But by now, his narcissism has become too strong to follow his sister's path, he cannot die (he cannot drown, he swims against his will), he can only move on forward - a flicker of hope - more than a Garrell movie would have ever offered us (and more than the story of the hero's father and mother, the previous generation, seem to offer us) - to a place where love may indeed be possible without one falling apart and a prey to the other in the process. Finally, a journey back in time, a new future - a young weak woman knocks on the door (the bunny meets a frightened, wiser, wolf), will that hope ever materialize?

Recommended.

Out of touch and stuck in the past

[c_murphy86 · 2/10 · 8 June 2007]

What an earth has happened to Parisian cinema? Much like its architecture Paris's cinema seems to suffer under the shadow of its predecessors. The beautiful wholeness of Paris as a city means it is near impossible for Parisian architects to create anything modern and fresh for fear that it will jar too badly with its classical surroundings. Similarly Paris cinema suffers under the shadow of the nouvelle vague, its public is too obsessed with its own ageing image that anything fresh and original is drowned out by tribute after tribute to a dead past (La Haine being a rare exception).

If Honore had wanted to make a film about the modern Paris the action would have taken place completely within the confines of Paul's bedroom. Instead Jonathan bizarre jaunt across Paris which is neither interesting, funny or iconic in anyway takes up half the film.

Even the sections which do focus on Paul offer painfully inept psychological profiles compared to similar studies in German, and particularly Eastern European cinema.

Frankly I wouldn't waste your time with this one and instead seek out some of the more exciting French cinema coming out of Marseille at the moment.

This is why IMDb is so overrated.

[Tarantinosmind · 10/10 · 20 January 2012]

This movie is so underrated by IMDb users! Seriously, this is one of the 00's best movies, a french masterpiece made by Honoré. I know that french style of doin' movies it's not a easy thing to see. But really, Dans Paris makes everyone think about their own life, their own problems, affairs, visions of life! The way Garrel and Duris do their characters so likable, so human, so real in their lives, in their ultra sensitivity is splendorous. Although Dans Paris have some..amateur filming job, it wins in other ways like the BSO, that is amazing, having songs that have 30 years, and others almost unknown. This movie have a completely different way to see life, and to explain it. Honoré have future, and some people know it. Others prefer to wait for some other hollywoodie things, same stories, same boring (millionaire) guys. BTW, if you really want to see how cinema is evolving, you must watch this movie. Swear it.

not much anything happening

[daorbaa · 3/10 · 10 November 2012]

I wasn't expecting much from this movie, but thought anyway to get something out from it, but after all it became a disappointment with its boring story and direction. Music was giving some kind of teenage rock idea... and the story was following that with depressive and useless characters. It might be OK if you're young and restless like them, but that's not enough anyway - because there's absolutely anything interesting happening in this movie. I give three points mostly for the character of father of the family, and his connection to others, which gave some funny feeling. Otherwise story feels like watching a movie about any random family, and its own little drama. Worst of all, there was even some musical feeling included to one part, which was really painful to follow together with some nonsense poetry lyrics...

Dull stereotypes and bumper sticker philosophy

[Paolo_UK · 5/10 · 3 January 2010]

This movie is very, very dull. I think for a movie that deals with loss, love, families and death it is incredibly cold and not involving with standard acting and too much irrelevant dialogue. I can not understand other comments about deep philosophical meaning and original approach - it is not a Hollywood rom-com, but it is very very shallow and banal (love ends, families are families, honest talking is difficult). There are a few moments that are just irritating and pointless (the song over the telephone, jumping in the Seine, successfully chatting up girls in the street)

It is not a good movie and it is not a bad one - it is just very forgettable

Once upon a time at Christmas

[paul2001sw-1 · 8/10 · 6 January 2010]

'Dans Paris' tells the story of a highly dysfunctional family one Christmas. There's the eccentric, meddlesome father; his superficially affectionate ex-wife; his depressed elder son, recovering from a high-octane affair with an emotionally demanding woman; his philandering younger son; a dumped girlfriend of the latter; and, hovering above them all, the memory of a daughter who committed suicide. It sounds depressing, but the film has a jazzy feel (and soundtrack), and improvises nicely judged, semi-fantastical sequences to leaven the realism. This isn't a huge movie - in terms of plot, not a lot happens - but it's originally drawn, and a fun and occasionally touching portrait of the messiness of life.

interesting

[Vincentiu · 29 April 2015]

a remarkable movie. for the memories about the New Wave and Bergman's dramas. for the inspired choice for the leading roles - Duris and Garell. for the atmosphere. and for the profound delicacy to build the story as a puzzle with many solutions. a film about family, love siblings relations, solitude , redemption and certitudes. a film of words more than images because the words, in this case, as parts of dramatic gestures, confuse escapes. simple, fresh, direct, seductive for the science to transform different ingredients in a precise fresco of crisis. like each good film, an experience. useful not only at artistic level.

Dirty before Christmas

[jromanbaker · 1/10 · 23 December 2019]

I have wanted to watch this film for years, so I settled down Dec 23 which is the date of part of the scenario. and I literally felt I needed a bath after it. On the site here much is made of the male nudity in the list of things to watch out for. I am a gay male and believe me this was aversion therapy. Both Duris and Garrel pride themselves on being smelly and dirty and the director who in my opinion should have known better just made them self-inflicted grunge brothers. There is a lot of ' love ' between them in that macho way some straight men have of showing off their body parts to each other and end up in the same bed together ' in all innocence '. This to me was certainly not the Christophe Honore who made ' La Belle Personne ' or ' Les Chansons D'Amour '. The dialogue when it was comprehensible was either shouty, banal or pretentious. A 17 year old young woman seems to commit suicide because she was born with sorrow, and there is a vague reincarnation bit about all this. Depression rules the characters entirely and a run around Paris literally means a jump into the Seine!!! A messy, dirty puppy smelling film and with all that they had a biggish apartment over looking the Eiffel Tower. As for Duris and Garrel again I longed for the days of the eroticism of Jean Sorel. early Alain Delon and Gil Vidal. I also understood them when they opened their mouths and also grateful for never having to see them sitting on the toilet. The father of the two brothers was played by Guy Marchand. A pitiful scene as he drags a Christmas tree along a dismal Paris street. I give the 1 for his excellent acting.

beautiful

[Kirpianuscus · 10 October 2017]

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.