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.
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FrenchEddieFelson26 March 2019
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Patrice Leconte's "The Girl on the Bridge" is a film that on second viewing seems better than when we first saw it. In a way, it appears to be a change of pace for M. Leconte, a man whose films have always been received well by his fans. As written for the screen by Serge Frydman, the movie presents a different take on love between two lonely people.
In fact, this original film begins and end on bridges with a reversal in what Adele and Gabor are trying to do. At the start, it's Adele the one that is at the end of her rope, and at the conclusion, it's Gabor who does a complete role reversal when everything seems to be hopeless for him.
Adele and Gabor never consummate their love as we follow when their lives comes together. Adele, during the interview with what appears to be either a social worker, reveals the sordid aspects of her life to the camera in an amazing sequence that sets the tone to the rest of the film. M. Leconte and his camera seem to be in love with the lovely Adele.
The two principals, Vanessa Paradis and Daniel Auteuil are perfect in the film. Both actors do excellent work together.
The magnificent black and white photography by Jean Marie Dreujou is perhaps the best asset for the film. The music score adds to the mood of the film. -
Mancic20001 January 2009This is a surreal and light-hearted romance story between a lonely middle-age man in solitude and a promiscuous young lady who decided there was no more to her life and would be desperate to try anything and put herself to the most of the extremes in a quest for excitement and sexual satisfaction. The fact that the movie was done in black-and-white added a layer of drama and mystery to the story. It seems to me that the writer was trying to get across a message that sometimes true love can surpass the materialistic desires like money, sex and lust, and the pair managed to find a unique and non-sexual way of connecting to each other.
Not a bad cinematic experience, especially with Daniel Auteuil being as charismatic and captivating as ever! There is something with this guy which you just can't find from other actors and which will glue you to the screen just to watch him in any type of actions with amazement. And he is one of those guys who can do the very witty and sometimes dream-like dialogues so naturally as in this movie that the audience will not be left with a feeling of pretentiousness or disbelief. -
mpakleppa27 May 2000For years I was asking myself: the beauty of the early French films, the poetic realism, the simplicity and magic of the early Italian neorealists - where have they gone? I was missing that moment of pure cinema magic, the feel of people, the love for life in the movies. The unforgettable pictures of our childhood created by people like Carne and Vigo, Rene Clair, de Sica and Fellini. Now they are back. Patrick Leconte has created a very original, highly enjoyable little masterpiece that has it all in a modern movie. This beautiful black and white love story is a great moment of contemporary cinema that leaves you with that deeply happy feeling, that cinema sometimes seem to have forgotten about. As a producer and director myself, I was searching for a long time for any modern piece of film that picks up on that wonderful poetic movie tradition that combines reality with a flowing, surreal dream-like storytelling that your heart directly understands. Leconte's gentle and lighthearted, yet perfect command of visual language and editing makes this simple little story about a knife-thrower and cabaret artist and his "victim" and partner, a suicidal young woman, one of my happiest cinema experiences in the last 20 years. That people do this kind of movies these days, gives you hope. We need more movies like this. This is a film that nobody should miss that loves poetry, love, life and circus as major elements of cinema and human existence. Congratulations to Patrice Leconte and his inspired DP Jean Marie Dreujou.
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claudio_carvalho11 April 2005In 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. -
A 'quirky' story from a director who likes to keep the viewer guessing - as in the wonderful 'Hairdresser's Husband'.The dialogues are wonderful in this movie, far wittier than the semi-silly 'Ridicule'; Although the subtitles are not perfect (which they rarely are, it's a very tough craft), they were difficult to read on top of that, at least in the film print I saw. But the storyline and the relationship in the movie more than carries it. Because of the occasional awkward subtitling, some of the lines might seem sillier than they are in the original French. The black & white cinematography is truly outstanding, beautiful & fitting. Daniel Auteuil shows more physical liveliness in this role than usual, and he's a true pleasure to watch; but the heart of this movie is truly Vanessa Paradis - an outstanding performance, full of charm & and pathos. The chemistry between the principles is enchanting. Leconte has completely succeeded in presenting a 'higher love' story.
