Paris Manhattan

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Short takes

Not recommended under 13, Parental Guidance to 15 (Lacks interest for younger viewers; adult themes;in French with subtitles)).

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Paris Manhattan
  • a review of Paris Manhattan completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 10 December 2012.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 13 Not recommended due to themes and lack of interest. In French with English subtitles
Children 13-14 Parental guidance due to themes
Children 15 and over OK for this age group

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Paris Manhattan
Classification: PG
Consumer advice lines: Mild coarse language and themes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Alice (Alice Taglioni) is a beautiful and intelligent young woman, but unlucky in love. She is obsessed with Woody Allen whose poster hangs on a wall in her bedroom and to which she often looks for advice. As a younger girl, Alice met Pierre (Louis-Do de Lencquesaing) at a party but when she introduced him to her lovely older sister, Helene (Marine Delterme), a successful lawyer, Pierre immediately fell for and married her. 

Alice’s father (Michel Aumont) is very concerned for his daughter and is often trying to find a husband for her, handing out her business cards to any would be suitor. He also passes on to her his pharmacy store which he has owned for many years. Victor (Patrick Bruel) is a potential suitor that Alice’s father sends to the store to install a security alarm. Victor is a little older than Alice but they find they have a lot in common. Meanwhile, Pierre has also introduced Alice to Vincent (Yannick Soulier) an old friend of his and someone Alice finds very attractive. It becomes a competition between the two men to see which one will win over Alice.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Family relationships

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie including:

  • Alice is held up by a robber with a gun in the store. Victor answers the alarm call and comes to sort out the problem. Victor and the gunman have a fight.
  • Alice gets hit by a car while riding on a motor scooter but isn’t hurt.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

Nothing apart from the above-mentioned violent scenes.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

Nothing apart from the above-mentioned violent scenes.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

When Helene takes Pierre from Alice, Alice is very angry and talks about killing her, drowning her and committing suicide. This may concern some children

Thirteen and overinfo

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

Nothing of concern

Product placement

None of concern

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • Lots of discussion about sex and sexuality such as sleeping with one’s wife’s sister
  • A statement that work and sex are the two most important things in life
  • A clip from a movie is shown in which a doctor falls in love with a sheep. The doctor and the sheep are shown in bed together and the doctor is saying what a great night they had.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:

  • Pierre is thought to be cheating on Helene but in reality there is a threesome including another woman. Helene is shown briefly kissing the woman.
  • Alice and Vincent kiss and start to undress. They are shown in bed together and obviously have sex but nothing too graphic is shown.

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

  • Drinking of alcohol at various social events and at home.
  • Aspirin and cocaine are talked about.
  • Helene thinks her daughter Laura is dealing in drugs.
  • Alice’s mother Nicole is an alcoholic.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • arse
  • shit
  • bitch

In a nutshell

Paris Manhattan is a French romantic comedy inspired by Woody Allen (who makes an appearance at the end). It is quite funny and bizarre in places and, as such, is aimed at a more mature audience and older teenagers.

The main messages from this movie are not to take life too seriously and that most seemingly normal families have their problems.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • Looking after and caring about your family.
  • Being an independent woman who doesn’t need to rely on a husband for support.

 This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

  • Is it OK to spy on family members to find things out?