Zazie dans le métro

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.

Great cinema, with a wonderful exuberance and style. Louis Malle showed his great talent and versatility in this romp of cheeky comedy. Blessed with a Zazie that (for me ) captures the essence of the character originally created by Raymond Queneau, this is a 60's French film that continues to bring naive pleasure to those to whom it is a memory of the renaissance of French cinema in the early 60's, and (hopefully) will still retain a few inspirational moments for those see this movie thirty years on and who have had the benefit of later comedic directors who learned from this well-crafted and thoroughly entertaining movie.

"Zazie dans le Metro" is the kind of movie that owes its relative positive outcomes more to its style than to its comedy of errors kind of humor. Having been made as an American film and this would be considered a disaster. Why? It would lose in style, technique, good cultural references and meaningful message. Don't be fooled, "Zazie" has a message in between scenes. Despite an apparent lovely child as the main character and the apparent comedic routine of the film, this is more inclined to be a grown up's picture than one suitable for children - they can watch but the easily impressible ones in the audience will keep asking their parents the meaning some of the words used by the girl, many of them cursing. So, if you want to insist on watching this with a kid be warned that you're going to be just like the adult characters of this explaining everything to the kid.

It tells the story of a 12 year-old country girl (Catherine Demongeot) who is left with her uncle (Philippe Noiret), a performer artist, while her mother is spending a lovely time with her boyfriend. She flees from the house with the intent of taking the subway, but that plan fails because they're on a strike, so the rest of the movie is her sort of understandable childish behavior against the fact, so she explores the city and creates a lot of confusion against anyone she sees.

Cartoonish, filled of speed-up images, running as if it were an imitation of a Bugs Bunny gag, "Zazie dans le Métro" would be an interesting film if it had some coherence rather than just creating images just for fun. An adventurous piece about a girl discovering herself and learning about what growing up means, ultimate message of the film, would be great. The clownish tone of it was distractive and flat. I was reminded of "Amèlie", since it shared a young female's magical and unusual vision around a big city, it's her small world colliding very beautifully with other persons, other realities, forming a reflexive image about society. Both are colorful and fast paced works, carried with visual style and splendorous editing tricks. "Amèlie" is better because it has somewhere to go while "Zazie" is pure slapstick, losing humor the more it progresses.

It's not a bad movie, but it's not so dignifying of having a terrific director like Louis Malle writing and directing it and let's face it, humor doesn't suit him. His greatest works are all dramas (see "Au Revoir Les Enfants" or "Damage"). It's a good picture, indeed, genius in its creative compositions, elaborated sequences (the breathless one in the Eiffel Tower takes the cake), paying an homage to the silent era but it's a real tough break to endure the annoying little brat, her mannerisms and language (not believable in the 1960's context) which isn't funny or humored because she's mistreating people who are good to her and undeserving of such treatment.

I liked what I saw even though I laughed only once or twice. Mr. Noiret was a class act and made this a very enjoyable film along with the great locations. And don't be fooled by the false advertising, she only spends ten seconds in the subway and doesn't even notice. 6/10

I saw "Zazie" in Paris in 1962, and my French at that time was rudimentary. Nevertheless, for sheer manic energy, wonderful visual comedy, and performances that transcended the language barrier, I loved it. I've seen it since and still love it. Among its other virtues for me, this film introduced me to the marvelous actor Philippe Noiret. Malle proved to be a director with virtually unlimited range with respect to style and mood. Consider some of his other fine films: "Lacombe, Lucien," "Atlantic City," "Murmur of the Heart," and "My Dinner with Andre," to name only a few. I guess what Richard Lester did with the Beatles might be close to this when it comes to sheer antic charm, but I think "Zazie"still stands alone. Unless you have zero tolerance for whimsy and insist on Deep Meaning in your movies, I think that you're likely to enjoy this one...if you can find it.

Frankly, in the world of corny jokes and lightweight punchlines of the Hollywood comedies I hunger for the good old French physical comedy. Malle is one of the best ju-ju men in the business and in Zazie laughs never stop. Actually, in this movie anything ever stops as people are running rather then walking and driving rather than sitting still. The story is quite simple, a little girl is sent by her mother to Paris to her uncle and the only thing she wants really is to see subway (metro). Of course she runs away, of course everybody starting after her, of course there are some dumb cops and sinister-looking strangers... Or maybe I got it all wrong for having laughed so hard I could not read the subtitles (and my French would barely guide me through a menu in some bistro). Think of it as a live action Roadrunner movie on caffeine...