Marathon UpdateThe Lovers on the Bridge Carax does over the top french romance the best.
A feature film is made up of a collection of short films which accumulate for dramatic effect. This is how I saw The Lovers on the Bridge. How well everything accumulates is going to depend on you. I really hated some of the scenes, but man I really liked some of the scenes.
I'm not a complete stranger to the perspective of filmmaker Leos Carax. I'd seen his segment from Tokyo!, the weakest of the shorts, though I understand his madness better now. I've also seen parts of Mauvais Sang, but in small doses you only see the pretentiousness and Carax can be a real turnoff. It was an uphill battle getting into Lovers on the Bridge. I quickly realized my mind was not open enough to follow a homeless junkie with a broken ankle. This isn't classy French cinema, but more challenging gutter French.
Like I said, I really didn't like parts of this movie, but then would come a scene like the fireworks sequence and the creative flow was romantically grand. This was easily my favorite part of the film, and I liked that it became increasingly illogical because it only made things more romantic and the shots were really beautiful. (The couple spinning was lovely, but the stolen boat was sublime.) This disregard for logic is what sometimes gets the film in trouble. There's a bit involving some posters and fire. A shot of the posters all flaming down a long tunnel of the Paris subway makes no sense, but it looks great and emotionally it works. This scene ends with our lead crossing a huge moral line. I felt uneasy, even though I could tell Carax wasn't going for stark realism.
Carax is really great with images that include light strobes. I noticed it later on when our couple watches a dance club and a scene on a ferris wheel. He doesn't descend to pure black, but that burst of light does wonders with the imagery. Carax experiments with filming a scene in a way I found really attractive. It's liberating to watch someone who's making it up, who isn't sure if this will work. And a lot of the time it doesn't, but his saving grace are the three lead performances. They remain rock solid throughout, anchoring Carax's invention.
I'm very hesitant to recommend The Lovers on the Bridge because it's a mess, but ultimately I admire the attempt, the performances are wonderful, and the parts that do work are really quite special.
RATING: ***This doesn't make me want to watch Mauvais Sang right away, but I'll be ready for Carax when one of his films pops up again. For now, it's onto my triple bill of Cassavetes.