Go to IMDb.com and enter the title: "Paris 36" and what do you get?... VOILA! "Faubourg 36"! Therein lies the problem: Apparently, someone set out to make one movie...and ended up making a completely different one! This bizarre Paris/Faubourg dichotomy plagues the movie throughout, but particularly during the last half!
"Paris" did, however, get off to a relatively good start...Showing a lot of promise, in a number of different areas: The inter-action between lead characters seemed brisk and focused; the sets had a very authentic mid-30's Paris look and feel; Music that had just the right mix of melancholy, nostalgia and pre-war glibness and sung with just the right inflection and ring; and different back stories...But it all started sputtering about half way through. The last half was a total mess. Absolutely nothing worked! I can't imagine what was going though Writer/Director Christophe Barratier's mind, as he pressed on with this project!
As "Paris" progressed, the characters' actions became constantly more erratic, unpredictable and demonstrated a continually escalating degree of incongruity with the personality and motives of each character. Protagonists capriciously waltzed in and out of the movie, with little or no explanation. Because of this, the last half of "Paris" takes on a dues ex machine tainted storyline much more akin to a fairy tale or the romantic daydreams of a 14 year-old Parisian girl. 2**
