Six in Paris

Paris vu par... (1965) is made of six short films shot by six directors in six different parts of Paris. Jean Douchet took Saint-Germain-des-Pres, Jean Rouch took Gare du Nord, Jean-Daniel Pollet took Rue Saint-Denis, Eric Rohmer took Place de l'Etoile, Jean-Luc Godard took Montparnasse and Levallois, and Claude Chabrol took La Muette. The producer, Barbet Schroeder, had it shot on 16mm to keep it fast and cheap. What the episodes share is not form but scale. All of them look at small events: a letter put in the wrong envelope, a hatter's umbrella, a dinner at which nobody in the house listens to anybody. Rouch's segment became the most discussed because it moves through a long walk that reads as a single take. As with most portmanteau films the level is uneven, which is normal. But placed side by side they produce something: the non-touristic Paris of 1965, narrow staircases and noise. It can be read as the New Wave taking an inventory of its own city. Who it's for: viewers interested in the French New Wave who enjoy the short form. Who it's not for: viewers who want to commit to one story; the segments do not connect, and you begin again three times in twenty minutes.