La Fille sur le pont (1999) - film review

A young woman is about to jump from a bridge on the River Seine in Paris when a stranger approaches her.  He is Gabor, a professional knife-thrower who offers her a chance to begin a new life as his stage partner.  The distressed woman, Adèle, accepts his offer and the two set out on a tour which brings them fame and fortune.  Then, they separate and their luck takes a turn for the worse...

Perhaps the most artistically self-conscious of Leconte’s romantic comedies, La Fille sur le pont is nonetheless an attractive film which, whilst lacking in the intellectual stakes, makes entertaining viewing.  It achieves a striking balance of tension and comedy which offsets the film’s uneven pacing and over-reliance on visuals to make up for deficiencies in the plot.  It was a major box office success in France, grossing over $20 million, although it was attacked by the critics for its superficiality.

Filmed in luminous black and white, with some frenzied editing and expansive camera movements, the film recreates the feel of the French New Wave of the 1960s.  Some scenes are remarkably reminiscent of scenes from Godard’s A bout de souffle (Vanessa Paradis bears a passing resemblance to Jean Seberg) and Truffaut’s Les Quatre cents coups, although it is clear that  the intention is as a homage rather than opportunistic duplication.

This vivid New Wave -style cinematography contrasts with the subject matter of the film itself – a tender romance driven by fickle fate – which appears to come from a much earlier era of French cinema, the Prévert-Carné age of poetic realism on the late 1930s.  Leconte achieves this blend of the classical and 1960s avant-garde with surprising success and the result is a curiously modern film which is loaded with energy and style.

Vanessa Paradis’s inexperience as an actress is apparent but it serves the film’s rough-edged feel very well (just like Jean Seberg in A bout de souffle).  Better known as a singer, the charismatic young actress is captivating, and makes an ideal, albeit unusual, co-star for Daniel Auteuil (who was awarded a César for his performance in this film).

© James Travers 2000

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