''Paris-Manhattan'' is a French

comedy film The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the o ...

, which premiered on 2 April 2012 at the Festival of French Cinema in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. This is the first feature film by writer-director .

Plot

Alice Ovitz is a pharmacist from a

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

family, who during her early years was introduced to and fell in love with

Woody Allen Heywood Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American filmmaker, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades. Allen has received many List of awards and nominations received by Woody Allen, accolade ...

films A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of Visual arts, visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are gen ...

. Growing up, she strongly desires a relationship, but the only man she ever loved was taken away from her by her own sister. On Alice's bedroom wall hangs a huge poster of Woody Allen, with whom she has long night conversations, and he talks back to her through excerpts of dialogue from his films. Ten years go by. Alice has taken over her father's pharmacy after he retired, her sister is long married to the man she stole from Alice, and the poster still hangs over the bed. She is thirty, and lonely, and her family is trying its best to introduce her to unmarried men. She is having a hard time choosing from two emerging suitors, Vincent and Victor. Almost by accident, but with help of Victor, Alice eventually meets Woody Allen on the streets of

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. This time, the real Woody Allen, not the voice of the Poster, gives her personal advice, which happens to be exactly what Alice considered doing anyway.

Cast

* Alice Taglioni as Alice Ovitz * Patrick Bruel as Victor * Marine Delterme as Hélène * Michel Aumont as Isaac Ovitz * Marie-Christine Adam as Nicole Ovitz *

Louis-Do de Lencquesaing Louis-Do de Lencquesaing (born 25 December 1963) is a French actor and film director. He has a daughter with cinematographer Caroline Champetier, the actress Alice de Lencquesaing. Filmography As an actor *''Les dernières heures du milléna ...

as Pierre * Margaux Châtelier as Laura * as Vincent *

as himself

Release

The film was released in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

on 4 October 2012.

Reception

Reviews for ''Paris Manhattan'' have been mixed. On review aggregator website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film has a score of 43% based on 23 critical reviews, with a weighted average score of 4.3 out of 10.

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, basing it on 10 reviews, gave it 36 out of a 100, suggesting that the film is "generally unfavourable". Boyd van Hoeij of '' Variety'' noted its similarity to Woody Allen's own 1972 film '' Play It Again, Sam'', stating that "This update-cum-ripoff might be aiming for witty and romantic, but it's mostly a hollow, rambling effort leavened with some stargazing".

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, 1885331 Films about Jews and Judaism French romantic comedy films Cultural depictions of Woody Allen Films set in Paris 2010s French films Films produced by Étienne Comar Films produced by Philippe Rousselet