Never one to make the same film twice, writer/director Christophe Honore has created a taut family drama in the guise of French New Wave cinema, or perhaps an homage to New Wave disguised as family drama. In either regard Dans Paris is a freewheeling adventure that has the aspect of pastiche without succumbing to mere imitation.

At its heart is the tension of three men forced together while nursing a shared regret. Paul has barricaded himself into his father’s apartment after a disastrous break-up. Deeply depressed, he spends an inordinate amount of time in bed trying to avoid his family. Jonathan is his polar-opposite; a lively youngster intent on saving his brother while womanising every girl he comes across. Caught in the middle is Paul’s divorced father whose fears for his son are not without precedent; his daughter committed suicide some years ago. Then their estranged, unmanageable mother arrives.

Coupled with a jazz score that matches erratic family mood as perfectly as the city, Dans Paris grows beyond mere homage. Honore examines debilitating emotion, sibling rivalry and family fear from a unique vantage. It’s the cinema equivalent of recreational drugs – compact, crazy, sexy – best exemplified in brief nods to the camera. “I’m not the story’s hero, I’m the narrator” Jonathan cheekily announces.

Dans Paris is an affectionate film that weaves humour and sadness, melancholy and  rapture into a Parisian love letter. The city is a background character whether glimpsed through the apartment window or participating from the streets when Jonathan takes a bet to cheer his brother. Duris and Garrel are effortless while former New Wave star Guy Marchand anchors their tender tug-of-war as their fussing father. Honore easily captures our attention in a rare story, one in which men get to open their hearts and audiences respond.

// COLIN FRASER