Barefoot in Paris

For decades, Fiona (Fiona Gordon), a librarian from a small town in Canada, hasn't seen her aunt Martha (Emmanuelle Riva) since she emigrated to Paris. But when she receives a letter from Martha, she sets off for France, only to find that her aunt has disappeared. Now Fiona begins a crazy search across Paris, first losing all her belongings before meeting Dom (Dominique Abel), a homeless man. And thus begins for her a confusing, crazy, but also seductively sensual time in the city of love.

Fiona Gordon and Dominique Abel, who together with Bruno Remy have already directed the films Iceberg, Rumba and The Fairy together in front of and behind the camera, again wonderfully mix in Barefoot in Paris the wordy humour of a Jacques Tati with almost avant-garde dance choreography, in which Pina Bausch would have had her bright joy. Physical comedy with obvious borrowings from great masters of the past is mixed with very modern ideas of its own to create a wonderfully colourful burlesque, enriched with lovingly imperfect but playfully imaginative effects.

The charming naivety, the uninhibited desire to try things out and the delightfully abstruse comedy make this film a very special viewing experience. Admittedly, the duo's idiosyncratic style doesn't quite want to work for 90 minutes. Some aspects seem a bit overused after a while. But somehow it's hard to resent the film, because it obviously has only one goal: to make the audience happy.

And this succeeds also because here just the imperfect is downright celebrated. Because not only the effects are deliberately imperfectly implemented. Also the characters of the story are outwardly not particularly beautiful and show a certain social incompetence. Yet they all, like the story, exude such a light-heartedness and joie de vivre that this can only be described as beautiful. Certainly, Barefoot in Paris is not a film for a broad mainstream audience. You have to be able to get involved with the very special way Gordon and Abel tell their story in order to succumb to the magic of the film. But if you do, you will be rewarded with an enchanting cinematic fairy tale and a wonderfully playful, very funny production. And for that there is clearly a: Absolutely worth seeing!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp