Paris, I Love You (2006)

In the film Paris, I love you (2006), 20 different filmmakers each capture five-minute moments in the magical City of Love. These moments are linked together through transitional interstitial sequences and an introduction and epilogue. The transitions smoothly connect the previous film’s ending shot to the following film’s beginning shot, creating a continuous flow and building anticipation for what comes next. Through this technique, we witness the vibrant life of Paris through a recurring mysterious character and a common theme of love that ties all 20 segments together.

01. Tuileries (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen). The story follows an American tourist at the Tuileries station who unintentionally disrupts the dynamic between a young couple when he violates the unspoken rule of avoiding eye contact on the Paris Metro.

02. Place des Victoires (Nobuhiro Suwa). A bereaved mother finds solace in a mystical cowboy after losing her young son.

03. Quartier des Enfants Rouges (Olivier Assayas). A Hollywood starlet acquires potent hashish from a charming dealer she develops feelings for.

04. Le Marais (Gus Van Sant). A young man enters the printshop and is immediately drawn to one of the workers. He feels a strong connection with him and tries to convey that he believes they are meant to be together, but is unaware that his French is limited.

05. Quais de Seine (Gurinder Chadha). A young man befriends a Muslim woman while hanging out with two friends who mock passing women.

06. Quartier Latin (Frédéric Auburtin and Gérard Depardieu). The estranged pair meet at a bar for a final drink before their official divorce.

07. Tour Eiffel (Sylvain Chomet). The son recounts the story of his parents, both talented mime artists, meeting and falling in love while incarcerated.

08. Quartier de la Madeleine (Vincenzo Natali). In this dialogueless segment, a young backpacker traveling late at night stumbles across a corpse—and a vampire feeding on it. Though initially afraid, he soon falls in love with her, and cuts his wrist to attract her. The wound causes the backpacker to fall down a flight of stairs and strike his head against the pavement in a potentially fatal injury, but the vampire reappears and feeds him some of her own blood, turning him into a vampire and allowing the two to begin a relationship.

09. Pigalle (Richard LaGravenese). To maintain the passion in their relationship, a mature couple enlists the help of a prostitute to role-play a heated argument.

10. Faubourg Saint-Denis (Tom Tykwer). Following a misunderstanding where he thought his girlfriend, a struggling actress, had ended things with him, a young blind man contemplates the progress and possible decline of their partnership.

11. Bastille (Isabel Coixet). Despite being ready to leave his marriage for a much younger lover, Marie Christine, Sergio has a change of heart when his wife reveals she is terminally ill. In this unexpected turn of events, he rediscovers the love he once felt for her.

12. Porte de Choisy (Christopher Doyle). This comedic story follows a beauty products salesman as he visits a Chinatown salon, only to encounter a tough customer in the form of its female owner.

13. 13th arrondissement (Alexander Payne). During her first European vacation, Carol, a letter carrier from Denver, Colorado, expresses her love for Paris in amateur French.

14. Loin du 16e (Walter Salles and Daniela Thomas). As a young immigrant woman, she serenades her baby with a Spanish lullaby (‘Que Linda Manita’) before dropping it off at daycare. She then embarks on an extensive journey to the luxurious home of her wealthy employer (whose face remains unseen), where she lovingly sings the same lullaby to her employer’s child.

15. Parc Moncea (Alfonso Cuarón). A man and woman, at different stages of life, come together for a potentially controversial agreement. This arrangement may not sit well with a third party, ‘Gaspard’, who shares a close bond with the woman. As the scene unfolds in one uninterrupted shot lasting nearly five minutes, it is eventually disclosed that the woman is Gaspard’s own daughter and he is her newborn baby. In passing by a video store, various posters showcasing the works of other directors featured in Paris, je t’aime can be seen in the window.

16. Montmartre (Bruno Podalydès). As he parks his car on a street in Montmartre, the man ponders how each woman who walks by appears to already have a romantic partner. Suddenly, one of the passersby collapses near his vehicle, prompting him to rush over and assist her.

17. Place des fêtes (Oliver Schmitz). In the Place des fêtes, a Nigerian man, dying from a stab wound, requests a cup of coffee from a female paramedic. As she hands him the coffee, it is revealed that he had fallen for her at first sight in the past. Unfortunately, by the time she recalls their encounter and brings him the drink, he has already been transported away in an ambulance.

18. Père-Lachaise (Wes Craven). During her trip to Père Lachaise Cemetery, a young woman ends her relationship with her fiancé. However, he manages to make amends with some guidance from the ghost of Oscar Wilde.