I recently watched Paris, Je T’aime, the 2007 film that assembles over 20 short segments directed by different filmmakers from around the world. The shorts are all tied together by the common theme of Paris, The City of Love, and although I wouldn’t necessarily call the resulting whole a masterpiece, it did make me yearn to see more of these types of collaborations in the near future. Short-form filmmaking is drastically underrated in my opinion, and although I agree that it’s hard to make a short film with a lot of depth, it’s sometimes surprising what a gifted storyteller can do with only five minutes of screen time.

Fortunately, it looks like we may be seeing more in the near future. As I was browsing through IMDB the other day, I discovered that Paris, Je T’aime producer Emmanuel Benbihy is in the process of putting together a follow-up anthology called New York, I Love You. According to IMDB, the project is still in pre-production, but the original announcement in The Hollywood Reporter said they were aiming to shoot the films in first-quarter 2008, and hopefully put it all together in time to premiere it at Cannes.

The line-up of directors for New York, I Love You is not quite as high profile as Paris, Je T’aime, but still impressive. The directors include Zach Braff (Garden State), Anthony Minghella (The English Patient), Chan-wook Park (Oldboy), Mira Nair (Vanity Fair), The Hughes Brothers (Menace II Society, From Hell) and… Brett Ratner?! Well, I did kind of think Paris, Je T’aime was lacking in the explosion department, so I’m not complaining. Besides, in some strange way I suppose Rush Hour 3 was Ratner’s own love letter to Paris.

Benbihy had this to say: “Hopefully, with NY, I Love You, critics will have more difficulty choosing their favorite or least favorite segments. They’ll all be good. We want to give the illusion of unity as much as possible and bring the narrative challenge a step further”. Next up, he is hoping to put together China, I Love You… no joke!

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