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jul_g6 May 2000This film had great direction (remniscent of Godard) and wonderful photography, but the point it was making was somehow not too earthshaking. What are we supposed to learn here: Don't trust knife-throwers whom you meet on bridges? Luck can change? If you are beautiful and photogenic nothing else matters?
After three-quarters of an hour I found myself checking my watch at frequent intervals. I need a lot more than close-ups of a cute face and stunning scenery to keep my interest. I would have loved to see the character of Adele develop and change; however she seemed not to have learned anything from her experiences. -
Sebastian-F2 June 2005Two tragic characters: A beautiful girl, on the edge of a bridge contemplating suicide, and a broken man, on the same bridge for the same reason. The man is a believer. He believes in fortune. He's been around, and he's seen many things. He can tell when the wheels of fortune are turning, and in the face of the young girl he sees salvation for them both. He senses a feeling stronger than fate or Kismet or whatever you want to call it. A conviction that two people can be made for each other, that two people can connect in a way imperceivable and unobtainable for most of the world, a connection so deep and so strong, that it can make them invincible.
In most movies of this kind, you expect the characters to discover how right they are for each other along the way. In this movie they know it the instant they meet, but they're too proud and too overwhelmed to accept the fact that it could be so easy.
Patrice Leconte takes us on a wonderful journey around Europe, and fills each black and white frame with such colorful feelings that it's next to impossible not to be taken in by the mere suggestion that there can be a perfect match for each person, and that together they can take on the world.
La fille sur le pond, is a movie about fortune, destiny, love, danger, lust, luck, romance but above all, I think that it's about connection. Connection on a level so high that it becomes divine. This movie is unique and in it I find refuge whenever I feel alone or lonely. -
noralee8 November 2005"The Girl on the Bridge (La Fille sur le pont)" is mostly an updated, black-and-white, non-musical, French version of "Lili" with Vanessa Paradis extraordinarily similar to the original cinema gamin Leslie Caron--she's the one who sang "Hi Lili Hi Lili Hi Lo" so convincingly to the puppets. She looks quite a lot like Winona Ryder, which is a bit freaky as she's Johnny Depp's new paramour.
Only instead of puppets it's now knives thrown at her, and instead of an innocent belief in the power of imagination, it's an erotic thrill in challenging death and fate, and instead of finding puppets irresistible, she can't resist sex with any soulful looking guy.
It's a sweet romantic fantasy with cute dialog and some nice sad songs on the soundtrack, including Brenda Lee and Marianne Faithful.
But in this day and age can't they solve the problem of unreadable white subtitles on a white background?
This is a lovely date movie.
(originally written 9/2/2000) -
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!) -
I don't know, maybe it's just me, I expected another kind of film. What I thought this was all about was another study in the inexplicable nature of Love. The movie is partly about this, and partly a dream-like journey in the search of Luck. After the first half-hour,which is very,very good,quirky,funny,touching,the film loses it, everything remains pleasant enough,but really nothing special, I'm afraid... What I liked about FSLP,and was quite taken by surprise,was Vanessa Paradis. Not only she's achingly beautiful - but we knew this already,didn't we? - but she's very good as well: her initial monologue left me quite stunned.. Other things I liked:1)Daniel Auteuil - Always heard of him, but never saw anything with him, until today. He is very, very good. 2)The relationship existing between the 2 leads - They're distant,yet so close...3)The Cinematography - the movie is shot in b&w, quite nice indeed One more thing:we soon understand that for the 2 characters the act of knife-throwing is kinda like having sex. Fine, I thought, that's an interesting idea. But the director works upon this too much,and it rapidly becomes boring. In short, not a bad film, the 2 leads are quite wonderful, but I expected something else. Rating:6
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=G=25 April 2001An 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.
