An American relationship in 'Paris'
A film review and film notes, coming up!
• French actress and director Julie Delpy can never be accused of playing down to the masses. In the drama "2 Days in Paris," her first feature film as a director and writer, Delpy gives us an exotic trip to the City of Light as experienced by two lovers as prickly as porcupines.
Jack (played by Adam Goldberg), a tattooed New York sourpuss who whines about his health, French taxis and black mold, has been with French photographer Marion (Delpy) for about two years.
As soon as they arrive in Marion's hometown of Paris, Jack starts up with his Felix Unger act, without the laugh track. When he utters a slam against American tourists, Marion simply says, "You're so mean!" followed by a sheepish, "But you're right!"
The running joke in "2 Days" stems from Marion's numerous past lovers who keep bumping into her on the street and in bars, then appear to hit on her as Jack gasps in jealous disbelief.
Worse, Marion has a randy mom (Marie Pillet) who volunteers too much information to Jack, and a father (Albert Delpy, guess who?) who revels in testing the American boyfriend's patience and eating the charred heads of rabbits at the supper table.
Delpy, who honed her screenwriting skills on the celebrated romance "Before Sunset," has a knack for capturing the random chats of longtime lovers and the unvarnished ways they express their desires in and out of bed.
The drawback to making her characters so real is that if you were with Jack and Marion on a tour bus, you'd be hopping off at the next stop just to dodge their next hissy fit.
"2 Days in Paris" (an unfortunate title considering the unauthorized Paris Hilton porn tape with a similar name) opens today at the Century Centre Cinema in Chicago and Renaissance Place in Highland Park. Rated R (language, nudity, sexual situations). 96 minutes. ..½
•Last weekend, I judged the First Annual Northwest Suburban Teen Film Festival, sponsored by the Arlington Heights Memorial Library. Here are the winners:
First Place went to director Mark Davis of Northridge Prep School in Niles for his ambitious, sophisticated adaptation of "Beowulf" (not to be confused with the Robert Zemeckis knock-off scheduled for November).
Second Place went to director Brian O'Leary of Buffalo Grove High School for his energetic rock video set to the Queen hit "Don't Stop Me Now." O'Leary's video also swept the Audience Choice Award for most popular entry.
Third Place went to director Rob Scallon of Rolling Meadows High School for "Daisy," a creepy, stream-of-consciousness video accompanied by his own dropped-octave rendition of the song sung by HAL the computer in "2001: A Space Odyssey."
Honorable mentions went to director Tommy Tran of Hersey High School in Arlington Heights for the comic "I, Canadian" and director Ben Moxley of Prospect High School in Mount Prospect for his original song/video tribute to "Taco Bell."