Dans Paris (In Paris) first published by Film4
Review: Christophe Honoré‘s Dans Paris is something of a Christmas miracle. It is a film whose heavy themes – depression, loss, death – are treated with all the frothy lightness of a satisfying soufflé. And yet it is also a family film set in the season of cheer that does not leave you feeling like you have dined out on too much sugary dessert. It is full of clever in-jokes and deconstructive trickery, yet the real human emotions at its core ensure that it always seems to be more substantial than a mere intellectual exercise. And, most miraculous of all, it is, as its title suggests, a French film in and about Paris that avoids all that city’s cinematic clichés by knowingly ironising them.
Dumped by his long-term girlfriend Anna (Joana Preiss) – who has correctly realised her love is no longer requited – the chronically depressed Paul (Romain Duris) seeks refuge with his divorced father Mirko (Guy Marchand) and younger brother Jonathan (Louis Garrel) in their Paris apartment shortly before Christmas. In an attempt to cheer Paul up, Jonathan bets that he can get to Bon Marché in 30 minutes on foot – but Jonathan’s journey is repeatedly interrupted as he runs into a succession of women, including his ex-girlfriend Alice (Alice Butaud), to whom, one after the other, he makes love. Meanwhile Paul mopes around the house, reflects upon his sister’s actual (and his own attempted) suicide, makes his father worry, and laughs with his visiting mother (Marie-France Pisier) – until finally, later that evening, the brothers are reunited and together find warmth from the chill outside.
If the ‘plot’ of Dans Paris is every bit as slight and inconsequential as it sounds, then its treatment of family tragedy and domestic dysfunction is never less than serious. This bittersweet tone is embodied by the contrast between the two brothers and the way that they spend their day – one lugubrious and pent up in bed, the other carefree and constantly on the move. Bearded, miserable, and funny in a deadpan way without ever becoming ridiculous, Duris is reminiscent of Steve Carell’s suicidal Frank from Little Miss Sunshine (2006); while Garrel brings an energetic insouciance to every scene in which he appears, giving irrepressible cheekiness an acceptable face.
The raw charisma of these two leads would in itself be enough to carry Dans Paris, but equally charming is Honoré’s loving revival of the French cinema of the Sixties. There is the rough handheld camerawork, the jarring jump cuts, the manic montages and double-tracked dialogue, there is Alex Beaupain’s cool jazz score, Jonathan’s illusion-shattering addresses to camera (“I’m speaking directly to you, dear viewer”) and even, in direct homage to Jean-Luc Godard’s Week-end (1967), the lovers’ phone conversation conducted entirely in song – all of which bring the spirit of the nouvelle vague back to life, without in any way undercutting the film’s own more contemporary drama. For, like The Dreamers (2003) and The Regular Lovers (2005) before it, Dans Paris is yet another Sixties-flavoured piece starring Garrel – but it offers more exuberant pleasure than those two films combined, and breezes along, as fresh and bracing as the winter air.
Strap: Christophe Honoré’s breezy, bittersweet third feature is love letter to Paris, homage to the nouvelle vague, and Noël family film minus the syrup.
Anton Bitel
