Paris

CinemaSerf

It's "Pierre" (Romain Duris) who provides the conduit for this potpourri of scenarios. He's a dancer who is diagnosed with an heart condition. He is going to have to stop working and rely on his sister "Élise" (Juliette Binoche) whilst he awaits a transplant. His life now largely revolves around sitting watching old videos of himself, or standing on his balcony watching the world go by. She, on the other hand, is juggling plates. Divorced, three children and working as a social worker. With delicate union negotiations pending, her request to go part time to keep an eye on "Pierre" doesn't go down so well, but she moves in with him and herself begins to re-evaluate her own life. Meantime, there's a slightly pompous professor "Verneuil" (Fabrice Luchini) who gets tempted by an €100,000 payday to do a Parisian history television series but not as tempted as by one of his students with whom he is soon having an affair. His brother and his wife, a vegetable market trader and an immigrant Cameroonian feature to some extent as the internecine nature of the story unravels and we find ourselves playing a delicate game of six degrees of separation - nicely concluded by the scenes at the end. It's not so much a story, as an observation of lives loosely connected by family and locale, and with some gritty comedic elements to lighten the mood, takes quite a poignant look at the flaws and joys of family; a bit of lust and loads of human insecurities. I could have done with a little more from Duris, but Binoche carries her role well here, as does Luchini and it's quite quirkily soundtracked to make for a decent enough drama.