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dual-25 August 2000Trust is dynamic. Two individuals attempting suicide bookend this lyrical fairy tale, shot in black and white with tones reminiscent of a Renoir shot in the 30s. If you can trust, you awaken great possibilities, good fortune unfolds. In this allegory it comes to lucre, and commitment; in life, (for the rest of us) perhaps a house payment and affability. Not everyone requires submission to the skills and profound dark stare of a professional knife thrower; Vanessa Paradis finds emotional fulfillment in her trust of Auteuil, and sexual satisfaction in her "safe" position as target of his worthy intentions. The film's rhythm becomes a bit disturbed upon their separation, even a bit hackneyed; however, the final coda on the bridge with Paradis saving Auteuil and returning the favor is worth the down time wondering through cliched Turkish bazaars. The French have not forgotten romance.
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... this one's very far from being one of them, unfortunately.
Populist detractors of French cinema, knee-jerk Europhobes, phobics of subtitles, blinkered viewers who divide all cinema between Hollywood vs. "pretentious" art-house: if you really want to pick on a French movie that you think embodies all the clichés of Gallic cinema you so love to hate, take your vitriol out on this one! Leave masters like Rivette, Truffaut, Resnais, Rohmer, Denis, Varda and other, much better Leconte movies alone!
La Fille Sur le Pont's main players: Gabor, a middle-aged man played by the ubiquitous, but always pleasant to watch Daniel Auteuil and Adèle, a lithely beautiful, gazelle-like young woman who has the face of Vanessa Paradis. Predictably, Adèle is emotionally messed up, fragile and yet sexually promiscuous. The two meet when the charismatic grouch, Gabor, intercepts the girl on a Parisian bridge and prevents her from committing suicide (wasn't that also how Emmanuelle Béart's character and her boyfriend met in La Belle Noiseuse?). Gabor is an itinerant knife-thrower, by the way - sans toit ni loi. Naturally enough, since we are talking about a girl who has nothing to lose, Adèle becomes his target. Despite the rocky beginning, in which the two spend much time squabbling, there is naturally a strong attraction between them (in fact, as clichéd as all this may sound, the first 20 minutes of the movie, in which Gabor and Adèle's relationship is first established, were my favourites). We even get to meet a previous living target of Gabor's, a woman now performing in another circus number, at the venue where Adèle is about to perform for the first time. We see that this "ex" of Gabor's is also fragile and messed up, besides still preserving a clingy dependence on the knife-thrower. So, it seems that what Gabor has to offer women is somehow life-affirming, and better than sex. And in fact, watching Gabor and Adèle at work, you cannot help thinking: who needs these two to literally have sex when all that knife-throwing is more suggestive of penetrative sex than a steamy Tinto Brass scene of your choice?
In retrospect, I think this movie's main merit was to make me discover how charming and beautiful Johnny Depp's squeeze is - I had no idea. Sadly, Vanessa Paradis could not save the little movie from being just a nice-looking, superficially funny, substanceless piece of fluff, furthermore a hit-parade of French movie clichés that I thought would be beneath Leconte. Beineix's Betty Blue, Senta from Chabrol's silly La Demoiselle d'Honneur, Romane Bohringer's character in L'Appartement, even Jeanne Moreau as Catherine in Jules et Jim, and countless others: why are so many women in a certain category of French cinema invariably characterized as fragile and irrational, unsettlingly unpredictable and self-destructive, even suicidal? Yet, they are also intoxicatingly seductive and sexually voracious, fickle and capricious. They're the ultimate misogynist's sex fantasy, a woman that frightens (the vagina dentata myth being a symbolic exasperation of this fear of femininity) and enslaves the male (because sexual attraction is biologically inescapable). Paradis's Adèle was in fact a rather tone-down, sweetened version of one such stock female creation - in fact, perhaps a part of Leconte was distancing himself from this prototype and playing with it, though the other part of him was embracing it. But the fact that in the end Leconte shows us Gabor's fragility and Adèle's nascent strength goes some way towards showing that the director was also partly turning the stereotype on its head. The "Betty Blue" is what I call the female French movie prototype of the fragile-sexy-doomed heroine, which DOES certainly also exist in other cinematic traditions, though I seem to observe it more often in French movies. It's a fictional embodiment of womanhood that can be traced right back to the doomed "femme fatales" of the 19th century French artistic movement The Symbolists.
