Greetings again from the darkness. 18 directors of 18 seemingly unrelated vignettes about love in the city of lights. A very unusual format that takes a couple of segments to adjust to as a viewer. We are so accustomed to character development over a 2 hour movie, it is a bit disarming for that to occur in an 8 minute segment.

The idea is 18 love/relationship stories in 18 different neighborhoods of this magnificent city. Of course, some stand up better than others and some go for comedy, while others focus on dramatic emotion. Some very known directors are involved, including: The Coen Brothers, Wes Craven, Alfonso Cuaron, Alexander Payne, Gus Van Sant and Gurinda Chadha. Many familiar faces make appearances as well: Steve Buscemi, Barbet Schroeder, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Ben Gazzara, Gena Rowlands, Gerard Depardieu, Juliette Binoche, Willem Dafoe, Nick Nolte, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Bob Hoskins.

One of the best segments involves a mime, and then another mime and the nerdy, yet happy young son of the two mimes. Also playing key roles are a red trench coat, cancer, divorce, sexual fantasy, the death of a child and many other topics. Don't miss Alexander Payne (director of "Sideways") as Oscar Wilde.

The diversity of the segments make this interesting to watch, but as a film, it cannot be termed great. Still it is very watchable and a nice change of pace for the frequent movie goer.

A smorgasbord of talent. Twenty glimpses of Paris - its different suburbs. High quality shorts masterfully united.

A veiled woman intrigues us to the beauty beneath her hijab. Gus Van Sant delights with a flirtation between two young boys (and with a surprise revelation). Steve Buscemi's mind-boggling tourist guide accompanies him through a surreal Coen Brothers encounter in the Metro. Maggie Gyllenhaal gets stoned off her face preparing for an acting role. Bob Hoskins hangs out in sleazy Pigalle. Elijah Wood discovers his inner vampire. Oscar Wilde's burial place inspires one humourless would-be bridegroom and saves his relationship. Tom Tykwer takes us running through the streets of Saint-Denis with a blind man in love. Gérard Depardieu is a bartender and a host of other stars and directors charm us with strange and original tales of love in the city of love itself.

These vignettes are a whirlwind tour of the heart of each arrondissement, but they focus on Frenchness, or Parisienness rather than over-exploiting famous landmarks . . . which makes it all the more fun recognising the locales. The quality is superb - each short film is almost a masterclass - but the overall effect can be weariness. Such a torrent of shorts leaves no room to develop an overall momentum, however skilfully knitted together. Each touches our emotions in different ways. Yet it is like nibbling for nearly two hours in the kitchens of the best chefs. At the end we are exhausted and hungry.

The concept of Paris Je t'Aime is a beautiful one. This film is a permanent and worthy homage to the great city. But as cinema it seems sadly unsatisfying.

Paris, JE T'AIME is a truly unusual and interesting film--even if not all of the many short films that make up the whole don't always work. While the idea of having many directors in charge of various segments of a film and then piecing them all together into a continuous film is not new (it was done, for example, with HOW THE WEST WAS WON),the brevity of the segments and the amazingly varied styles make this a truly one of a kind film. Some of the films just didn't seem to gel all that well for me, but before I could become bored or displeased, the film soon went into the next segment--forcing me to pay close attention and keeping me from being bored. This film is anything but boring, as each segment is only, on average, about 5 to 6 minutes long! The closest similar experience I can think of is playing the Nintendo game "Wario Ware"--a game made up of a hundred or more mini games. And, like Wario Ware, there are many great little gems buried within just waiting to be discovered.

While opinions are sure to vary quite a bit, my favorite short film, by far, was the one about the mimes. Interestingly, it was very surreal and funny--and quite unlike the rest of the film. This strange interlude really excited me and I actually wish they'd put a few more comedic pieces in the movie, though this is only a very minor complaint. Heck, considering how lovely other segments were such as the one with Steve Buscemi, the vampires, the Oscar Wilde one, the African immigrant portion and the one involving the terminally ill wife were, I certainly have no reason to complain. Only a few fall totally flat (the Chinese skit and the drug addict one weren't all that hot) and I think that's to be expected. Because there were so many nice little gems in this film, I really am looking forward to seeing something else along the same vein.