Two actresses, a director, and a member of a film crew all converge in Paris, France for the lighthearted film, Cine Café in Paris. This was a low budget film with Kim Changgyun wearing the hats of actor, director, writer, producer, director of photography, and editor. Whew! It felt like a family affair as everyone in the small cast with the exception of one was a Kim. This was a nice travelogue of Paris and also an “inside baseball” look at filming abroad.

Hara and Eun Su are two actress friends vacationing in the City of Lights. Hara is getting over a failed relationship and audition. The two women take in the sights and discuss boyfriends and life. All is going well until Hara accidentally loses Eun Su’s beloved camera. About that time Director Shin and Mr. Lee make their acquaintance and the four seem to run into each other continually in the quaint little town of Paris where throngs of crowds are unknown. Lol

Hara and Eun Su approach the tourist sights differently. Eun Su takes pictures of art and the buildings around her, while Hara focuses on selfies. Both are dedicated to being actresses though they don’t seem to have much success yet. Shin and Lee discuss the difficulties of filming abroad as they scout locations for his next film. When Shin tells Lee that the production company has to field all of the complaints of the crew and cast, even about the food that’s served, Lee responds Mr. Kim handles all that. A nod of course to the director of this film.

There were times this movie felt like it was filmed with a cell phone, and with a low budget, it might have been. There were only a few scenes where music was inserted and it came across like old silent films because there was no dialogue when the music played. There were also placards introducing each new chapter with the setup for that part of the story, much like silent films as well.

If you want to see the main sights of Paris, this film touched briefly on them. The Louvre, Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame (pre-fire), Montmartre, a cruise down the Seine, and other familiar places were shown. The director commented in the movie that filming near these tourist attractions required permission and that there wasn’t much one could do about the large crowds, so it appeared they tried to work around those limitations in real life.

Cine Café in Paris wasn’t a great film, and it did start out too slow and self-conscious for me, but as the women worked through their problems and the men joined in with the discussions it became more engaging. Director Shin actually answered some of the questions I had about filming in Paris during his conversations with Lee. At around an hour, it didn’t require a huge time commitment to pop over to Paris and enjoy some of the sights and see how the four people overcame their personal and professional challenges.

22 May 2024