La ragazza sul ponte

For years I was asking myself: the beauty of the early French films, the poetic realism, the simplicity and magic of the early Italian neorealists - where have they gone? I was missing that moment of pure cinema magic, the feel of people, the love for life in the movies. The unforgettable pictures of our childhood created by people like Carne and Vigo, Rene Clair, de Sica and Fellini. Now they are back. Patrick Leconte has created a very original, highly enjoyable little masterpiece that has it all in a modern movie. This beautiful black and white love story is a great moment of contemporary cinema that leaves you with that deeply happy feeling, that cinema sometimes seem to have forgotten about. As a producer and director myself, I was searching for a long time for any modern piece of film that picks up on that wonderful poetic movie tradition that combines reality with a flowing, surreal dream-like storytelling that your heart directly understands. Leconte's gentle and lighthearted, yet perfect command of visual language and editing makes this simple little story about a knife-thrower and cabaret artist and his "victim" and partner, a suicidal young woman, one of my happiest cinema experiences in the last 20 years. That people do this kind of movies these days, gives you hope. We need more movies like this. This is a film that nobody should miss that loves poetry, love, life and circus as major elements of cinema and human existence. Congratulations to Patrice Leconte and his inspired DP Jean Marie Dreujou.

This is a surreal and light-hearted romance story between a lonely middle-age man in solitude and a promiscuous young lady who decided there was no more to her life and would be desperate to try anything and put herself to the most of the extremes in a quest for excitement and sexual satisfaction. The fact that the movie was done in black-and-white added a layer of drama and mystery to the story. It seems to me that the writer was trying to get across a message that sometimes true love can surpass the materialistic desires like money, sex and lust, and the pair managed to find a unique and non-sexual way of connecting to each other.

Not a bad cinematic experience, especially with Daniel Auteuil being as charismatic and captivating as ever! There is something with this guy which you just can't find from other actors and which will glue you to the screen just to watch him in any type of actions with amazement. And he is one of those guys who can do the very witty and sometimes dream-like dialogues so naturally as in this movie that the audience will not be left with a feeling of pretentiousness or disbelief.

The old Hollywood formula, Boy Meets Girl, Cute, is given a nice French twist is this very funny and intriguing romantic comedy starring Daniel Auteuil and Vanessa Paradis. Paradis is Adele, a twenty-something waif who looks like a Parisian model except for the charming and disarming gap between her two front teeth. She's sur la pont and looking to jump off into the Seine. Auteuil appears as Gabor, a forty-something carnival knife thrower, looking for a new and more exciting target. He taunts her a little, shames her a bit. She gets insulted and jumps. He jumps in right after her.

Well, I have it on good report that Nora Ephron is jealous as hell. I mean wouldn't, say, Meg Ryan and Mel Gibson just be adorable meeting like this?

I...don't...think...so. For one thing, this would never work in the American cinema since one of the essentials is that the "boy" be twenty years older than the "girl" so that his patience with her frequent liaisons is plausible. Hollywood would have to find another slant on their relationship (something banal no doubt) and alter the ending to make it more romantic. But Hollywood can do that! Watch for the remake--a Nancy Meyers film, directed by Ephron--in theaters everywhere, circa 2010.

Since the script, containing some very witty dialogue by Serge Frydman, and the fine acting by Auteuil and Paradis, carry the show, Director Patrice Leconte was able to film this on the cheap in glorious black and white, which doesn't detract from the film at all. I didn't really notice there was no color until about twenty minutes in because I was so taken with, first, Paradis as the girl who could never say no, and then Auteuil who is funny, commanding, and obviously having a great time. By the way, the device of her being interviewed to open the film makes us think for a moment that we are being shown a video recording of that interview. Following a well-established cinematic convention of rendering video recordings in black and white, this makes our minds accept the black and white cinematography without question.

Paradis is child-like and sexy by turns. The scene after the train passes and she says to Gabor something like, "You KNOW what I want to do, and I want to do it NOW," leads to a rather strange, but clearly erotic, symbolic sexual experience. Paradis plays her part very well.

The theme is the mystery of capricious luck, believed in passionately by those who feel they have none, which is how Adele and Gabor feel before they meet each other. Together, however, they can call the number at roulette, win at the lottery, and find gold on the ground!

The enigmatic and rather predictable ending warrants some pondering. Are they going to live happily ever after as man and wife, lovers, or as a kind of father/daughter team? It's not clear, and that's deliberate. Draw your own conclusions, but don't miss this one. It's definitely worth seeing.

(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon!)

Here's another very, very different movie. The dialog is quite different and so is the fact that it's a modern movie filmed in black-and-white. It is part romance, comedy and drama.

The camera-work is excellent, but that's no surprise considering Patrice Leconte is the director. He's my favorite European director because his films are visual feasts. His facial closeups and different camera angles are fascinating.

Vanessa Paradis is captivating as the female lead character "Adele." She's unusual in that she has a very pretty face but horrible teeth! It's tough not to focus on both the face and teeth at the same time. The dialog between her and "Gabor" (Daniel Auteuil) is different, at least for me as an American. I think the French have a totally different sense of humor....and are superstitious, big-time.

I wish the tape had been dubbed, so I could have concentrated more on the great visuals instead of having to read the subtitles.

Film of extreme sensuality, carried by 2 excellent actors. Vanessa Paradis radiates and subdues: her voice, her beauty, and even her slightly stupid side (in this movie, of course). Daniel Auteuil captivates his entourage, among other things with an artificially dark look. We feel them connected. Together, they complement each other. Separated, they accumulate failures. And the film becomes magical, as in a fairy tale.