Jacques Audiard’s “Paris, 13th District”

Paris, 13th District (Les Olympiades) (2021)

Adapted from short stories by graphic novelist Adrian Tomine with a screenplay by Audiard, Céline Sciamma and Léa Mysius, this slice of life about a trio of twenty-somethings’ relationships and their sex lives is solid if frothy light

Like Adrian Tomine’s stories on which this is based, the film is uncomplicated, weaving three of his stories into a coherent whole. As far as adaptions are concerned, it does well though is limited by the source material. Tomine who most will recognise from his covers for the New Yorker magazine, specialises in slice-of-life (often autobiographical) stories. His visual style is perhaps more engaging than his storytelling and here, it feels like that limitation is manifest. It’s as if the elevator pitch was never developed beyond a few sentences.

Then there’s a certain voyeuristic quality to the original work that is embraced here. The women in these stories are fully naked at every opportunity whereas the man is always veiled (usually by a naked woman).

It’s not terrible. In fact it’s pretty good and tells its story efficiently but never goes beyond two dimensions and given the filmmaking talent at play here, it shows.