The scenes of La Fille Sur le Pont that were set in Italy, Greece and Turkey were rather dubious in their astonishingly twee and simplistic stereotyping as well. They were the equivalent of accompanying any scene set in Paris with sappy accordion music and a view of the Eiffel tower in the background. Was Leconte trying to be "Fellinian" in that raffle scene in San Remo? Oh, puhleez! Give me Tandem, Ridicule or L'Homme du Train any day over this candy floss, Patrice. -
angelprods27 July 2000Girl on the Bridge is an absorbing piece of film fiction and, to my mind, an instant classic. From the choice of its stars to the use of a gritty, many shaded black to white spectrum, it is a spellbinding expression of director, Patrice Leconte's, mastery of the art of filmmaking. Every throw of the knife notches up the suspense to an ecstasy of fear on behalf of the characters you come to love. This is an unusual romance that leaves the viewer enlightened and lighthearted without any sacrifice of reality.
The Girl is portrayed by Vanessa Paradis, who, in her person and in her manner, invokes memories of both Brigitte Bardot and Audrey Hepburn, a radiant, sensuous mix that is haunting and captivating. There's rapturous innocence despite her frequent and intense sexual encounters, and some part of her remains pristine throughout the most seemingly perverse scenes. Seduction for her must be emotional and intellectual, not merely sexual, because her body is routinely given, and through her experiences, we realize its satisfactions do not ultimately satisfy.
Although some scenes recall other great pictures of yesteryear, such as The Seventh Veil, Girl makes new, inspired use of beloved film moments to make its own statement: the human spirit deepens and expands to the extent to which it trusts in, and is dedicated to, love. To love is to risk, and in this film of heart thumping suspense, we come face to face with the dangers love entails. Love, like this film, is not for the faint of heart. I, for one, am looking forward to my second time. Many compliments to Patrice Leconte and his wonderful collaborators! -
dbdumonteil23 March 2006A trustworthy value of contemporary French cinema (in 1996, the French Minister for Arts and the director of the national center of the cinematography hailed him as a French worthy ambassador), Patrice Leconte can brag himself to rank among a handful of French filmmakers whose popularity is continual in France and abroad, especially since "Ridicule" (1996) was virtually unanimously lauded. On this site, several of his films exceeded the 1000 even 2000 votes mark. This one "la Fille Sur Le Pont" is near to the 3000 votes mark and appears to be the most well-known of Leconte's flicks abroad. A word to his devotees and they seem to be numerous: I urge them to watch "Tandem" (1987). It is Leconte's towering achievement and his sleeper.
To come back to "la Fille Sur Le Pont", this cracker basically revolves around a young girl, Adèle (Vanessa Paradis). She's only 20 years old and she got a raw deal. Apparently interviewed by an emcee on the telly, she assesses her rueful life and can't see her future. One evening, she's cracking up and is about to jump from a bridge into the river Seine. Fortunately, she's saved at the last minute by a knife-thrower, Gabor (Daniel Auteuil) who becomes fond of her. He hires her as the target for his show and will make her enjoy life again. From then onwards, luck smiles on them, the lead a freewheeling adventure and Gabor becomes increasingly enamored of his young protégée.
"La Fille Sur Le Pont" is the movie in Leconte's filmography which heralds a series of films in which a love story is one of the staple elements of these flicks. It is perhaps the artistic success of this film which incited him to continue in this vein with the subsequent pieces of work "la Veuve De Saint Pierre" (2000), "Félix et Lola" (2001) and at last "Rue Des Plaisirs" (2002). In reality, Leconte had already adventured in the domain of the love story well before "la Fille Sur Le Pont". Love stories were main threads in the nearly dreamlike "Le Mari De La Coiffeuse" (1990) and "Le Parfum d'Yvonne" (1994) and they gave brilliant results.
