The most expensive movie ever made in France when it first came out, this is a marvellous dark fantasy. The whole production is a wonderful cinematic experience. It was most certainly designed for the biggest possible screen. It is a fantasy, never letting you the viewer forget that it is a film, and not reality. Hence some rather unnatural dialogue and obviously-staged scenes. It's a cinematic spectacle.....
At the same time, it is a dark tale of obsessive love, as Alex (Denis Lavant) first falls for, then comes to depend upon, his fellow dweller (Juliette Binoche) on/under the eponymous bridge. When it appears that she may get the opportunity to leave him, we see how selfish his love is and how we so often destroy that which we most cherish.
All the ideas and themes are blasted at the viewer with as much subtlety as the Bastille Day fireworks which signal one climactic moment. But on a big screen, it works, honest. This is one of about three films I've ever seen which received an ovation at the finish - and this from a typically reticent British audience....
At the same time, it is a dark tale of obsessive love, as Alex (Denis Lavant) first falls for, then comes to depend upon, his fellow dweller (Juliette Binoche) on/under the eponymous bridge. When it appears that she may get the opportunity to leave him, we see how selfish his love is and how we so often destroy that which we most cherish.
All the ideas and themes are blasted at the viewer with as much subtlety as the Bastille Day fireworks which signal one climactic moment. But on a big screen, it works, honest. This is one of about three films I've ever seen which received an ovation at the finish - and this from a typically reticent British audience....