Subway

This movie had a very unusual plot. It was basically unexplained, and at the end I was left wondering what I had just seen. It's not that the movie is hard to follow, rather that it doesn't give you much to follow. The main characters are never really defined outside of the specific events that occur in the movie, and vague references to events immediately before the beginning. Perhaps this was done on purpose, to avoid tying down the identities of those who were involved, in an effort to create the sympathetic characters most films aspire to. But it left me feeling like I'd missed something.

The film included shady denizens of the Paris Metro, but I'm not sure it focused on them as much as I expected. I expected the film to be about a normal main character running across an unbelievable array of weirdos in the subway, but the weirdos simply weren't that weird. I think I've actually see weirder people in the Paris Metro in real life. Instead, the weirdness in the movie comes from its lack of definition. An unidentified main character having stolen mysterious "papers" from the unknown rich husband of some random woman he happened to meet on the street.

I'm not sure what the movie was trying to get at, but I think it was leaning toward inspiring spontaneousness in all things and the consequences that brings. It really didn't ring any bells of resemblance for me with any of Besson's newer movies (Léon, Fifth Element), even though it had a score by Eric Serra and Jean Reno made an appearance. It also had the Eighties stamped into and slobbered all over it.

I can only recommend this movie to Besson fans trying to get a bigger picture of his work, 80's freaks, or anyone interested in trying to decipher cryptic movies.

When I saw Subway, I wanted to see mostly the talent of Isabelle Adjani, one of my favorites.

As this movie starts, it seems promising with the dark Paris Metro atmosphere, which is a bit similar to our Subway system in Montreal. The weird caracters, the forbidden passageways and of course the hideout, that subway security can't detect nor approach.

But the story is slow despite good performances and the up-going suspence, that if security can snatch those guys. And by the middle of the movie, mostly the last half hour, it is boring.

Too bad for a story which started so well with such a offbeat caracter like Christophe Lambert (in blond, clad in a dark trenchcoat and bearing a neon stick) falling in love with a rich, sultry woman like Isabelle Adjani...

See it for curiosity only...

I love French cinema, just so you know. However... This movie has no plot, no character development, no vision, and no coherence. It starts nowhere and goes nowhere. It doesn't so much "end" as much as it just "stops". I own this film on DVD, and I can't even give it away because I'd feel responsible for whoever else would watch it. Besson is a master. Even the masters can craft some dreck. This is a terrible, terrible, terrible film.

This film is about an upper class woman falling in love with a thief, who lives an alternative lief in the underground passages of the subway.

I was hoping this film would be as exciting or suspenseful as the "Leon", "The Fifth Element" or "Joan of Arc". I must say I was disappointed by this film. Maybe it was because Subway is an earlier film, and he had yet to develop his skill and style. I found Subway rather boring as there was not much going on. I was expecting more chases, drama, violence and psychological games.

Instead, the film is slow paced, dialog sparse and content sparse. We get treated a 90 seconds scene of cops walking down some stairs. Is this scene interesting or even necessary? I also am disappointed that there is little portrayal of what goes on in the subway passages. Just having some cat and mouse chases is not interesting enough.

This is a pure exercise in style from the Luc Besson school of film making. A handsome gangster joins ranks with a school of dropouts who populate the Parisian subway system, hounded (but never phazed) by transportation police. The trouble is that head honcho Fred has fallen in love with the pretty but stroppy wife of one of his BCBG victims, and strife ensues below the streets of gay Paree.

Christopher Lambert is amazing as the stylish rebel gangster with a heart, Fred; Isabelle Adjani is pretty but, as always, deeply annoying -- she just exudes arrogance from the bottom of her dainty little heart. On the sidelines we see an impossibly young Jean-Hugues Anglade, Jean Reno and Jean-Pierre Bacri. I actually didn't recognise Reno, that's how young and unknown he is here.

If you have a deeper interest in cinema, this is a straight ten. It's amazing how Besson brings together great style, action, fun, pace, acting, dialogue and amazing characters. Unlike most directors who film in the province and try to make it look like Paris, Besson films in Paris but makes it look like Metropolis.

Unfortunately, there isn't much of a plot and zilch suspense. The film starts with a heated heart-to-heart between Fred and pretty Héléna, and since we are aware that their affair can't end but unhappily (albeit in an incredibly chic way), the suspense is exactly zero. So if you just want entertainment, you should better pick one of Besson's later movies.