A cinematic tour of the City of Lights. By CALEB STARRENBURG.

A SORT OF cinematic tourist brochure, Cédric Klapisch’s Paris is the film the uneven Paris, je t’aime should have been. The director of The Spanish Apartment crafts a heart-warming exploration of the lives, loves and neighbourhoods of the City of Lights. Or, more appropriately, that romantic Paris of our imagination. Opening with a head-spinning montage of its main players, we meet Romain Duris in the role of a cabaret dancer awaiting heart surgery. Juliette Binoche is his social-worker sister who moves in to care for him. There is the ageing and cynical history professor, played by Fabrice Luchini, who falls in love with a tempestuous student, and an assortment of working-class Parisians falling in and out of amour.

As the film plays out the lives and locales of these people become intertwined, often tenuously, although Klapisch has the good sense not to force the point. And this film is as much about Paris’ neighborhoods as its protagonists: we visit the beautiful Sacré-Coeur, Père Lachaise, the Eiffel Tower and numerous other iconic locations. We also travel to lesser-known districts, including Rungis, a colossal market of fruit crates and meat carcasses. Even these blue-collar suburbs are bathed in a deceptively warm glow by cinematographer Christophe Beaucar.

While the entire cast performs admirably, the film’s standout performance comes from Duris, who gives Paris its emotional heart. He also acts as our tour guide, observing goings-on from the window of his apartment. “I watch other people live. I wonder who they are, where they go? They become heroes in my little stories,” his character comments.

As is the nature of any multi-character cavalcade, the film suffers from a lack of exposition. Characters are introduced and just as quickly dropped. A plot line regarding a Cameroonian’s attempt to illegally make his way to France shows great potential, but is frustratingly underdeveloped. Fortunately, Duris is there as the film’s glue, pulling the picture back together whenever it threatens to fall apart. While it might lack a certain emotional gravitas, Paris is none-the-less a lighthearted and satisfying ode to the City of Love.