Paris, je t'aime (2006)

This anthology isn't one film but 18 short ones, so it's a little difficult to give you a plot synopsis. Each of the shorts is set in a different quartier, and a different director (or pair of directors) tackles each one to give their distinct take on the city of lights and love.

Some are more fanciful, such as Vincenzo Natali's vampire love story "Quartier de la Madeleine" or Christopher Doyle's cosmetic salesman fantasy in "Porte de Choisy." Others are disarmingly sad, working class stories, like Daniela Thomas' "Loin du 16ème" or Oliver Schmitz' "Place des Fêtes." All of them, it would seem, are sweet, romantic tales of love found and lost, of missed connections and opportunities found again. Gurinder Chadha's "Quais de Seine" is perhaps the most hopeful of these, while Frédérick Auburtin and Gérard Depardieu's "Quartier Latin" competes with Isabel Coixet's "Bastille" for the most bittersweet.

There are also a handful of shorts from directors you may be more familiar with, like Gus Van Sant's sly "Le Marais," Joel and Ethan Coen's strange but delightful "Tuileries," Wes Craven's surprisingly tender "Père-Lachaise," Alfonso Cuarón's single shot "Parc Monceau," and Alexander Payne's perfect coda, "14th arrondissement."

Each short does that wonderful city justice, and it makes me hopeful for the planned installments in the series, New York, I love you and Shanghai, I love you. A-