Dans Paris (2006)
Directed by Christophe Honoré

Film Review

Director Christophe Honoré attracted a fair amount of criticism and controversy with his first two features 17 Fois Cécile Cassard (2002) and Ma mère (2004) for their stridently brazen handling of the unseemlier side of human sexuality.  As bold and shocking as these two first films were (particularly the latter), they immediately established Honoré as a promising young auteur and laid the foundation for a distinctively provocative brand of cinema which ranges from the ebullient New Wave romanticism of Les Chansons d'amour (2007) to the brutally honest doomed gay romance Plaire, aimer et courir vite (2018).  For his third feature Dans Paris, Honoré brings together the two formidable acting talents of his first two films - Romain Duris and Louis Garrel - for a melancholic and typically barbed foray into the cinematic no man's land of existential angst.

Like its two more rough-cut predecessors, Dans Paris has a highly promising premise which Honoré struggles to develop into a coherent, satisfying work, so preoccupied is he with the business of playing the promising new auteur.  When the film was released, critics were quick to connect its author with the directors of the French New Wave, presumably on account of his former career as a film critic and published author.  Referencing the Nouvelle Vague era is no bad thing if it is done with restraint, but in his early films - and Dans Paris is probably the worst example of this - Honoré went too far in this direction, with the result that his film feels more like a fan compilation of New Wave hits than a work of art in its own right.  The presence of Marie-France Pisier in the film (she played a prominent role in Truffaut's 1962 short Antoine et Colette) attests to this, but it is in the gratuitous stylistic allusions to Rivette, Godard and Truffaut that its homage to the Nouvelle Vague becomes blatant to the point of gloriously excessive self-indulgence.

Which is not to say that Dans Paris is tediously derivative or without artistic merit.  In fact, it is one of Christophe Honoré's more accessible and engaging films, although much of the credit for this should go to the remarkable acting ensemble that the director was able to bring together.  Romain Duris and Louis Garrel are unlike in their physical appearance, personality and acting style, and yet they might well be spiritual brothers as they share a strong commitment to working with independent auteurs, often in films dealing with highly controversial subjects.   Garrel had recently acquired international renown through his role in Bernardo Bertolucci's The Dreamers (2002), whilst Duris had become the critics' darling through his collaborations with the idiosyncratic auteurs Cédric Klapisch and Tony Gatlif.  Honoré makes good use of the actors' contrasting screen personalities, so that the dark introspection of Duris's character is given a deep and disturbing resonance when set aside the exuberant zest for life shown by Garrel in his portrayal of the insouciant younger brother.  Guy Marchand and Marie-France Pisier are admirably chosen to play the brothers' separated parents, not just because both turn in credible performances, but because they reflect the dramatic personality split exhibited by their chalk-and-cheese offspring, Paul and Jonathan.

Dans Paris serves as a sombre counterpoint to Honoré's next (far better) film, Les Chansons d'amour, and whilst it isn't as substantial as this or some of the director's later offerings (La Belle personne, Non ma fille, tu n'iras pas danser, Les Bien-aimés), it is still a curiously beguiling piece, if you can bear the surfeit of Nouvelle Vague referencing and occasional lapses into tasteless humour.  At this still early stage, Honoré's writing shows more maturity and promise than his direction, but his attempt to give Paris a new face - far grubbier and gloomier than its usual depiction in cinema - is to be commended.  Dans Paris has its flaws but it also has a few moments of exquisite humanity and poetry, and it is these which stay with you after the film - a wry billet doux to the City of Lights - has ended.

Film Synopsis

Thirty-something Paul is left in a highly emotional and confused state of mind when he abruptly ends his stormy relationship with his girlfriend Anna.  Unsure what to do next, or indeed whether he wants to go on living, he abandons his life in the country and heads back to the family home in Paris.  Here his younger brother Jonathan, a carefree student, and father Mirko do all they can to raise his spirits, assisted by his over-anxious mother, who has left to start a new life with another man.  As Paul struggles to see a way through his present crisis, immobilised in suicidal introspection, Jonathan expends enough energy for the two of them as he lurches from one no-strings romantic encounter to another, without a care in the world.  Is Paul's life over, as it seems to be, or is this just a temporary lull before he regains his zest for living?