A month after Sarkozy won the French elections, it's hard to imagine Paris still being the most romantic place on earth.

Yet, mythbuilding projects like Paris, Je T'Aime would have you believe otherwise. Never mind the serious immigrant issues, rising VAT, or the glaring social and economic polarisation between different arrondissement. What is important is that in Paris, the city of pyrotechnic charms, you can find love anywhere.

Paris, Je T'Aime is a francophile's wet dream. A dazzling international entourage of 21 directors offer eighteen shorts about love and loss in Paris. The directors get to pick a neighbourhood each, where they concoct their auteurist tributes to the city. The movie boasts big names like Gus Van Sant (My Own Private Idaho, Good Will Hunting), the Coen brothers (Fargo and O Brother, Where Art Thou?), Gurinder Chadha (Bend It Like Beckham), Alexander Payne (Sideways), Alfonso Cuar?n (Y Tu Mam? Tambi?n), Walter Salles (The Motocycle Diaries), Sylvian Chomet (The Triplets of Belleville), and Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run).

How wrong can you go with this line-up and a decent concept, you ask? Awfully wrong. Sure, the shorts offer a brilliant array of characters, ranging from mimes to vampires. But your acquaintance with them is a little like speed-dating-the multiplicity is intriguing, but not really satisfying at the end.

The problem with Paris Je T'Aime isn't just the patchiness of the shorts. It is that most of the vignettes are, simply put, unsuccessful as shorts. But while some are insubstantial and completely forgettable, there are a few that may well redeem the film. Joel and Ethan Coen's 'Tuileries' shows remarkable handling of humour, with Steve Buscemi consummately portraying a humiliated American tourist.

Walter Salles and Daniela Thomas's 'Loin du 16?me' starring Catalina Sandino Moreno (Maria Full of Grace) poignantly contemplates the irony of motherly love for a nanny.

Olivier Assayas brings his short-film mastery to 'Quartier des Enfants Rogues'. And G?rard Depardieu's "Quartier Latin" is an excellent depiction of the caustic decorum of a divorcing couple. These delights are, however, lost in the hotchpotch of other duds.

Ultimately, the idea of a mythical city through the lenses of some of the most talented filmmakers of our time does not do enough. Sense, if not sensibility, is in short supply here. It's hard to tell if Paris, Je T'Aime is an elegy to love, an offbeat effort, or just an unofficial plug for L'office de Tourisme.