When I read Leconte's intentions on this film, I had misgivings. The director wanted to make a work which was supposed to be a homage to the New Wave, hence the shooting of Gabor and Adèle's adventure in a black and white cinematography. Leconte had lauded François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard as "masters". Ahem!... There's no accounting for taste. But he kept his trademark and his movie remains accessible to everyone who likes being told a story. The liberties dear to the New Wave clique are subdued and tamed, a stabled content and form with perhaps an emphasis on the content, no amateurish side in the directing, except in the very first sequence and a scenario which encapsulates several directives including a classic but absorbing storytelling and an analysis of the two main protagonists' persona.
Leconte pulls off with gusto to create a timeless atmosphere. The first sequence comes out of the blue and sets the scene for the unique aura in which the film bathes. It is realism and fairy tale in the same package. Everything in the scenery, the costumes, the cinematography and the directing seem to be dovetailed to produce this pristine poise. An impression reinforced by a discerningly chosen music. But also, "la Fille Sur Le Pont" is a success story and Leconte is very astute at this game. He refuses a good number of constricting codes of the genre or diverts them in a neat way. For example, the viewer will have to wait the tail end to see Gabor and Adèle exchanging their first kiss.
The scenarist Serge Frydman did a first-class job with an abundance of witty cues. My favorite lines are: "Knives are dangerous" "you know, everything's dangerous nowadays..." or " the first time I had sex, it was uncomfortable" "yes the first time you have sexual relationships it is usually uncomfortable" "no no, it was in the toilets of a gas station. It was uncomfortable".
Always on the plus side, Leconte was obviously interested with the persona of his two main characters and perhaps more Gabor than Adèle. In spite of his apparent self-confidence and his deadpan humor, he conceals a deep vulnerability and has his own weaknesses. Like Adèle, he's unsure about the future (check the sequence when he's on the rails and a train arrives in front of him). He's a "Lecontian" hero par excellence. He's apparently sure of himself but hides a deep fragility. He is also admirably portrayed by Daniel Auteuil who garnered a deservedly César in 2000. As for Vanessa Paradis who when she was 14 years old scored a big hit in France with "Joe Le Taxi", she unveils another face of herself with unsuspected skills of actress.
With a "feel-good" sentiment which suffuses the whole movie, "la Fille Sur Le Pont" is the ideal flick to restore confidence to the ones who lost it. Gabor says that "luck is a matter of life and death" but when it affects someone at a loss, it can work wonders. A wondrous movie to rank among the magnum opus in Leconte's filmography. -
ccthemovieman-13 November 2006Here's another very, very different movie. The dialog is quite different and so is the fact that it's a modern movie filmed in black-and-white. It is part romance, comedy and drama.
The camera-work is excellent, but that's no surprise considering Patrice Leconte is the director. He's my favorite European director because his films are visual feasts. His facial closeups and different camera angles are fascinating.
Vanessa Paradis is captivating as the female lead character "Adele." She's unusual in that she has a very pretty face but horrible teeth! It's tough not to focus on both the face and teeth at the same time. The dialog between her and "Gabor" (Daniel Auteuil) is different, at least for me as an American. I think the French have a totally different sense of humor....and are superstitious, big-time.
I wish the tape had been dubbed, so I could have concentrated more on the great visuals instead of having to read the subtitles. -
Didier-Becu20 August 2003The day Vanessa Paradis conquered the world with her childlike 80's hit "Joe Le Taxi" nobody could have thought that a decade later she would be one of the leading French icons, and certainly not a brilliant actress. Cos that's really the least you can say about Vanessa's performance who look like some circusgirl from the fourties, you know the kind of circuspeople like they are filmed in Lynch's "The elephant man". Vanessa plays the role of a young girl Adele who stands at a bridge ready to jump into the river, but just like in every fairy tale she is saved by Gabor (Danny Auteuil) who likes her to be his assisstent for his knife throwingact. She has nothing to loose, too weak to say no (she goes to bed with every guy who is asking for it) and soon she is the muse of Gabor. Even if the two never have any sex with each other, their knifethrowing act is an orgasm itself. And the two might lead a total different life (Auteuil is like a psychotic De Niro) they are made for each other... Is it a love story? Perhaps, but it's just more...at times it's even art (certainly due to the magnificent black and white cinematography) but most of all it's just an ordinary tale from two people who just live their life. "La fille sur le pont" is a genius movie from one of the most original directors France have, and quite unbelievable he started his career with the soulless comedy "Les Bronzés".
