It's night on a Paris bridge. A girl leans over Seine River with tears in her eyes and a violent yearning to drown her sorrows. Out of nowhere someone takes an interest in her. He is Gabor, a knife thrower who needs a human target for his show. The girl, Adele, has never been lucky and nowhere else to go. So she follows him. They travel along the northern bank of the Mediterranean to perform.
22 Feb The Girl on the Bridge (1999)
On and Off
The main character here is played by a young woman who we discover in an extraordinary opening sequence, an interview placed outside of the film proper, where we learn her character and her way of carrying it. This scene is memorable, because of the firmness with which she clings to damage and vulnerability. It is long and intimate, and placed in an audience of which we are a part.
The actress playing this girl is perfect. She really is a plain woman, with bad teeth, a sagging chin and misplaced forehead. But when she decides to turn it on, the sun opens up and you receive the sort of beauty film is made for. This actress in fact is a top model; that is her talent, her job and presumably her life.
The story surrounds this as a folded wrapper. She finds a man who sees her as his partner, but not as she is used to. He wants to make love of course; we all yearn for this with someone who is a soulmate. They are soulmates, to the extent that they can speak to each other across cities. His love is dangerous and penetrating. It carries the extremes he is capable of and she is of supporting. (The metaphor is knife throwing, but that is as much an abstraction as the water and bridges images — all of which are brilliantly conveyed using pure cinema.)
A scene has her begging for him at a train platform, ‘now, anywhere‘ and they retire to a shed where he throws at her in the most erotic scene I have seen in years. She is more than radiant, he more than master.
The switch here is the switch between good and bad luck, which he introduces. While we are the audience of the two, he is the audience of her; we both throw, we both risk, and we both are rewarded.
Posted in 2011
Ted’s Evaluation — 3 of 3: Worth watching.
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