Emmanuel Benbihy - Cities of Love Series

Cities of Love Series

Cities of Love is a series of motion pictures illustrating the universality of love in major cities around the world. Each episode is a collective feature film composed of no less than 10 segments - created by directors from around the world.

Two such pictures have already been completed: Paris, je t'aime in 2006, and New York, I Love You in 2009. The next episodes will be in Shanghai, Rio de Janeiro, Jerusalem and Venice, before heading to Berlin and New Orleans.

Each segment's story line must center on an encounter that bears the hope of love and takes place in the current time. Each segment must contain a strong presence of the illustrated city and a visual identification with the area selected by each Director so that the audience may experience its singularity. All the segments shall be woven together by interstitial transitions placed before, between and after each of the segments. The transitions are directed by an 11th Director, the Director of the transitions. The Transitions involve some, if not all, of the characters created by the Segment Directors and at least one character, specifically created for the transitions, called the "recurrent character". The recurrent character must have an excuse to be found anywhere in the city at any time, and a good reason to connect or interact with any of the segments' characters. The recurrent character serves the unity of the film. The transitions, and the absence of credits inside the film, are essential to the unity and the fluidity of the overall experience. In a final scene, a narrative epilogue allows the audience to watch again some of the segments' characters of the film in a single unifying moment.