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jayraskin19 January 2010This is a beautiful, poetic, absorbing and intensely romantic movie.
Daniel Auteuil won a Cesar (the French Academy Award) for his performance here and he certainly deserved it. His portrait of a knife thrower is chilling and warm at the same time. It is amazing that Auteuil did not become a Hollywood star. He has been nominated for Cesar's 12 times and has won twice. Only Gerard Depardieu has been nominated more (15 times and 2 wins). While Depardieu has made more than a dozen Hollywood films, Auteuil has been in none.
Bsides Auteuil's outstanding and soulful performance, Vanessa Paradis is astonishing. She is as sexy and openly seductive as Greta Garbo. It is easy to see why she has been Johnny Depps lover/companion for the past 20 years or so.
The film is artistic. So do not expect a linear Hollywood plot or easily understood characters. Just let the film's ambiance sweep you away to another world. -
If you want a provocative romantic double-bill for the weekend, I strongly suggest this film followed by Luc Besson's odd but engaging Angel-A; both films open with an individual about to jump off a bridge in Paris--they are each stopped from leaping by another person who wanders by--leading to complications. Both films are lushly photographed in black and white (odd for such contemporary films, but highly effective), and both give us quirky lead characters who attempt to find some meaning in their lives; The Girl On The Bridge takes us to other cities beside Paris, and Angel-A has a hair-raising shot from the Eiffel Tower--Paris really a major character, too. While adult in nature, neither film is excessively violent,although the language in Angel-A can get pretty salty. Both are often funny in their look at relationships, often satirical, though seldom biting; while not masterpieces, both are good fun for the closet Romantic--and in this case, the director being Patrice Leconte, fun for those of us who like a little weirdness tossed into the narrative.
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LeRoyMarko11 November 2001La Fille sur le pont is an excellent film. It's about luck, bad luck, but also about love and passion. And there's a lot of passion in this one. The acting is fantastic. Daniel Auteuil and Vanessa Paradis are just incredible. Once again, Patrice Leconte delivers. This is one of my favorite director. See his other movies: La Veuve de Saint-Pierre, Ridicule, Le Mari de la coiffeuse. You'll never be disappointed by Leconte.
On a 4 stars rating system, I gave this one ***½. Seen at home, in Welland, on Oct. 10th, 2001. Marko Roy. -
leila-k-hussain21 January 2008"La Fille sur le Pont" truly is the grown up fairy tale. Here, our Prince Charming is replaced by the unlikely Daniel Auteuil, a quick-witted, straight talking knife thrower whilst our Princess (Vanessa Paradis) proves to be a promiscuous, doe-eyed waif fallen on hard times. Both appear to live in an incomplete world, short of both companionship and luck. As expected they meet (all be it in rather peculiar circumstances) and we embark with them on their frantic journey to far off lands, fame and fortune. The film raises the age old questions of destiny and luck and the possible existence of either. Yet the director, Patrice Leconte, carefully creates an atmosphere of hope and belief and so despite all cynicism an audience does become seduced by the ideology of a good old romance.
It's "rom-com" exterior proves highly deceptive as in fact it is a film of great detail and intense beauty. The absence of colour only enhances further the lavish and glamorous surroundings through which the couple saunter. The soundtrack is equally bohemian with elements of swing, samba, Asian folk and jazz all enhancing the exotic nature of the film. Combined with dynamic camera work and fast paced dialogue, the intensity of the knife-throwing scenes permeates throughout the entirety of the film.
