The Bridge (2000)

Gérard Depardieu directs and stars in this powerful story about the consequences of adultery upon a marriage.

The Fifteen-year itch!

All one can say about this movie is that it is NOT a great love story but a union that begat from "cheating". Set in the 60's, it's merely a 15-year marital itch for a beautiful woman, mother of a 15-year old and wife of a blue-collar construction worker.

The story begins when Mina takes to the movies with her 15-year old son, while her husband, George, currently unemployed, hangs out at the bar rather than with his family.

She blatently allows herself to be picked up by the man seated next to her, and he offers to take her and her son to join him for drink and dance. He is an engineer in charge of construction of a new bridge miles away. She falls for him, and the son quickly figures what is going on. She has now imposed the burden of the affair onto her son.

We don't learn much about the engineer, only that he travels and has a wife in another city. We don't see anything that dictates the strength of the affair, just that it is ongoing. When George takes a job at the bridge construction site, away from home, the son carries the burden of hiding the love affair. He soon learns about the engineer and his wife.

George attempts to stop the affair, but Mina leaves with the engineer. We only know that they will rent a house together. The engineer is simply caught up with a beautiful bored wife and the beautiful wife will live a comfortable life. Meanwhile, George misses the warmth of a woman, rather than missing his wife, per se. So it gives us the impression about the true existence of their marriage.

The story is unique that it delves on the lack of a deep commitment in marriage. It tells how simply the itch occurs and the consequences for not strengthening the foundation of a marriage and family. ....MzRizz
February 23, 2006

What, no violence?

A typical triangle , only complicated by a 15 year old son,who is just old enough to be sufficiently involved in his own love life, to forgive his mother.Knowing Depardieus violence in other roles, I waited through the entire movie for the violence to erupt.But everybody is terribly civilized and I am impressed. A lot of deep feelings exposed without murder or fistfight , Incredibly wonderful.... December 21, 2004

Bouquet: Once Again, Chanel Girl Reigns supreme

As a Carole Bouquet fan-atic, this film was totally satisfying. I love her signature hair, her demure French gazes. While her acting doesn't seem to ever go beyond one octave, it doesn't matter: she looks like Hermes Faubourg perfume smells....

Le Pont is set in Normandy in the 60's. The drama plays out slowly and evenly, as a woman (Bouquet) allows herself to bring drama to her life. She visits the cinema regularly, sometimes seeing a film 2 or 3 times. She finally has a chance to leave her working class housewife lifestyle behind. Putting Bouquet in this role, I found it difficult to believe that a shiveringly beautiful woman such as Bouquet could ever lead a boring existence. After all, she is THE Chanel girl.

I loved her husband's reaction to her "choice". Despite his working class ways, he has the strength and love to let her go, to realize her dream. Isn't that what true love is? To enable and empower another human being, sometimes at great cost to oneself.

Listen for the noise Depardieu's car makes when he slams the door closed: it is Ka-lassic June 1, 2002

Bouquet is Absolutely Luminous!

Much is said about the storyline, cinemaphotography, sets, score, costume design, not to mention the incredible performing trio (Bouquet, Depardieu and Berling). I shall only add that the movie is totally believable with the casting of Bouquet - how a man can fall head over heals in lust/infatuation with Bouquet at first sight...and how her husband can internalise all the hurt and anger by forgiving her outright. Carole Bouquet's definitely growing "older" gracefully, in fact, she is even more captivating and delicious than I can remember in her earlier film roles. This movie, along with "A Business Affair", showcase Bouquet's repertoire as a serious actress, not just any MTA (model-turned-actress) whose sole existence is too look beautiful, and hopefully help the box office. March 16, 2002

Bouquet and Depardieu are just amazing !

This film marks -to my knowledge- Depardieu's first attempt as a director, and it is an obvious success both for the performance of actors and the sublety of the characters. To co-star in his movie, Depardieu chose Carole Bouquet,and it is perhaps because Bouquet is Depardieu's present wife that he is so successful in revealing a new aspect of her personality. Bouquet is best known in France for her past performances in Blier's Buffet Froid and Trop Belle Pour Toi, two movies in which she appeared as a beautiful, but extremely Cold and Solemn woman. On the contrary, in this movie we discover a much more light-hearted Bouquet, in fact so light-hearted that she does not seem to care about the consequences of her acts. Depardieu's performance is equally amazing : to think that this guy was a wonderful Epic Hero in Cyrano de Bergerac and that here he is equally convincing as a simple working man just tells you how BIG this actor is. As for the story I think that this film can be considered as a french ironic answer to the typically US Bridges of Madison County. Indeed in Bridges of Madison County Clint Eastwood, the travelling photographer, which primary goal is to photograph bridges, ends up seducing Meryl Streep, a housewife somewhat bored with her small-town lifestyle. Here Charles Berling is a "travelling" engineer which comes to this small town to build a bridge and seduces Carole Bouquet, a housewife equally bored with her life. But that's about all you can find in common between these films. While Streep's children discover their mother 's love affair only when she's dead, Bouquet's kid is aware of what's going on very early on, and this is just one of the reasons why the french film is much less melodramatic and much more realistic than the US one. Furthermore, while the Eastwood-Streep film was centered on the relationship between the two lovers, this one is centered on Depardieu/Bouquet, the husband & wife relationship, which allows for more complex and subtle dialogs. So if you like french movies and/or if you want to see what would have happenned between Eastwood and Streep in the real life, you should buy this movie. April 22, 2001

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