![]() ![]() Then he torches the van of the man who is hanging the posters, and the man burns alive. Missing-person posters of Michele go up all over Paris- all over, on every Metro wall and construction site-and Alex sets them afire (why is there no one else in the Metro?). But other scenes break with the gritty reality and go for Chaplinesque bathos. Alex raises money by his fire-eating, his sweaty torso dancing in the middle of smoke and flames, and she pours drugs into the drinks of tourists to steal their money.Īll well and good in a different kind of film. ![]() Or when the two of them steal a police speedboat so she can water-ski past the fireworks display on the night of the French bicentennial. There is much here that is cheerfully reckless, as when Alex does cartwheels on the bridge parapet above the Seine (did no authorities see him?). Hans keeps trying to evict her from the bridge ("It's all right for Alex, but not for a young girl like you"), but when he finally shares his own story, it opens the floodgates for all three. Alex loves her and yet would rather read her mail and break into her former home than ask her flat-out about herself. Michele, who wears a dressing over one eye, doesn't reveal for a long time that she is going blind. The lovers are both reckless and secretive. ![]() (The broken leg is simply explained: Alex passes out in the middle of a boulevard late one night.) Thrown off the real bridge, Carax moved his entire production to the South of France and built a giant set of the Pont-Neuf, including the facades of three buildings of the famous Samaritaine department store. His permission to shoot on the Pont-Neuf ran out while delays stalled his production Lavant broke his leg, which held up the film a year, according to some sources, although since he uses a crutch and wears a cast in the film, one wonders why. This three-hander could have made a nice little film in other hands, but Carax's production costs became legendary. Their landlord, so to speak, is a crusty old bum named Hans ( Klaus-Michael Gruber). The bridge has been closed for a year for repairs, bags of cement and paving blocks are tossed about, and they make it their home for the summer. The other is Alex ( Denis Lavant), a drunk and druggie who supports himself by fire-breathing. One is Michele ( Juliette Binoche), an artist who is going blind. ![]() Carax's film begins on the ancient Pont-Neuf, the oldest bridge in Paris, where two vagrants discover each other. The story could have been told in a silent melodrama, or on the other half of a double bill with Jean Vigo's great " L'Atalante" (1934), which was Carax's inspiration. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
December 2022
Categories |