Patrice Leconte has created a charming piece of cinema that is sentimental, pretty and endearing. Definitely recommended as a quiet night-in, "feel-good" film. -
Giuseppe_Sirugo5 June 2017It is clear that Adèle (Vanessa Paradis) is a subject problematic and unlucky. A girl considered by men but most often alluded and abandoned. On the other hand there is the figure Gabor (Daniel Auteuil), a knife launcher: when Adèle is about to commit suicide from Paris on a bridge the two meet. The screenplay of this film in black and white seems to capture the magical realism of the 1950s where the protagonists are a kind story of solitary souls, eccentric, but basically two people desperate to search happiness. A choice of Patrice Lecont who supports cynical and tragic humor: the plot reveals a real issue of life or death where the luck of the protagonists is constantly challenged, he throws knives while she becomes the target of the target. To conclude, despite metaphorically I love Vanessa Paradis and the film I liked I recognize for the female protagonist an adolescent role that which plays with life and death.
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rmax30482319 January 2014The film opens with an extended shot of a somewhat bedraggled Vanessa Paradis explaining to a woman off screen how her life has been a meaningless mess. The camera watch Paradis carry on for about five minutes, while tears begin to roll down her cheeks. The scene is never referred to again.
There is a cut to the same Paradis, still bedraggled, ready to jump off a night-time bridge in Paris. Just as she's about to take a nose dive, she's interrupted by an observer standing nearby, Pierre Auteuil. He doesn't rush to her aid or anything. He tells her that her run of bad luck is just a patch of rough road and, besides, she looks too good to waste. If she's so anxious to off herself, she can come and work for him. He's a knife thrower at a circus. The bridge is where he picks up girls so depressed that they're willing to take the job, regardless of the danger.
At this point I began to shudder all over with fear. Not fear for Paradis, but fear that I was in for a long, very French disquisition on the nature and meaning of life, all shot at night and in the rain.
But, lo, it's much better than that. In fact, it's pretty good. Briefly, Auteuil and Paradis make a splendid team and they rise to the top of their profession, if that's what it is. The tricks get more difficult. Auteuil throws his knives blind, and then at Paradis while she's rotating rapidly on one of those wheels that the simply dressed target always spins on. They're luck in every respect; they win big at Monte Carlo.
Now, your typical-standard American romance has them quit while their career is at its zenith. With their considerable stash, they buy a well-appointed beach bungalow, Auteuil puts himself through medical school and becomes the avuncular brain surgeon he's always wanted to be, and Paradis is ecstatic at finding herself a pregnant housewife with a room dedicated to her home sculpture and macramé.
Not here. Paradis is happy enough having knives thrown at her, but she and Auteuil never play doctor together. Instead, he's merely annoyed when her whimsy takes her to somebody else's bed. At one point she's about to make it with a contortionist, an interesting concept.
Just when the going is great, she finds "Mister Right" aboard a carnival boat. (I missed the original French for "Mister Right", but that's how the English subtitle came out.) She bids Auteuil a quiet good-bye and she and her new flame depart in a lifeboat. I haven't figured out how they got off the cruise ship in a lifeboat in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea either.
But no matter. The plot forges ahead. Mister Right deserts Paradis immediately in Istanbul. She drags herself around the city. It's never explained how she manages to support herself but it's easy enough to guess. Auteuil loses his uncanny skill with the knives and is reduced to selling them for "a few dates or a cucumber." He wind up dressed in tatters and about to jump off a bridge himself.
I never took the knives/luck business too seriously, figuring it must be a symbol for something else. By the end, I figured the something else was total commitment in a relationship, including outright expressions of love and including physical intercourse, both of which had been missing. The movie itself prompts this kind of conjecture. Vanessa Paradis hauls him into a dark tunnel, saying that they both know what they want. And what do they want? Another knife-throwing episode, while she writhes orgasmically and Auteuil sweats up a storm, both of them totally glandular.
I've always liked Auteuil. He has the face of Humphrey C. Earwicker, a kind of everyman. His nose is as big as his eyes. Paradis' body is flawless. And her face is almost inhumanly handsome except for her teeth. Lots of attractive women have gaps between their two upper incisors, but she has gaps between all of her teeth, so sizable that Auteuil, if he wanted, could throw knives through them.
