The Lovers on the Bridge
by Leos Carax
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Denis Lavant, Juliette Binoche, Klaus-Michael GruberDirector: Leos Carax
Brand: Buena Vista Home Video
Cinematographer: Jean-Yves Escoffier
Writer: Leos Carax
Producer: Christian Fechner
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: French (Unknown); English (Subtitled); French (Original Language)
Format: NTSC
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 126 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2012-01-06
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: LIONSGATE
Movie Reviews of The Lovers on the Bridge
Movie Review: The bridge of sighs
Summary: 5 Stars
The raw depiction of the homeless greet you in the opening scenes.The child-like down-and-out Alex(Lavant) has made his home on the Pont-Neuf bridge during its temporary closure for reconstruction work.After having his foot run over while he was drunk,he staggers home to meet Michelle(Binoche),sleeping on his usual patch.She's a bourgeois art student,but an eye disease and some trauma from the recent past, has left her on the streets.We know little about the backgrounds or the pasts of either character.The two outsiders form an unlikely emotional attachment,much to the annoyance of Hans(Gruber).Hans' and Alex's features are monstrous, brutalised.Alex has tendencies towards self-mutilation.He also has no identity away from the bridge.There is a dysfunctional family structure,with Hans acting as father,Michelle as mother and sister,taking care of Alex,teaching him how to sleep without drugs and helping his assimilation to the social group.The 2 actors are at their peak.
Against the dazzling technicolour backdrop of Paris by night and the city's bicentennial celebration,sheer ecstasy and joy are visualised,water skiing on the Seine amidst mercury flares and fireworks,Lavant's ritualistic fire-breathing.Alex's excessive physical,violent character is tenderised by Michelle's love, her vulnerability with her degenerative eye condition.She also uses him as an artist's model.Minimalist plot gives free rein to rich visual invention.Les Amants was a grievous production.After Carax had secured a permit to film on the Pont-Neuf while the structure underwent major repairs,it turned into a lengthy and troubled shoot due to an injury to the leading man. Filming was shut down,the permit never to be renewed,the crew moved to a lake in the South of France,where a vast replica of the bridge+ environs had been constructed.Carax said "I try to be a beginner...I started the film looking for something but not knowing what".Based on sheer intuition, his adherence to the subject of joy,and his debt to film-making of the silent era,the Chaplinesque poetry of life on the streets.His off-hand grasp of narrative is offset by an astonishing visual style,bringing to a story of romance,the feeling of being in love,drawing emotional impact from an instinctive visual command.The costliest film ever made in France.
Summary of The Lovers on the Bridge
Martin Scorsese presents Academy Award(r)*-winning star Juliette Binoche (The English Patient, Chocolat ) in a uniquely uplifting story of two misfits who risk everything for love! A homeless artist who is losing her sight, Michele (Binoche) finds herself drawn into a passionate relationship with a troubled street performer named Alex. Then, despite all obstacles, they together find love and shelter on the famed Pont-Neuf bridge in Paris. But, in time, their unlikely love will be tested as Michele's secret past catches up with her! With memorable performances from an outstanding cast - you'll be swept away by the stirring romance of this wonderfully inspired motion picture!This product is manufactured on demand using DVD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.
How can a movie be so ludicrous and so ecstatic at the same time? The Lovers on the Bridge stars Juliette Binoche as a street person (there, in a nutshell, is the ludicrous part) who was formerly an artist, but began to go blind and whose life fell apart as a result. She hooks up with a homeless street performer (Denis Lavant) who lives on a bridge in the middle of Paris that has been cordoned off for repairs. He falls madly in love with her; she can't bear the thought of being close to anyone. Both are more than a little irrational. But this banal scenario is merely the pretext for a series of lush and stunning images--including midnight water-skiing, fireworks displays, wandering through falling snow, burning posters in subway tunnels--and richly committed performances from the actors. It's not quite as overwhelming on video as it is on a movie screen, but there's such a gushing of emotional images that it's hard to resist the angst and yearning passion. Though the film dives into some cliches, it manages to avoid others; when Binoche's wealthy family starts looking for her, a frightened Lavant tries to keep her hidden away, and you really don't know whether their relationship can possibly survive. An unusual and sweeping film--and an example of the power of visual images to create a state of rapture. --Bret Fetzer
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