This is producer Emmanuel Benbihy’s follow-up to Paris, je t’aime (further follow-ups are planned for Rio, Shanghai, and – of all places – Jerusalem). These films are anthologies of shorts; each made by a different director; each capturing the mood of a particular place; and each, allegedly, having something to do with love. But interpret the concept generously enough and pretty much anything can be deemed to be ‘about love’.

Although we don’t have quite so distinguished a line-up of directors the second time around, New York as a whole works better than Paris did – possibly because the Paris directors didn’t have the same freedom to share locations or cast members (characters from some segments casually wander into others). The weaker segments of the film skip by quickly, without giving us time to grow tired of them: we’re in a mood to be indulgent, because every so often we’re repaid by something worth waiting for. I particularly liked the amusing, fast-talking would-be seducer in Yvan Attal’s segment and the mix of cut-throat haggling and gentle affection in the section directed by Natalie Portman.

I’ll admit I can’t imagine anyone loving this film (in the same way that so many people love New York or Paris); but it’s hard not to like it, at least a little bit.