I enjoyed the thing. It was in black and white, and free of those crazy tilted camera angles and wobbling shots and instantaneous editing that more recent films are susceptible to. Try it. You might like it. -
Quite cleverly, Patrice Leconte, cinema's most celebrated misogynist, has managed to make a film that is supposed to be about one thing (the girl on the bridge) and is really about another (male, middle-aged self-pity; fans of AMERICAN BEAUTY are recommended this movie). The film opens with the heroine answering questions about her life, her dreams and hopes, her failures. It is not quite clearly why or to whom she's doing this - she speaks to an unseen female interviewer in a blackened room with a small, unfocused audience. Is she on trial? Being interrogated? On a television chatshow? The interviewer seems too benign for the first two, the questions too direct for the latter. The point is that she speaks in her own words, she can articulate her own crises, and, in making the objective interviewer disclose personal information, breaks down the barrier between subject and object, one of the film's main themes.
The peak of her power comes straight after this, as she takes the decision to commit suicide. After ten minutes all her power and individuality is used up, and she becomes the pawn of a mysteriously powerful middle-aged man, a mere projection of his fantasies. The film ceases to be about her trauma and becomes his. There are quite a lot of films like this.
Gabor takes Adele to be the target for his knife-throwing act. A man hurling knives at a passive woman is, of course, open to the most obvious suggestions, but throughout his career, Leconte has displayed a very strange attitude to sex. People who have a lot of it feel empty and disillusioned (LES BRONZES, LE PERFUM D'YVONNE); some men desire it, but, fatally, don't get it (MONSIEUR HIRE); mostly, they don't seem to desire it, and don't get it (LES SPECIALISTES). There is a weird puritan streak in this supposed sensualist. It is initially, crudely suggested that Gabor is gay, but the literalising of the knife-throwing as sexual sublimation in the railway shed (a very disturbing 'sex' scene, Adele writhing in orgasmic ecstasy, at one point literally lying down, pinned, awaiting the phallic attack), suggests that Gabor's problem is impotence, that his inability to ultimately control Adele rests in his inability to sexually claim her.
So, instead, he tries to stop anyone else having sex with her. He tames this promiscuous beast because, in a very bizarre morality, her sexual freedom has led to her despair. He tries to iron out her sexuality, her femininity, by making her look like a boy, and also a stature - the film is a kind of Pygmalion, about a knowledgeable man who takes an unformed girl and makes her a woman fit for society, except it's an anti-Pygmalion, because she knows quite enough about society and the world. He turns a worldly woman into a statue, into the world of (male) fairy tale and magic. Her attempt to break away from him, like Eliza Doolittle, leaves her adrift and betrayed and lost in the narrative - we never see her again except as a projection of his suicidal desires - his gambling, than, is just a figure for failure and misdirection.
You wouldn't mind this rather dubious subject matter if it was fuelled with the misanthropic glee of TANGO or the dreamy melancholy of THE HAIRDRESSER'S HUSBAND. But this is, if I may say so under IMDb guidelines, Leconte's least interesting film cinematically since LES BRONZES - most of the information is conveyed verbally. He tries to break this through a few desperate tilts, cranes and swoops, and a thumping score.
Because it is filmed in black and white, some undiscriminating critics who haven't seen many films have compared it to the nouvelle vague, but it is actually the complete opposite - phoney, contrived, absurdly over-composed; all danger, spontaneity, LIFE drained out of it. When we get to Italy, we get some cod-Felliniisms (the statue at the car raffle; the ship of fools), and there is a dubious attitude to foreigners in the Turkish section.
Ultimately we've here before, and the actors, the permenantly dour Daniel Auteuil, and the charming, inconsequential Vanessa Paradis, are rarely allowed to enliven a very slight story. The backstage of the circus is briefly engaging, and you have to watch this film for a wonderfully shocking, cruel, hilarious and (of course) misogynistic joke involving an abandoned bride and a badly timed loss of concentration.