Six in Paris 1965

A film made up of original short films by different directors, Douchet, Rouche, Paulet, Rohmer, Godard and Chabrol, organized by a theme or a place – flowered in the sixties, especially in Europe, where directors of international repute were gathered to contribute short films on a variety of themes.

The inspiration for Six in Paris came from Barbet Schroeder acting as producer, who hit upon the omnibus format as a way to work with most exciting young filmmakers in France and to explore the possibilities of shooting with new lightweight 16mm cameras. “It was the beginning of 16mm with direct sound, and he hoped that the new technology would offer the young filmmakers the freedom of shooting quickly and spontaneously, on location and in the streets. Schroeder approached six directors he wanted to work with and offered them the challenge of making a short film in this new filmmaking paradigm. They had freedom to develop their own stories, so long as it all took place within a single neighborhood of Paris. It was something of a revolutionary idea, as even the low-budget productions of the French New Wave had all been shot on 35mm. The idea of mixing documentary and fiction techniques was primary in his Schroeder’s mind, and each director took up the challenge with essentially the tools but his own distinctive approach. The experiment did not work as intended, the film projector technology could not enlarge as easily the 16mm. format.

All the stories and interesting my favorite one is Rohmer’s, the funny, little plot of a man’s clothing store clerk is brilliant. Chabrol's short has his definite feel. I highly recommend the film to the cinephiles.