Twenty directors, eighteen arrondissements, one city. Paris, je t'aime is an anthology film — each short runs five to six minutes — and for a French class it is one of the most pedagogically flexible films in the catalog. You can use one short, three shorts, or all of them. You can teach one day or a whole unit. The language in each short is different — register, age, nationality — and the city that connects them is the real subject: not Paris as postcard but Paris as lived experience, with its specific kindness and its specific loneliness.
For French students, the anthology format means students hear French in radically different registers within a single film: the formal French of an older arrondissement, the immigrant French of the working-class north, the tourist French of someone trying to navigate a foreign city, and the argot of Montmartre. Every five minutes, the register shifts, which keeps students actively listening rather than settling into a passive relationship with the language.
📥 Want a free lesson plan? Get a complete FilmArobics sample — pick your language. Subscribe for your free lesson →
Key Themes for the Classroom
- Love in its varieties — Each short explores a different kind of love: married, unrequited, instant, impossible, posthumous. Ask: Quelle histoire d'amour te touche le plus? Why? Students must justify their answer in French.
- Paris as character — The city itself is the protagonist. Ask: Qu'est-ce que Paris permet dans ces films? What does the city make possible that wouldn't happen elsewhere?
- Language and connection — Several shorts feature characters who don't speak the same language and connect anyway. Ask: Comment communique-t-on sans langue commune?
Shorts to use: "Loin du 16e" (Catalina Sand) — a Latina nanny who commutes across the city to care for a French child while her own child is cared for by someone else. The French is emotionally direct and socially specific; the reverse shot at the end is one of the most devastating moments in the film. Ask: Qu'est-ce que cette femme sacrifie pour son travail? And: Pour qui?
Low-prep classroom activity: Students write their own "Paris, je t'aime" short — a brief scene (10-12 lines) set in a Paris neighborhood of their choice. Two characters, one location, five minutes of real time. The scene must contain one moment of genuine connection, however small, and must use present tense throughout to create immediacy. The constraint produces French creative writing with a clear structure and emotional goal.
What to listen for: The film's twenty directors bring twenty different Frenches — some native Parisian, some accented, some American-accented, some deliberately multilingual. That variety is the film's greatest classroom asset. Before watching, assign each student one short to listen to specifically for language: what variety of French is this? Is the speaker a native Parisian? Where does their French come from? After watching, students compare notes in French. The exercise teaches students that Paris is not one voice but many, and that French belongs to everyone who speaks it.
The full French lesson plan for Paris, je t'aime is ready at filmarobics.com/products/paris-je-t-aime — $29.95.
Students walk away from Paris, je t'aime having heard French in all its varieties — from tourist to immigrant to aristocrat to child — in a city that contains them all simultaneously and loves them in its specific, difficult way.
The full French lesson plan for Paris, je t'aime is ready at filmarobics.com/products/paris-je-t-aime — $29.95.
📥 Want a free lesson plan? Get a complete FilmArobics sample — pick your language. Subscribe for your free lesson →
Students walk away from Paris, je t'aime having heard French in all its varieties — from tourist to immigrant to aristocrat to child — in a city that contains them all simultaneously and loves them in its specific, difficult way.
