La ragazza sul ponte

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.

An artfully shot, black and white contemporary French film, "Girl on the Bridge" is a peculiar sort of romantic drama about a man and a woman bound together by an alloy of danger, fatalism, luck, libidos, and sharp steel. On one level the film is preposterous; on another, implausible; and yet on another a compelling, fantastic drama. A good watch for the jaded.

The best moments of the quirky love story, "Girl on the Bridge", come in the beginning sequence when the introspective Adele (played by the beautiful Vanessa Paradis) is questioned about her clinical depression by an unseen voice in a room full of unseen therapists. Adele explains both her natural attraction and her bad luck with successive men who mistreat her in one way or another. Then comes Gabor (Daniel Auteuil) who tries to 'rescue' her from the bridge she is about to jump off. Their relationship starts out like a Pymalion story with the more intelligent Professor Higgins and the unrefined Eliza but then turns into a road show, like "La Strada", with the experienced showman Zampano and poor waif Gelsomina but finally ends up looking like "Two for the Road" with two sick puppies who can't do without each other. You come away from "Girl on the Bridge" thinking about love in the abstract rather than love you can feel. Do we really care that in the end, the knife thrower and the target have changed places? Can we really understand the pathetic lives of a younger woman and an older man who instinctively know what the other is doing and whose sexual gratification comes from experiencing the fear of dying? Given the high drama of their lives, you would think "Girl on the Bridge" could come to some conclusion about two desperate characters trying to find some meaning in life. Instead we meet them back on a bridge where they started out in the beginning, with an oddly chosen Brenda Lee tune thrown in to accentuate the strangeness of a strange film.

In Paris, the needy and unlucky Adèle (Vanessa Paradis) is a complete loser, used by all the men in her life. In a Parisian bridge in the night, when the Adèle is near to commit suicide, the knife thrower Gabor (Daniel Auteuil) invites her to be his target in his show. She accepts the invitation, and they become a great success in show business. Like two halves of a bill, when they separate, they become losers again. Soon they realize that only together they would succeed in life and find love with each other.

"La Fille Sur le Pont" is a magnificent and delightful fairytale about two half-souls that meet each other in a Parisian bridge, filling their lives with lucky, happiness and love. The story in some moments recalls the wonderful films by Frank Capra, in other moments is quite erotic. The performances of Daniel Auteuil and Vanessa Paredis, showing a perfect chemistry, deserve a nomination to the Oscar. Most of their witty dialogs are fantastic, the direction of Patrice Leconte is splendid as usual and the black & white cinematography is stunning. "La Fille Sur le Pont" is a movie to be revisited many times and highly indicated to fans of filmed poetry. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "A Mulher e o Atirador de Facas" ("The Woman and the Knife Thrower")

Note: On 08 Jul 2018 I saw this film again.

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!)