The idea behind this film is wonderful; give twenty of the world's best directors free reign to make a short film about Paris and see what happens. Each director gets a section of the city to tell a love-story that takes place there. None of the films are connected in any way, there's no narrator, we simply move from tale to tale.

There are some really wonderful short films here. My favorite is a toss up between the Coen Brothers (no surprise) and Tom Tykwer. The Coen's tell the story of a slightly lost American in Paris, played by the always wonderful Steve Buscemi. He's minding his own business in the Paris Underground, when he catches the eye of a couple making out across the tracks. The boyfriend starts to yell derogatory things at him in French, which he can't understand, and before he knows it the girlfriend is sitting next to him, offering him a kiss. There's also a hilarious little bit about a boy who's shooting spit-balls at him.

Tom Tykwer's (Run Lola Run) is about a blind kid who falls in love with Natalie Portman. We see their entire relationship play out in a matter of minutes through a variety of still-shots, it's a beautifully shot and edited film. Alexander Payne's (Election, Sideways) was also a favorite, his is about a middle-age American woman, who has always wanted to visit Paris, and is now finally getting to and is falling in love with the city itself; told very much in his wonderful comic style.

There being twenty films, there was bound to be some mediocre and bad ones. Gérard Depardieu's turned out to be particularly boring, a French couple sitting around in a coffee shop talking. There was another one starring Bob Hoskins, I'm not sure of the director of the short, that I couldn't get into. But each film is only around five minutes and you're moving on to Gus Van Sant doing his thing, Wes Craven telling a weird little love story in a cemetery, and there's one tale that is way out there, Vincenzo Natali (Cube) has Elijah Wood falling in love with a vampire.

I'm a little biased, because Paris is my wife and I's favorite city in the world, so we just enjoyed seeing the beautiful photography of the entire city. But was also very cool to see all these director's one after another. You really get a sense for how much a director influences a film, as each short has it's own style, rhythm and pace. I can see going back and watching some of these shorts over and over, and never bothering with some others again. But overall Paris, je t'aime an incredible artistic experiment, I'd love to see another 20 directors get a stab at it.

I've been a big Luc Besson fan since I saw The Professional in the theater over 10 years ago. Which is the best action film this side of Die Hard, incredible action scenes mixed with a beautiful story and characters you fall in love with. When The Fifth Element came out a few years later, he was cemented as one of my all time favorites. He's been pretty hit-and-miss since then, my wife and I are the only ones I know of that enjoyed The Messenger; his kid's flick Arthur and the Incredibles has a few good moments, but a lot of bad ones as well. In that time he's also become the Jerry Bruckheimer of French films, constantly producing high-quality action films.

I was excited to see the trailer for Angel-A, it looked like Besson was getting back to his roots; low-key action-drama, with two-characters in Paris, filmed in startling black & white. The film came and went pretty quickly in theaters, never playing anywhere near us, and I'd read nothing but bad or mediocre reviews for it. But when it came out on DVD I had to see it immediately, simply for Besson.

Jamel Debbouze, the one armed guy from Amelie, (and he really only has one arm,) plays the lead character of Andre. When we meet him, he's being threatened by some low-level thugs, he's got a problem, he owes a lot of money to a really bad guy. This is a fairly typical beginning for an action film, but after that it goes where no film I've ever seen before. And isn't that the important thing? Something original, most movies I feel like I've seen it all before; when something truly different comes along, most people don't enjoy it.

Andre has a few days to get the money together, with no prospect of getting out of the country and no way to come up with the money, he decides to commit suicide. He says a quick prayer before he jumps off of one of Paris' many beautiful bridges; suddenly a beautiful girl appears on the bridge next to him. She leaps into the water, and his mission turns from suicide to rescue. He drags this beautiful, bleached-blond, long-legged creature from the water. They instantly hit it off in a quirky, bickering sort-of-way. He asks her what a beautiful girl like her could possibly be so sad about? And before he knows it, she's offered to follow him around, doing whatever he wants.

But from the start, she's in control and is soon fixing his life in surprising ways; she digs up loads of money and more importantly the respect he feels he deserves. They fall in love in an unconventional way; with powers way-beyond-their-control ready to tear them apart. It's fairly obvious who this girl is, and she comes right out and tells Andre' about halfway through the film, but I'll play devil's advocate and not give it away.

Now Angel-A is nowhere near the perfection that The Professional aka Leon is. But it's a film well worth seeing, if you're into Luc Besson films or ones that are outside of the norm. It's a gorgeous film, you really couldn't do much better than Besson's B&W photography of Paris. The two leads are very charismatic, and have a great chemistry together. Rie Rasmussen, who I'm guessing is usually a model, is an Amazonian vision as Angel-A. The film gets a little cheesy towards the end, but that's my only minor complaint. Otherwise it's a very fun, cool ride.

This was the second time I've seen Ratatouille. I don't have a lot to say about it. It's a wonderful film about someone making their dreams come true. Pixar does their typically amazing thing. Brad Bird is by far my favorite animation director, though I prefer both The Incredibles and my all-time favorite animated film The Iron Giant, to this one. It's good to have another top quality film for my son to watch over and over again, and not drive me insane in the process.