The title of Honoré’s dramedy suggests a penetrating study of the citizens of the City of Light, but he offers instead a narrower filter: two brothers, depressive Paul (Romain Duris) and puckish ladies man Jonathan (Louis Garrel), stay with their father (Guy Marchand) two days before Christmas ‘05. The first third of the film devotes itself in flashback to Paul and his painful break-up with Anna (Joana Preiss); the rest of Dans Paris follows the heavily bearded recluse as he wallows back at the family nest, where Jonathan’s irresponsible trysts and his father’s exasperation offer little help. Honoré at times succeeds in fleshing out the complicated relationships among parents and children (including a mother played by Marie-France Pisier), but his tributes to New Wavish whimsy (Jonathan and a young lover’s Jules et Jim-style romantic frolic, a needless Godardian direct-address narration) grow increasingly tired. One can discern, however, an intelligence and passion for life from the director who brought us the terrible Bataille-adaptation Ma Mere, so let’s applaud Dans Paris as an improvement while keeping an eye on its uncategorizable creator.
Opens August 8 at IFC Center
Opens August 8 at IFC Center
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