2 Days in Paris

 Year of Release:  2007

Director:  Julie Delpy

Screenplay:  Julie Delpy

Starring:  Julie Delpy, Adam Goldberg, Daniel Brühl

Running Time:  101 minutes

Genre:  Romance, comedy, drama

French photographer Marion (Delpy) and her American boyfriend Jack (Goldberg) are on a holiday in Europe.  Following a less than romantic trip to Venice, they go to Marion's native city of Paris.  Jack is immediately uncomfortable by the cultural differences between France and America and his own ignorance of French, as well as by Marion's bohemian parents (Marie Pillet and Albert Delpy) and most specifically by the fact that they keep running into Marion's ex-boyfriends, all of whom she still seems to be friends with.  

Julie Delpy is probably best known for starring in Richard Linklater's Before trilogy along side Ethan Hawke, and 2 Days in Paris is definitely from the same stable, once more about being a French woman and an American man wandering around a glamorous European city while discussing life, love, art and various things in between.  With this film Delpy not only writes, directs and stars, she composed the score and edited the film, and cast her real life parents, Marie Pillet and Albert Delpy, as her character's parents.  This has few surprises, and sometimes feels like a quirkier version of one of Woody Allen's later travelogue films but it is consistently funny, and the cast have real charm, despite the fact that their characters are intensely annoying, being judgemental, sanctimonious and often surprisingly cruel.  The film is certainly no love letter to Paris, showing the City of Lights and it's inhabitants, in a pretty unpleasant light.  Delpy directs the film with real style, although it always feels like a pretty good, but not stand-out quirky indie film, complete with voice-over and animated diagrams.  It is a good film and pretty enjoyable.  Followed by 2 Days in New York (2012).

   

Julie Delpy and Adam Goldberg spend 2 Days in Paris

 

Alone in Berlin

 Year of Release:  2016

Director:  Vincent Pérez

Screenplay:  Vincent Pérez, Achim von Borries and Bettine von Borries, based on the novel Every Man Dies Alone (also known as Alone in Berlin) by Hans Fallada

Starring:  Emma Thompson, Brendan Gleeson, Daniel Brühl, Mikael Persbrandt

Running Time:  103 minutes

Genre:  Period drama, war

Berlin, 1940:  Otto (Gleeson) and Anna Quangel (Thompson) are an ordinary, working class couple.  When they receive news of the death of their only son in battle, the Quangels disillusionment with the Nazi regime increases, and they decide to take a stand.  The couple write postcards criticising the regime and distribute them all over Berlin.  Tenacious Gestapo detective Escherich (Brühl) is assigned to investigate and put a stop to the postcards.

Based on the acclaimed novel by Hans Fallada, this is loosely based on the true life case of Otto and Elise Hampel who wrote and circulated postcards criticising the Nazis throughout Berlin from 1940 until 1943, and the film is dedicated to them.  Given the subject matter you would expect this to be a dour, grim film, and it certainly is.  It is powerful though, and it's call to rebellion and protest, no matter how small it may seem, is still relevant today.  The film captures a grey, paranoid world where everyone lives under suspicion.  It features some great performances, and the story is an interesting one.  It's a small scale drama, that occasionally feels like a television film, and lacks the punch that the book had, however it is a strong and relevant piece of work.

Brendan Gleeson and Emma Thompson in Alone in Berliné