Paris

In the busy streets of Paris, a filmmaker (a character played by Luc Delahaye) goes in search of his ideal leading actress. Helped by a casting director (played by Sylvie Peyre) he scours stations and shopping streets, hunting for an "ordinary" young woman. The problem is that the director hasn't yet decided what the film will be about, let alone what character the woman is to play. Individually, he invites 10 women to join him at a café table, and this leads to surprisingly frank conversations. The black-and-white filming of an overcast Paris produces melancholy, atmospheric images that punctuate the conversation between the two protagonists and the interviews with the "real" Parisiennes. Documentary filmmaker and photographer Raymond Depardon has emerged in recent years chiefly as a chronicler of rural France, the soul of which he attempts to capture with his camera. In this city portrait,he chose for a more explicit game with authenticity, producing a series of intriguing unplanned miniatures. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)