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Paris, 13th District, Jacques Audiard’s sensuous, leisurely new movie, begins with the cameras hovering languidly above the Les Olympiades apartment complex, catching quick glimpses at the lives behind the windows through which they’re nonchalantly peeking. After some time roving, they enter the apartment of Émilie (Lucie Zhang), a phone-center employee. She’s living there rent-free (her grandma, now in a nursing home, owns it) and, for disposable income, has recently acquired a roommate named Camille (Makita Samba), whom she was surprised to find was not another woman but a handsome young man when he answered the listing. When we first meet these 20-somethings, they’re some time into an informal roommate-with-benefits arrangement they haven’t yet admitted to themselves has a good chance of causing problems. 

Émilie and Camille’s soon-to-be fraught relationship is one of several explored in Paris, 13th District, an adaptation of three Adrian Tomine short stories. (The screenplay is by Audiard, Léa Mysius, and Céline Sciamma.) We also meet Nora (Noémie Merlant), a 30-something aspiring for a law degree after years toiling in real estate, and Amber (Jehnny Beth), a cam girl. Nora first crosses paths with Amber, if indirectly. After accidentally donning the blond-banged wig the latter prefers for her videos, Nora is mistaken for her at a campus spring-break party, which practically induces schoolwide bullying when rumors spread. Perhaps trying to find closure, Nora winds up developing a close online friendship with Amber after reaching out to discuss what happened. Then Nora gets to know Camille when she’s hired at the real estate firm where he’s started working. Though Nora is adamant early on that their relationship remains strictly professional, they fall into a romance — albeit an uneasy one — anyway.

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