2 Days in Paris

(Fox Home Entertainment, 2.5.2008)

Although Julie Delpy swears that 2 Days in Paris is not autobiographical, the personality that comes across in the 24-minute interview with her on the DVD of her debut film shows that she and her protagonist are very similar. More importantly, 2 Days in Paris proves that Delpy has considerable talent as a filmmaker.

Marion (Delpy), a French photographer living in New York, returns home to Paris after a vacation in Venice with her American boyfriend, Jack (Adam Goldberg). Half of 2 Days in Paris focuses on Marion's relations with her parents (Marie Pillet and Albert Delpy), sister (Alexia Landeau), and the ex-lovers she keeps running into. The rest presents Jack's bemused reaction to these strange French people and to Marion's often hyperactive behavior in her native land.

Though some reviewers compared Marion and Jack to the characters played by Delpy and Ethan Hawke in Richard Linklater's Before Sunrise and Before Sunset ( the latter co-written by Delpy), they have a harder, more ironic edge. Jack, who doesn't speak French, feels he is allergic to almost everything and the confrontational Marion seems to invite arguments, whether attacking a cabbie's racism or a former boyfriend's trips to Thailand for underage sexual partners. Marion's outrage appalls Jack, who can't get out of Paris soon enough and, combined with his increasing jealousy, threatens to end their relationship.

In the interview, conducted in English by an unseen, unidentified French woman, Delpy talks about how she has been influenced by Fritz Lang, Roberto Rossellini, and Jean-Luc Godard, the namesake of Marion's spoiled cat. Surprisingly, she compares Marion to the Jake La Motta of Scorsese's Raging Bull because both lash out without thinking of the consequences.

Even more surprising is her failure to acknowledge Woody Allen because 2 Days in Paris plays, in many ways, like a French version of Allen's best films with the same emphasis on self-absorbed characters. Marion resembles a cross between Diane Keaton's goofy charm in Annie Hall and her brittle insecurity in Manhattan. The scene in which Marion and Jack settle their differences with only Marion's voiceover summary of the event on the soundtrack recalls Allen's techniques when he was at his peak. The shot compositions -- with multiple characters in most of the frames -- resemble not only Allen's style, but that of Krzysztof Kieslowski, who directed Delpy in Three Colors: White.

In the interview on this disc, Delpy discusses casting her real parents as Marion's and her cat, Max, as Jean-Luc. She says Marie and Albert are unlike the characters they play and that her mother did not have, as her fictional mother did, an affair with Jim Morrison. Delpy, who spent fifteen years trying to find financing for her debut, claims to be even more neurotic than Marion and that Jack is the real Julie, though she does admit arguing with taxi drivers. It is hard to concentrate on what Delpy is saying because her loose-fitting blouse keeps slipping down. "I do think about sex quite a lot, in a good way," she admits. We know what you mean, Julie.

There are also five deleted or extended scenes, including one featuring Max's reluctance to perform. Delpy was right to trim Jack's grueling effort to order fast food from a non-English speaker. Though 2 Days in Paris is well done for the most part, some scenes do go on a bit long. Nevertheless, it has sufficient charm and style to warrant looking forward to Delpy's next effort. She's beautiful, smart, funny, talented, and neurotic. Who could ask for more? -- Michael Adams