Paris, 13th District: The Complexity of 'Uncomplicated' Sex, Buoyed by Formidable Scripting

By Karen Gordon

Rating: B 

Émilie, (Lucie Zhang), is waiting in her apartment to meet, Camille, a potential roommate.  She’s surprised to discover that Camille (Makita Samba) is a good looking he, not a she.  

Eh bien!  He moves in and the two quickly and easily fall into bed together, both vowing that it’s just a convenient hook up, frequent hot sex without commitment.

There is a lot of sex in writer/director Jacques Audiard’s film Paris, 13th District.   It’s s a story about the lives of three Parisians in their twenties and early thirties, all living and working in the 13th district in Paris, in and around the apartment buildings called Les Olympiades. 

Lucie Zhang, Noémi Merlant and Makita Samba try to keep things cool in Paris, 13th District.

Émilie, is rebellious and self-absorbed, (her sister tells her she’s immature, egocentric and selfish), and likes her romance with a side of verbal sparring. That gamesmanship doesn’t bother Camille, until it does. He’s more grounded, and has other priorities. He’s just quit his teaching job to give him time to focus towards getting another degree. 

And then there’s Nora, (Noémie Merlant). She’s a lovely, slightly awkward, slightly naive woman in her early thirties who has just moved to Paris from Bordeaux to study law after the break-up of her marriage.  She ends up working with Camille, and managing a growing flirtation with him. 

Through a series of unexpected events, she ends up making friends with an online porn actress and cam-girl named Amber Sweet (played by musician Jehnny Beth).

As the movie progresses, we get a sense of who each of them is, and how they’re navigating their lives and their relationships with their family, even as life’s currents shift them off course.

The subtle trick of Paris, 13th District, is that it plays like a romantic dramedy, but it really is more like a series of character studies of these young people whose lives just so happen to intersect.  

The film is based on three graphic novels by American cartoonist and writer Adrian Tomine.  Audiard corralled some heavyweight talent to work with him on the adaptation. He wrote the screenplay with two French writer/directors Léa Mysius (Ava) and the formidable Céline Sciamma (Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Petite Maman.)  The mind meld of these writers has resulted in a movie that is more complex than it seems on the surface. 

As you might expect from Jacques Audiard, the film, which is shot in beautiful black and white, doesn’t obsess or lecture. Nor does it get heavy handed. 

On the contrary, the film has a very light tone.  Still, he captures something truthful about modern life.  His characters are at a point in their adult lives where they’re technically free to do as they please. But ideas about career, life, love and even identity are colliding with their own sense of disquiet.  

All of this is beautifully handled by a terrific cast who give  layered, naturalistic performances.  Noémi Merlant, is the best known of the lead trio from her role in in Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire.

This film will no doubt be a breakout for both Lucie Zhang and Makita Samba.  They were nominated for Most Promising actress and actor respectively in France’s 2022 Lumière awards.  (Audiard was also nominated as Best Director).  Zhang also sings a charming version of the song made famous by Marlena Dietrich, “Falling in Love” over the end credits.

Paris, 13th District. Directed by Jacques Audiard, written by Jacques Audiard, Léa Mysius, Céline Sciamma,  starring Noémi Merlant, Lucie Zhang, Makita Samba. Opens in theatres Friday, April 15, 2022.