Lovers on the Pont Neuf France
1991, 125min.
Prod.: Christian Fechner, Alain Dahan, Script/Dir.: Leos Carax, Dir. of Phot.: Jean-Yves Escoffier, Music by Benjamin Britten, Dmitry Shostakovich, Art. Dir.: Michel Vandestien, Sound: Henri Morelle, Sound Edit.: Nadine Muse, Sound Mix: Gérard Lamps, Edit.: Nelly Quettier.
Cast: Juliette Binoche (Michèle Stalens), Denis Lavant (Alex), Klaus-Michael Grüber (Hans).
Paris has its share of homeless people, and some of them live in little communities near the oldest bridge in the city, the Pont-Neuf. In the story, street-person Alex (Denis Lavant) has passed out along a much-traveled road, and a taxi has slightly injured his leg, which was in the way of traffic. When he limps back to his usual resting spot under the bridge, he finds a surprisingly unspoiled young woman (Juliette Binoche) wearing an eye patch sleeping there and confronts her about it. They become acquainted, and he learns that she is Michèle, a painter from a good suburban family who has taken to the streets in order to practice her art uninterruptedly until the time when she will inevitably lose her vision to a degenerative eye disorder. Alex earns his booze money through doing street theater: fire-eating and gymnastic routines. The two become buddies and lovers, share many adventures while practicing the arts of street survival, and even have some fun along the way. So close do they become that, when Alex is imprisoned for a violent act of jealousy, a newly cured Michèle visits him in prison and promises to meet him on the bridge when he is released. Despite this film's setting among the poor, it cost a lot of money to make: one of the big costs was the need to build a replica of the Pont-Neuf. (All Movie Guide)
Awards
European Film Awards, 1992 (Best Actress, Best Cinematographer, Best Editor).
| Carax, Leos  Leos Carax (born 1960, Suresnes, Hauts-de-Seine, Île-de-France, France)
Director, critic and writer. Leos Carax was born Alexandre Oscar Dupont His professional name is an anagram of his first and middle names. His mother was American and his father French. He began his film career with a series of short films, and as a film critic, before he released Boy Meets Girl. That piece established Carax's reputation for mature visual style. It also saw the first teaming of Carax with Denis Lavant and cinematographer Jean-Yves Escoffier. He followed with a science fiction themed Bad Blood in 1986, which alienated some of his audience, though this work continued to explore the complexities of love in the modern world, this time through a darker, more criminal viewpoint. The work was clearly an homage to French New Wave cinema, and his use of such actresses as Juliette Binoche proved a touching tribute to his influences, especially Jean-Luc Godard.
Five years later, Carax returned to directing with Lovers on the Bridge, which proved to be an expensive undertaking as Parisian authorities granted him only 10 days in which he could film on Pont Neuf. His initial reaction to the problems of filming on a public bridge had been to construct a model of the bridge in the community of Lansargues, in Southern France. However, on the first day of filming Denis Lavant severely injured his thumb, which pushed the movie by a month. Subsequent financial difficulties pushed filming over a much longer period than intended. The movie was released to critical acclaim and opened the door for Carax to enter more experimental waters with his fourth feature, Pola X. That film, released in 1999, was an adaptation of Herman Melville's tale of incest, "Pierre: or, The Ambiguities." (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
Filmography
Strangulations blues (1980, short), Boy Meets Girl (1984), Bad Blood (Mauvais sang, 1986), Lovers On The Pont-Neuf (Les Amants du Pont-Neuf, 1991), Sans titre (1997, short), Pola X (1999).
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