Paul Elliott’s review published on Letterboxd:
A Paris Education follows and observes cinephile and central character Etienne, played by Andranic Manet. He's a mournful and highly malleable young film student who is endeavouring to balance both his work and love-life after arriving in Paris from Lyon, where he left his girlfriend of several years, to study film.
Filmmaker Jean-Paul Civeyrac puts together Etienne's comings and goings as a serialised Parisian patchwork; shamelessly throwing a spotlight on a handful of widely known, as well as more obscure, masterpieces within the annals of European culture. The camera possesses the nostalgic and charming gaze of a movie lover resurrecting a nineteen sixties arthouse environment as it observes Etienne gathering several new friends.
They all enter into lengthy discussions about companionship, lovemaking and protest marches as well as whether films should present political and social realism or whether it is enough to create a general commentary on the human condition with a complexion of heightened aesthetics. Classical music floats around the conversations, and while admittedly very little transpires during the film, the enjoyment and satisfaction from a movie such as this lay in it forwarding its self-indulgences so unapologetically. Civeyrac has very plainly made a film which shows how incredibly passionate he is about the art of cinema.