The strength of this film lies in the the fact that it has a plot - a simple one - but it attempts to tell a story which is a welcome return to old fashioned movie making. The black and white wide screen photography further places this film in the realm of something special, something so confidently realised and self-assured that it does not need to gaudily, noisily market itself to the audience. What the audience gets is a playful reworking of the conventional romance which, in its own way, reinforces the power of love and trust.
The film opens with a six-minute sequence, where Vanessa Paradis as Adele is interviewed by an unseen woman in front of an audience. It may be a TV studio, or a psychologists' convention - this is not important, but what is important is the honesty and the confidence with which the questions are answered. All this sets the tone and the mood and the theme of the film. Adele speaks about luck (all of it bad) and banal, failed, empty sexual encounters. She says, "I've never had a day where I wasn't taken advantage of." Adele, then, is like all of us in a modern society. We desperately buy into the images before us, never checking out the depth behind the facade.
On a lonely Parisian bridge at night, Adele contemplates suicide and is saved by Gabor (Daniel Auteuil) a knife thrower looking for a new target. They team up and the story begins. This is not a story of a fortysomething lusting after a nubile young thing but rather a story of people who deserve each other, people who have been damaged by society and who need more than just sex. When the couple part, they cannot function without each other - physically and mentally. The story ends where it begins, on a bridge - a perfect symbol of transience and change and also danger (what lies on the other side?).
There are some serious Jungian and Freudian symbols here, the most obvious being the phallic throwing knives and the act itself as the perfect substitute for sex. Have fun connecting with the symbols - dwarves, leopards, boats, the ocean, fire, wheels, cars - and the music from Marianne Faithfull, Brenda Lee and North African rhythms and you will not be bored by this quirky look at the human condition. A worthwhile view from this bridge.
The film opens with a six-minute sequence, where Vanessa Paradis as Adele is interviewed by an unseen woman in front of an audience. It may be a TV studio, or a psychologists' convention - this is not important, but what is important is the honesty and the confidence with which the questions are answered. All this sets the tone and the mood and the theme of the film. Adele speaks about luck (all of it bad) and banal, failed, empty sexual encounters. She says, "I've never had a day where I wasn't taken advantage of." Adele, then, is like all of us in a modern society. We desperately buy into the images before us, never checking out the depth behind the facade.
On a lonely Parisian bridge at night, Adele contemplates suicide and is saved by Gabor (Daniel Auteuil) a knife thrower looking for a new target. They team up and the story begins. This is not a story of a fortysomething lusting after a nubile young thing but rather a story of people who deserve each other, people who have been damaged by society and who need more than just sex. When the couple part, they cannot function without each other - physically and mentally. The story ends where it begins, on a bridge - a perfect symbol of transience and change and also danger (what lies on the other side?).
There are some serious Jungian and Freudian symbols here, the most obvious being the phallic throwing knives and the act itself as the perfect substitute for sex. Have fun connecting with the symbols - dwarves, leopards, boats, the ocean, fire, wheels, cars - and the music from Marianne Faithfull, Brenda Lee and North African rhythms and you will not be bored by this quirky look at the human condition. A worthwhile view from this bridge.