Delightful. This artfully edited series of short films about love in the big apple by 11 directors, 18 writers and a host of stars does not proceed from start to finish, yet hops seamlessly from story to story and concludes satisfactorily. Jack and I both hated to see it end (it's 1:43 long). Many walks of life and ethnicities are represented. Almost as good as its blissful companion piece, Paris, je t'aime (2006), it will be followed, according to the credits, by Shanghai, and there will be Jerusalem and Rio as well, in the "Cities of Love franchise."
Natalie Portman (I wrote about her in Brothers) is in the Paris movie and, in this one, as I mentioned before, she directs one segment (her debut) and stars in another (Mira Nair's) as a Hasidic jewelry buyer. I knew Portman was Jewish but forgot she was Israeli (she is expected to be in the Jerusalem project). Here's an interesting anecdote about the Hasidic segment. We recognized little Taylor Geare from Brothers, even more adorable here (this was clearly shot before Brothers, as Ms. Geare is missing some baby teeth in the Portman-directed Central Park sequence). Emilie Ohana is also in both Paris and New York (she plays the videographer in NY, is somewhere in every sequence, but is not the star), and will be in Shanghai. Some of the featured actors: Rachel Bilson (played the other woman in Zach Braff's The Last Kiss (2006) and Hayden Christensen's g.f. in Jumper (2008)), Orlando Bloom (speaking of franchises: Lord of the Ringses and Pirates of the Caribbeanses), James Caan (The Godfather I-II, Mickey Blue Eyes (1999), much more), Christensen (Life as a House (2001), Shattered Glass (2003), Star Wars II-III), Julie Christie (my faves of many: Shampoo (1975), her Oscar winning Darling (1965), and her Oscar-nominated McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971), Afterglow (1997), and Away From Her (2006)), Bradley Cooper (The Hangover, He's Just Not That Into You), Drea de Matteo (best known as Adriana on The Sopranos), Andy Garcia (among many: Godfather III (1990), Hero (1992), Ocean's 11-13, and a personal favorite, Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead (1995)), Irrfan Khan (I keep telling you all how much I loved Nair's The Namesake (2006), and he was featured in Slumdog Millionaire, among many others), Shia LaBeouf (both Transformers movies, a third coming up), Cloris Leachman (I could write a whole column just on her; for this I will choose TV: Mary Tyler Moore (1970-77), Malcolm in the Middle (2001-6), as the evil grandma; and movies: The Last Picture Show (1971), Young Frankenstein (1974), Spanglish (2004)), Olivia Thirlby (delightful in Juno (2007), Snow Angels (2007) and The Wackness), Eli Wallach (his segment is with Leachman and he also deserves a whole column, but he's getting The Good, The Bad and the Ugly (1966), Godfather III, The Two Jakes (1990), and Mistress (1992)), and many more.
Directors were: Fatih Akin (from Germany), Yvan Attal (an Israeli who lives in France, My Wife is an Actress (2001)), Allen Hughes (one of the (American) Hughes Brothers, Dead Presidents (1995)), Shunji Iwai (Japan), Wen Jiang (China), Shekhar Kapur (India, directed Cate Blanchett in both Elizabeth (1998) and Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007); he filled in here for Anthony Minghella, who, before his death in March 2008 personally asked Kapur to take over the Christie segment), Joshua Marston (U.S., Maria Full of Grace (2004)), Nair (India, The Namesake, Salaam Bombay! (1988), Monsoon Wedding (2001), and a segment of another brilliant collection of shorts called 11'09"01 - September 11 AKA 11 minutes, 9 seconds, 1 image), Brett Ratner (U.S., three Rush Hour movies, Family Man (2000)), and Portman. Randall Balsmeyer, a title designer and visual effects guy, is credited with directing the transitions, and, from a look at the cast members, that was more than a little work. All of these directors except Balsmeyer, Hughes, and Nair are also actors.
Apparently, when this was shown at The Toronto Film Festival in September 2008, it had two more segments. One was another directorial debut, by actress Scarlett Johansson, starring Kevin Bacon, and the other was directed by a Russian, Andrei Zvyahintsev, with Carla Gugino and Goran Visnjic (ER), but they didn't make the final cut. We can unreservedly recommend seeing this, perhaps more than once.
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