Zazie no Metrô

A product of the French New Wave, this movie is more than 40 years old, but it still has the powers to make you leave your mouth open, either to laugh or just to be in awe. Extremely different from anything you can find on the screens today, "Zazie" is able to entertain you even without a coherent plot or a bunch of lines that make sense. A dark-short-haired witty little girl goes around an extremely colorful Paris meeting unusual and funny people. Does this remind you of anything? Actually "Zazie" had already gone beyond the borders of the land that would be explored by "Amelie" 40 years later. Maybe this means that the future is behind our backs? It is time to turn around.

Raymond Queneau is my favorite writer. He was one of the rare giants of french litterature who could make you really laugh out loud while you were reading one of his classics.

ZAZIE DANS LE MÉTRO was his funniest novel, but if you are not fluent in french, you will miss a lot of the jokes; Queneau loved to play with the language.

Fortunately, Louis Malle has done a good job in adapting the humor of Queneau, translating the novel into a more visual, slapstick, cartoon-like movie. An intelligent comedy that is it's own unique category.

I've just seen this movie on DVD and enjoyed the humor and wit. According to some Dutch and French web-pages like http://perso.orange.fr/cinefrance/1960/zazie.html Zazie is not played by 12yo Catherine but by a 9½yo Milène, what seems right to me by the looks of her, she's definitely too petite for a 12yo, age 9 or 10 seems much more likely. In the trailer she is described as a 9½yo too. Her lines seem a little too adult now and then, but bear in mind who wrote the scenario! Louis Malle was famous for breaking taboos. This movie was intended for enjoyment, like a comedy, but with a sharp view on the changing French society. Also some comments on hypocritical ways of dealing with taboos like homosexuality and "dirty old men". Funny to see the traffic congestion in Paris, already then, and the looney effects, inspired by Tex Avery.

In the early sixties, New Wave French Cinema were very serious about themselves, with Godard and Truffaut. But Louis Malle, who was from the same generation, don't take anything seriously in this unforgettable movie. I really love the viewer analogy with the Roadrunner! Everythings goes nuts in this movie: Sounds, situations, logic, actors. It reminds us of the Mack Sennett movies. It's also got a lot of charm for the very funny and smiling face of little Demongeot playing Zazie. And how about young Philippe Noiret? He will become one of the greatest French actor of all time. Like the Jacques Tati's movies of the same era, this comedy can't grow older. Seeing today is seeing it with the same joy as in 1960. A must!

For a long time I'd only heard vague things about this movie, but it was all very fawning and I had the sense that it was Malle's masterpiece. Then I saw a trailer that Criterion put together and my hopes were dashed. It just looked incredibly obnoxious. So I was steeling myself for a trying experience. In actuality, it's a mix of my premature impressions. Something like a Looney Tunes cartoon come to life, the film is bursting with colorful scenes, zany action, sight gags, slapstick, wordplay (much of which I assume is lost in translation), irreverent humor and wild camera tricks. I have to applaud the energy and inventiveness that Malle brings to the screen, it's a unique, anarchic and bold film with echoes in Tati, Jeunet and others. However, it's still a bit obnoxious. It's a weird sensation to be simultaneously charmed and annoyed, but very little of the comedy appealed to my sense of humor. It's all too wacky and madcap. Like HELLZAPOPPIN', I admire the spirit of it and kind of had fun with certain parts, but I doubt I would ever sit through it again.