Cheap Lovers on the Bridge (DVD) (Juliette Binoche, Denis Lavant) (Leos Carax) Price

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Customer Reviews of Lovers on the Bridge

A modern Fairytale
After Leos Carax's 1986 film Mauvais Sang (come on Miramax release it!) Juliette Binoche begged her then lover and director to never film her as a madonna again, and so the seeds for Les Amants du Pont Neuf were sown. Mauvais Sang features a luminous and fetishised Juliette Binoche as a mask like presence, with no physicallity. This was carried thorough to the wonderful The Unbearable Lightness of Being, but Carax exploded the image in his film. The story is simple, two down and outs meet fall in love, yet despite the harsh realities of life, and love, on the streets they live out an exciting and romantic (in all the senses of the word) existance. This movie is relevant for its amazing visual and tour de force performances. Binoche is simply standout, she seems to live the role, something she later admitted deeply disturbed her. The film is fabulously directed from the grainy opening sequence to the amazing fireworks scene and the exilirating conclusion. The film is littered with cinematic allusions from truffauts Les Quatre cents Coups, to L'Atlante. In terms of context the film is amazing because it juxtaposes harsh realities, the opening sequence and fairytale like fantasy. We are led to question what is actually real, from Binoche apparerntly committing murder to the street littered with gigantic litter. In the end Les Amants du Pont Neuf is a film which needs multiple viewing and some explaining or knowledge of French New Wave cinema to be wholly comprehended, yet it is cwertainly accessible for the majority of casual cinema goers! The film, as I always predicted, is only now beginning to get the recognition it trully deserves. Binoche has avoided this type of movie since, although Michael Hanekes wonderful Code Unknown, though on a smaller and more subjued canvas, has many similarities. Roll on the US release of that one too. And Miramax, its about time you beagan releaseing this type of movie on DVD, youre beginning to lag behind the other companies such as Fox Lorber and Criterion!

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beautiful
this movie is a complex love story with stunning visuals. there are a few scenes that really breathe scorcese, but most of the film feels very fresh and unlike anything else i've ever seen. the energy that this film possesses is breathtaking. definitely worth watching.

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Times 2 = 10 stars
One of the most beautiful films ever made. Clear proof that Juliette Binoche is one of the (if not the) greatest actresses of the age. Lacking, perhaps, in subtext or moral complexity - absences which would ordinarily prevent me from branding a film a great work of art, the extraordinary beauty (which I confess brought me to tears during the fireworks sequence,) the brilliant acting, the homages (especially to L'Atlante,) the inexorable progression from despair to hope all lead me to the conclusion that this is one of the greatest films ever made.

I was fortunate enough to see this first in a theatre (the Walter Reed at Lincoln Center) so the full impact of the beauty of the film came through better than would be possible on a home system. However, I bought the DVD from Amazon UK several years ago and it is well worth owning.

Following Boy Meets Girl (very good) and Mauvais Sang (wonderful,) the followup to Lovers on the Bridge which was Pola X was staggeringly disappointing and undiciplined. Worth owning largely for Scott Walker's brilliant soundtrack I could only look at it aghast and wonder what happened.

There is nothing even scheduled by Carax in the new "improved"(?) Amazonified imdb. We can only hope that he returns with something even approaching having the sense of wonder and intensity of this masterpiece.

Not just worth owning, but utterly mandatory.