Thing 20: YouTube

The following YouTube video is from one of the best movies I've seen in years, "Paris, Je T'aime" (Paris, I Love You). Imagine a master's short stories-- think Chekhov, Alice Munro...in movie form, and there you have it. The film consists of eighteen vignettes, each about five minutes long. This particular vignette is titled "14th arrondissement". At first, you think the director is making fun of this frumpy American tourist in Paris with her distinctly American accent....but as the sequence progresses, you begin to understand, with aching poignancy, how brave and beautiful she is. The scene culminates in a Parisian park as Carol experiences a transcendent understanding of what it means to be alive.