Dans Paris (2007)

New York Times
"[W]ith a playful, liberatory style....Mr. Garrel delivers an intensely physical performance that organically conveys a world of impetuous emotion..." 08/08/2007 p.E4

Los Angeles Times 6 of 10
Moody, mannered and supremely irritating, Christophe Honore's "Dans Paris" plays like a pastiche of French cinema cliches through the ages. Perhaps not surprisingly, if nonsensically, the movie quotes Salinger at every opportunity in telling the story of a pair of handsome young brothers experiencing love and loss in Paris. Well, at least we'll always have it...At the start of the film, Jonathan (Louis Garrel) rises from his brother's bed, goes out to the terrace, turns to face the viewer, apologizes for the embarrassment his direct camera address might cause and proceeds to explain that his brother Paul (Romain Duris) has returned home following a suicide attempt. Paul used to live in the country with his girlfriend Anna (Joana Preiss) and her incidental son Loup (Lou Rambert Preiss), where she slowly drove him insane with her strategy of badly impersonating a Goddard heroine -- i.e., speaking as if reciting awful poetry, cheating and dancing topless in the living room in the style of a woodland sprite...Jonathan ignores a girl by putting a copy of "Franny et Zooey" between them while Paul pines whimsically for a dead sibling. When the Salinger references recede, the New Wave influence kicks in...Some small realization is made. None of it adds up to much. - Carina Chocano
 
Reel.com 9 of 10
Christophe Honore's lovely evocation to the French New Wave, Dans Paris promises one thing and delivers something else entirely, beginning whimsically as adorable, bratty young Jonathan (The Dreamers' Louis Garrel) steps onto his balcony, looking out onto a commanding view of the Eiffel Tower across the Seine. He does not regard this picaresque scene very long before he turns to face the camera directly, admitting that some will find his actions precious, but laying a claim to omniscience that makes him the story's natural narrator...Dans Paris is one of those movies in which the characters talk a lot, even Paul, who would rather not, is pulled against his will into conversation. It is not without humor, as Jonathan describes his family's natural state as "disenchanted," dallies with girls, or even stands, stunned when he spies two movie posters, for Gus Van Sant's Last Days and David Cronenberg's A History of Violence. There are also genuinely moving moments, in Mirko's worries and in lovely, transcendent scenes between Paul and Jonathan...and between Paul and Anna...The performances are vivid; the three central actors are so well matched they really do come across as a family. This is a small film, but it is wonderfully rendered and surprisingly resonant. - Pam Grady