Gurinder Chadha

Director of Bend It Like Beckham and other Bollywood outings.

Paris, Je T'aime (2006) -- Directed with Olivier Assayas, Frédéric Auburtin, Sylvain Chomet, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Isabel Coixet, Wes Craven, Alfonso Cuarón, Gérard Depardieu, Christopher Doyle, Richard LaGravenese, Vincenzo Natali, Alexander Payne, Bruno Podalydès, Walter Salles, Jr., Oliver Schmitz, Nobuhiro Suwa, Daniela Thomas, Tom Tykwer, Gus Van Sant. Eighteen five-minute shorts set in (and named after) different areas of Paris, all created by different directors. Most of directors apparently don't know how to deal with the short form and use the same pacing as a feature-length movie, not telling any real story in the process or setting us up for a story that we'll never get to see. The ones that stand out to me are the films by the Coen Brothers (which actually use some kinetic camerawork to wake us up), Christopher Doyle (another wake up), Alexander Payne (which is a mix of offensive and almost-touching), and Sylvain Chomet (with a mime). The rest are either average or make you say "Well, at least it was short." (See individual directors for a review of their short.)

Quais de Seine (2006) -- From Paris, Je T'aime, an after school special style short about a nice guy who (for some reason) hangs out with cat-calling hoodlums until he meets a Muslim girl and bonds with her. Sweet enough, but seems to be aimed at junior high kids.