A Paris Education (2018) User Reviews (5)

Will Appeal to a Certain Slice of Cinephile

[larrys3 · 7/10 · 20 May 2019]

Would certainly imagine this French film, written and directed by Jean Paul Civeyrac, will only appeal to a certain slice of cinephile. At nearly two and a half hours in length and beautifully shot in black and white, the movie follows the journey of Etienne (Andranic Manet) as he leaves his girlfriend and family behind in Lyon to travel to attend film school in Paris.

The film is heavily dialogue driven and, at times, can seem pretentious or intellectually moralizing but there's plenty of interesting discussions as well on movies, literature, and the human condition. It was engaging enough for me to want to see what would happen to the young protagonist as he grappled with relationships, career, and his own self doubts.

Overall, as mentioned, the movie will not appeal to everyone but for those that like these types of French films that make your brain cells work, I believe there are some rewards to be found here.

French and Long

[BNester · 6/10 · 28 July 2018]

A handsome French film student moves to Paris. Although full of self-doubt, he projects an impression of serious purpose. Everyone he meets, male or female, seems to fall in love with him.

Which year the film is meant to be taking place is unclear. The students despise the leaders of the student rebellion of 1968 for being phonies and sellouts. But they still speak to each other, and there are no smartphones to be seen.

The film is very French. The young people are almost an Englishman's caricature of French intellectuals: they talk endlessly, read voraciously, quote philosophers and poets, smoke cigarettes, strike poses, and argue interminably about changing the world. It is charming at times, but tedious too often.

It is also very long. 2-and-a-quarter hours feel more like 3-and-a-quarter. The youths are supposed to be film students. Have they never learned about editing, about pace?

Worth seeing once, but not more than that

[euroGary · 6/10 · 15 October 2018]

The second cycle of German auteur Edgar Reitz's 'Heimat' deals with a group of students in various artistic disciplines who spend their time Thinking Big Thoughts and Remaining True To Their Artistic Visions before real life forces them to grow up and face the necessity of compromise. It is also, for no good reason, filmed in black and white. However, while I loved 'Heimat', I am not so enthusiastic about the markedly similar 'A Paris Education' from writer-director Jean-Paul Civeyrac.

Student of philosophy (which in itself should be enough to set alarm bells ringing) Etienne leaves his native Lyon for Paris, where he is to study film. There he meets a number of other students, including Jean-Nöel, whose talents are more organisational than artistic; Valentina, who views life with a wry amusement; and Mathias, whose Olympic-level pretension annoys some of his fellows but fascinates all of them. There is also Annabelle, not a student but a full-time activist who works as little as possible because 'all work is exploitation'. In-between high-minded discussions about 'honesty in film' and suchlike, this merry band also ruminate on life in the big city (the original French title of this film is 'Mes provinciales').

I think the reason why I did not warm to this as much as I had hoped is that central character Etienne is quite dull: this may be due to actor Andranic Manet's portryal - neither his facial expression nor his tone of voice are particularly fluid - but it is as if the character has been created merely as a cipher around which the other, more interesting, characters can orbit. Fortunately these are played by some engaging actors: Corentin Fila (previously seen in the UK in teenage angst piece 'Being Seventeen') as Mathias and Jenna Thiam as the cheerful Valentina are particular stand-outs.

Seen at the 2018 London Film Festival.

A cinephiliac, literary delight in which hearts are shown in screenplays rather than worn on sleeves

[mehobulls · 8/10 · 28 September 2020]

I enjoyed the last 30 minutes but until then a A Paris Education struggles to find its purpose past the onslaught of name dropping and nostalgia for 60's intellectualism. Main characters are one dimensional, they are merely film students-often mouthpieces for the writer-more than they are humans,. The charmful women characters bring so much life to the film, it is a shame they are not more present on the screen

With over two hours, a long sit although it did not seem overly long. Much talking and name dropping, mostly showcasing my illiteracy in philosophy and literature

[JvH48 · 5/10 · 26 September 2018]

Saw this at the Berlinale 2018, where it was selected for the Panorama section. Every now and then, I was under the impression that I was lured into watching a copy of Woody Allen's "Irrational Man" (2015), his first movie, and hopefully the last, I saw in my life. Both are abundantly filled with name dropping, quotes from famour writers, and more such showing off one's education and literacy. It nonetheless leads us nowhere, leaving an impression of pomposity and verbosity that I cannot stand. But I may be prejudiced in that respect, since many people love such movies, as they assume that it has any bearing on real life, how their life could be improved when living along the guidelines of ancient philosophers and famous writers. But I digress.

Luckily, this movie has a story line that I can live with (contrary to the impossible story in aforementioned "Irrational Man", riddled with plot holes and unreal developments). However, with two hours and a quarter running time "A Paris Education" is a long sit. I wonder about having dozed off one or more times while the talking heads went on and on, as I did not have the impression that it took two hours overall. This may be construed as a compliment, but it does not prove anything given potential festival fatigue. I still may have missed important steps in the proceedings.

However, this is not the type of film where the story line brings us logically from A via B to Z. At first, our main protagonist must get settled in Paris, find new friends and start the education he longed for. The apartment he shares with many others, had been arranged beforehand via-via. He moves in without much ado on his first day in the city. A party that happens on his first evening, does not really include him, but he adapts gradually and finds some people to talk with (and some, like Mathias, he finds so much more educated and well spoken that he assumes never to befriend them). The first lecture day looks very much like the dialogues I hated in aforementioned "Irrational Man", but I noticed that some people in the audience laughed at inexplicable (for me) moments. In retrospect, I assume that the name dropping meant something to them and rang a bell with people more knowledgable about movies than I'll ever be.

Etienne sleeps around a lot, although he swears not to cheat on his fiancée far away. Yet, his relationship with her falters gradually, obviously offering no future for either of the two. It is a perfect demonstration of people drifting apart, as a natural result of their entourages drifting apart. Their pending separation is not caused by some other woman around. He merely exchanges glances and does not make a move to make more out of it, albeit some seem promising at first sight. For example, the secretary of the newspaper where he works for a short period as a reviewer (just for the money), apparently offers a case here with more future in the air, but both let it go (*** spoiler alert ***) until much much later.

All in all, the movie takes its time but does not feel too long, though (see disclaimer above) I may have missed some of the proceedings due to festival fatigue. The dramatic developments are nothing out of the ordinary, apart from the unexpected suicide of one of his friends. I assume that this movie offers more icing on the cake for people knowledgable in the field of film making, or literature or philosophy for that matter, but for a technical guy (IT) like me only the story line and how the protagonists act therein count. That leaves me behind with a feeling of illiteracy in the fields of film making, philosophy and literature, but I can imagine that others more fluent in these fields are better off.