Juliette Binoche stars as Elise in Paris.

IFC FILMS / David Koskas

Were you forced to cancel your trip to Paris this year? Then hurry, please, to Paris, Cedric Klapisch’s intoxicating portrait of a city that, despite (or, more likely, because of) being in a state of constant flux, retains timeless energy and allure.

In a frenetic series of scenes, Klapisch announces that his movie will be set in many cities: the Paris of high fashion, the Paris of deeply embedded history, the Paris of love, the Paris of loss, aristocratic Paris, the Paris of African and Arab immigrants. Klapisch somehow provides the audience with both the picture-postcard ideal of the city and the candid truth behind it, managing to enhance both images.

We follow the stories of several couples: A dancer named Pierre (Romain Duris), who has just received a troubling diagnosis, and his sister Elise (Juliette Binoche), a single mother who moves in with him; a history professor named Roland (Fabrice Luchini) and his architect brother, Philippe (Francois Cluzet), who have just lost their father; a market vendor named Jean (Albert Dupontel), who works with his flirty ex-wife, Caroline (Julie Ferrier); and swimming instructor Benoit (Kingsley Kum Abang), who wants to immigrate to pursue one of his clients, Marjolaine (Audrey Marnay).

While Roland narrates a documentary about Paris’ architectural history, he begins texting a beautiful student. For her part, Elise has sworn off men and sex, though Jean’s attentions aren’t entirely unwelcome. Marjolaine and her fashion-maven friends traipse around after-hours Paris in chic heedlessness, while the owner of a corner boulangerie (Karin Viard) keeps up a nonstop string of stereotypes about the work habits of every ethnic group in France.

Watching it all from his beaux-arts aerie is Pierre, whose elegiac attachment to his city may or may not end up being warranted but infuses Paris with a wistful sense of romance and fierce devotion.

Klapisch manages to choreograph the most contrived encounters of Paris with only a few hiccups along the way. Mostly, he succeeds masterfully at proving his thesis: that people live in Paris, die in Paris, fall in and out of love in Paris, and the city accepts it all, ultimately with a singular kind of grace. Paris is a funny, sad, romantic and deeply felt love letter to a great city. If you can’t book a trip now, it’s the next-best thing.

****Paris

Starring: Romain Duris, Juliette Binoche, Fabrice Luchini, François Cluzet. In French with English subtitles.

Rated: Not rated, contains brief profanity.