Girl on the Bridge (1999)

Daniel Auteuil and sexy Vanessa Paradis charm in this funny and intriguing twist on Boy Meets Girl. A beautiful waif (Paradis) is prepared to leap to her death in the Seine but is rescued from her grim fate by a raffish carnival knife thrower (Auteuil, in a performance that won him a Cesar Award for Best Actor). Lovely, quirky, winsome and erotic, this fairytale vision from director Patrice Leconte (Monsieur Hire) is a romance so captivating, you won't want it to end! Product Description

Magical...

French language film. Gabor (Daniel Auteuil) rescues Adele (Vanessa Paradis) from a suicide attempt after she jumps from a bridge. She's 21, beautiful, charming but full of bad luck, bad love and bad experiences. Gabor, past the age of 40, is a new-era knife throwing entertainer. Adele becomes the target in his shows. Her relationship with Gabor begins to turn her fortunes when they both discover intimacy ("love and fear simultaneously") in the knife throwing act. Deep piercing looks and sexual tension keep you guessing in their plutonic relationship until the finish.

This movie offers stunning black and white cinematography and mesmerizing performances by Auteuil and Paradis. This is a film about loneliness, sadness and two human beings desperate search for happiness and a human connection.
September 27, 2008

A fine bit of Patrice Leconte fluff revolving around luck, sex and flying cutlery

She: Suicidal, about to jump off a bridge. He: A carnival knife thrower. Would you like to be my target, he asks. Sounds like a match made in heaven.

Patrice Leconte's La Fille sur le Ponte may be a bit of quirky romantic fluff, but it's great fluff. It's a diverting entertainment without much purchase, thank goodness, for the admiration of deeper meanings with which some Anglo cinephiles deaden the experience of good French movies.

It's the story of two people who probably could only exist in the movies. Adele (Vanessa Paradis) is 21, endlessly compliant and endlessly unlucky in love (and with just about everything else, too.) She's a charming gamin, especially if you're the guy trying to pick her up. "Boys attract me," she says, "like beautiful clothes. I always want to try them on." At last she figures out that, for her, while sex is a friendly thing, it never seems to last or to work into anything else. "Funny, isn't it, how people can seem madly in love when they're not. It must be easy to fake." So there she is one evening about to jump off a bridge. Gabor (Daniel Auteuil), an older man, tries to talk her out of jumping. He'd like her to be his target. With her figure and his skill, they'll be a hit...although, he points out, "past the age of 40 knife throwing becomes erratic." She decides to jump anyway. He rescues her and before long they are an act. Adele continues to offer her innocently explicit friendship to those she encounters. She discovers a gift for luck. Gabor? Well, Adele and Gabor develop a distinctly odd approach to intimacy...knife throwing. Giving and receiving seems to bring out all the heavy breathing and beads of perspiration one would expect from the other activity. Note: Do not try this at home just to find out for yourself.

What starts as a clever, funny suicidal set up moves into a clever, amusing story about knife throwing as a metaphor for sex and roulette as a metaphor for...well, maybe a relationship. It's so off-kilter, and Adele and Gabor are so attractive and interesting, that their quirky relationship is almost a guilty pleasure to watch. Will Adele decide to move a little so she can find out if one of Gabor's thrown knives is better than a young man's.... Will Gabor ever decide to try something other than a knife to intrigue Adele with.... Will Leconte's amusing mixture of luck, cold steel, eroticism, clever dialogue and shrewd acting come to a happy ending? When things begin to edge a little too close to what passes as seriousness in the movies, about three-quarters of the way through, Leconte has the good sense to pull back. This, after all, is a quirky romantic comedy done with flourishes and knives. You should see the movie. It's well worth it.

Daniel Auteuil, one of the screen's great actors, manages to make of Gabor a man with an interestingly unspoken life for us to think about. When a movie depends on quick, clever dialogue, it needs to be delivered matter-of-factly, with no delays for glances, sighs or eye work. Auteuil's matter-of-factness is as deliberately amusing as his lines. Paradis, on the other hand, must make this young woman who lies down so willingly someone we like. Not only does Paradis give us pleasure in sex, when she's around she makes us feel almost young, innocent and erotic ourselves. And how nice it is to see a beautiful star actress without perfect teeth.

Some critics have noted the several affectionate references to well known French films Leconte places in The Girl on the Bridge. I wouldn't know. I was too busy enjoying the movie. However, for those who might be intrigued enough to watch some of Leconte's other movies, he'll give you a variety of emotions to deal with. My favorites include Monsieur Hire (Ws Sub), full of uneasiness and uncomfortable feelings; The Widow of Saint-Pierre, which comes close to tragedy; Ridicule, as malicious and amusing as you could wish; and my favorite to date, Man on the Train (L'Homme du Train), a wonderful, thoughtful movie of sadness, regret and fulfillment.

The Girl on the Bridge is beautifully photographed in black and white. The DVD transfer is excellent. There are no extras. September 24, 2008

FINALLY!!!!!!!!!

I am a french cinema lover...This is the best movie ever!! I have been holding onto the VHS version thinking I would just get it converted eventually, and was suprised to see this while browsing on amazon. I have been waiting forever for this. Thank you to the movie studio for finally giving us the DVD version in the US. You have to see this movie!! September 22, 2008

An Amazing Film

This is an amazing film, quirky and odd with interesting characters and shot in stunning black and white. It took the DVD gods years to decide to put it on DVD here in the U.S., but it was sure worth the wait. August 9, 2008

An erotic meditation on human nature.

Patrice Leconte's The Girl on the Bridge (La fille sur le pont) combines the talents of Daniel Auteuil and Johnny Depp's love interest, Vanessa Paradis. The stunning black-and-white film tells the playful story of a caberet knife thrower, Gabor (Auteuil), who rescues a despondent waif, Adèle (Paradis), from drowning after she jumps from a Paris bridge. Gabor, we learn, frequents Paris bridges in search of of girls contemplating suicide to perform as human targets in his act. He eventually persuades Adèle to perform in his knife-throwing act. While their relationship remains platonic, their dangerous act is nothing less then erotic. The knife-throwing act becomes a metaphor for the sexual act. Much of the film follows their off-center relationship as Gabor and Adèle travel together along the Mediterranean. Ultimately, The Girl on the Bridge is a sublime meditation on loneliness and human nature. Daniel Auteuil and Vanessa Paradis bring mesmerizing performances to this film.

G. Merritt July 30, 2008

More reviews at Amazon.com ...