Le Joli Mai

Le Joli Mai, a two-part documentary of extraordinary beauty and candor, weaves a time capsule of Parisian life from interviews with denizens of Paris, including a theater seamstress who dresses up her cats in costumes; a suit salesman who thinks only of money, which then allows him to buy...more suits!; a couple in the Moustaffa quarter contemplating the nature of love; a mother of eight who is ecstatic to move out of the family's one-room apartment; two architects discussing the modern urbanism growing and changing the cityscape, and more. After scenes of police riots and strikes, three of the meatiest interviews come back to back in the film's second half: a young African student without a single white friend; an ex-priest union activist who no longer has time for spirituality; and an unemployed Algerian worker who says he'll never return to his native country and is in Paris for good.