Virtually every review I've ever read of an anthology film says something along the lines of "variable", "uneven" or "patchy" -- and that seems to go double for the city anthology film, where the subject matter navigates the dinks, dips and cracks on the pavement of urban life. This week's release, 7 Days in Havana , a "contemporary portrait" of Cuba's capital in which Malibu-commercial cliches ( Benicio del Toro 's opening segment) sit alongside poker-faced pieces of absurdist excellence ( Elia Suleiman 's), is no exception. Given the innate quality control issues and how laborious it must be to set up these portmanteau projects, why make them at all? Who exactly do they serve? Money doesn't seem to be the principal reason: they've only done tepid box office in the past. Think of 2006's Paris je t'aime . It made $17m (11m) on a $13m budget. Three years later, New York, I Love You pulled in $8m against $14m of costs. Someone thinks they're worth something, though: the French producer Emmanuel Benbihy , who kicked off the phenomenon in its branded form with that pair of films (but not the Havana one), has already had to issue two legal challenges to rivals allegedly looking to pinch his Cities of Love concept. He settled in February with Marina Grasic , his producing partner on the NYC collection, who had set up a breakaway anthology, Love Berlin -- How We Met. She has now agreed to buy a licence to the