Paris est à nous

It's the moment in a love relationship that contains all the rest. It's a bud of pure potential now blossoming into story.

And ultimately, the story that unfolds will be a tragedy--as all love stories are.

Anna meets Greg, Anna loses Greg. Anna grieves and makes her peace. All in a film of visual power and knowing symbolism.

At this point it's tempting to say 'enjoy.' But this is not the cinematic neighbourhood where the word applies, quite. I have no idea whether or not you will 'enjoy' this film. It's unlikely that its creator cares. You can count, though, on being moved.

Sorry but... just no. If you'd like to see this movie, acted out live in front of you, read on. Go to your nearest college town. Find the hipster coffee shop that hosts open mic nights. Wait for the hipster girl that always gets up to read/act out her latest poem. There you go.. You've just watched a live version of this movie.

Haven't seen a film like this since the early 90s - hand held camera, loose narrative style; all show, no tell. I like films that provoke the viewer to actively engage with the storytelling. Really interesting, though not for everyone. As a metaphor for trauma, coping with trauma and grief and the senselessness of life and death, it is provocative and thought-provoking.

Maybe the storyline isn't so strong and it doen't have great developmant,but this movie is not about that. The aesthetics of the film was incredible. The movement of the camera, the scenes' sequence, the music and the voice-overs were brilliant. Also it touches some concept like the first love, who to deal with adulthood, etc with a very special way, that make you think about that.

For me, if you like that in a film, it worth watching.

Anna meets Greg at a disco and after a whirlwind romance, long enough for him to grow a beard at least, he announces out of the blue his intention to move from their Paris home to Barcelona.

Even during this first section of the film, the narrative thread is hard to grasp with many cuts between different times and places - a beach, a park and an abandoned theatre, for instance.

But as the story approaches the doomed flight to Barcelona, things get really trance-like and surreal. Perhaps it all reflects Anna's increasingly tenuous grasp on a reality, which itself now seems to play out against a backdrop of constant and confused civil unrest.

The camera is mostly hand-held and while some of the shots feel too close, others, especially those with actual riot police apparently completely surrounding the action of the movie are exceptional. The camera follows Anna, well played by Noémie Schmidt, pretty much all the way through.

The final result, though, is just too disjointed and voice-overs used throughout the film aren't quite enough to keep things together. For some too, I guess that the frequent strobe effects (perhaps carried through from the disco at the start), might well feel a bit too much. 5/10