The Lovers on the Bridge

It's more a showcase for the actors' talent - which are phenomenal in their challenging roles - than a movie. You share the life of two homeless people and like the madness of these two protagonist the movie switches between long cold scenes and very exciting moments which doesn't make things particularly cohesive but keep us entertaining when needed. If you dream to see Juliette Binoche waterskiing in a French river with fireworks all around her, this is the movie for you but at the same time you will still have a very different movie than expected.

Actually a french film titled Les Amants du Pont Neuf.

Amazing!!!! So original, so artistic and so poetic but encaging with an amazing story that keeps the films moving along at a good pace. Love it so much I bought to have in my collection just to show off :)

this movie is 20 years old yet it doesn't looks like an old movie, kudos to the cinematographer because he did a superb job on this movie

My second Leos Carax film. "Holy Motors" is one of my favorites, but I found this one pretty good too, even with a pretty different approach. Some drunk, Alex, is living on a bridge in Paris. He is scoring drugs from another man on the same bridge. He drinks and is generally up to nothing. Then Michèle comes along. She is a painter with a fainting eyesight. She has given up hope so she joins Alex and lives with him. Their relationship is special but complicated. Not as filled with drugs and alcohol as you might think, but they are not up for much. Some great subplots and twists makes it interesting and some fantastic scenes makes it pretty and something else. The photography is splendid and the story is lovely put together and it develops constantly into somethiing greater and more complex. Denis Lavant as Alex is truly amazing. His skills is great and he is a true chameleon on screen. Juliette Binoche is also a great star here and their chemestry is fittingly weird but deep. A film that will be remembered as a whole after some time of sinking in. A different lovestory that needs some digestion. 7.5 out of 10 fireworks.

Stunningly shot, decorations and background deserve the highest praise, performances are outstanding. In this film romance and realism are walking abreast, brilliant. But I can't get rid of the feeling that their love is fake, it's all about selfishness, unless it was director's idea..

Valtavirrasta poikkeava rakkauselokuva. Elokuvaan oli selvästikin panostettu, silti se vaikutti ajoittain jotenkin kömpelöltä... (Suom. Pont-Neufin rakastavaiset)

With a production history as troubled as just about any movie this side of Apocalypse Now, Leos Carax's The Lovers on the Bridge is a startling depiction of love at its most foolish. Juliette Binoche's Michele and Denis Lavant's Alex are far from a perfect match-he's an addict, she's going blind, and neither has a home or a steady job-but their affair is passionate, and each of them end up becoming dependent on the other; Michele requires Alex to help her see, while Alex doesn't want to live if not in her warm embrace. Such love, as true as it might feel in the moment, can end up being destructive. That's what Carax so brilliantly captures here. These are deeply flawed people who are preventing the other not just from thriving, but also surviving. The film is based on and around the Pont-Neuf bridge in Paris, where Alex and an older gentleman, Hans (Klaus-Michael Grüber), call home. It takes place during a two year stretch highlighted by the bicentennial celebration of France's Bastille Day when the Pont-Neuf was closed for repairs. The relationship between Alex and Michele doesn't begin cute (a harbinger of things to come); She first sees him just after he passes out in the street and gets run over by a car. She ends up stealing his spot on the bridge, much to Hans' chagrin (he demands she leave at every turn), but considering her degenerative eye disease, Alex doesn't have the heart to force her out. Their interactions are initially casual at best. They talk a little. She's an artist and tries to draw him. There's one fateful night (the film's best scene and one of the best I've seen in a long time) when they get drunk and dance along the bridge will music blares and fireworks completely take over the night sky. It's at this point that Alex begins to really feel strongly for Michele. As her sight deteriorates, she begins to feel the same. Alex is startled, however, to suddenly find posters of Michele's face plastered around the city. They said her family was looking for her and a new medical procedure might restore her sight. Carax had secured the real Pont-Neuf for ten days of traffic-free filming, but he felt he needed more and elected instead to create a replicate bridge. This meant The Lovers on the Bridge would be crazy over-budget, which led to a gap of eight(!) years between the film's completion and its release in American theaters. While I have no doubt this caused the film's financiers a ton of stress, it's hard to argue with the final result. Not only does the bridge look totally authentic, it's also a very unique setting and full of character. It's likely you've never seen Juliette Binoche like this before. Harried and childlike, she has the look of someone who, even at a young age, has gone through enough shit that she's content to wave the white flag of life's surrender. Lavant, too, has the face and the nimbleness of a child, and behaves with the recklessness of someone too immature to succeed at life or love. The Lovers on the Bridge, then, is ultimately a story about youth and the mistakes and twists of fate that cause us to fall. While most films (especially Hollywood productions) chronicle their protagonists' rise back up, Carax has something a little less conventional in mind. The Lovers on the Bridge is a little long in the tooth, but it does feature a scene as marvelous as any since. Just as Michele and Alex start to forge an emotional connection, France celebrates a national holiday. As fireworks completely transform the night sky, these lovers dance, drink, and steal a boat. It might sound ordinary, but I promise you've never seen anything like it. It's the highlight of an already great film, which, I suspect, is a great introduction to the talents of one Leos Carax. http://www.johnlikesmovies.com/lovers-on-the-bridge-review/

Set around the Pont Neuf, Paris's oldest bridge, while it was closed for repairs, a love story between two young vagrants Alex (Denis Lavant) and Michèle (Juliette Binoche) develops. Alex is a street performer addicted to alcohol and sedatives and Michèle a painter driven to a life on the streets because of a failed relationship and a disease which is slowly destroying her sight. Hans (Klaus Michael Grüber), an older vagrant is as well a part of their harsh existence living on the bridge. As her vision deteriorates Michèle becomes increasingly dependent on Alex. When a possible treatment becomes available, Michèle's family use street posters and radio appeals to trace her. Fearing that she will leave him if she receives the treatment, Alex tries to keep Michèle from becoming aware of her family's attempts to find her... Leos Carax "Les Amants du Pont-Neuf" is a strong depiction of the outcasts, the homeless, the sidestepped people that has lost their own dignity and no one is ready to help them back to a life without misery and they take whatever that might ease the pain within. The film is ambitious, with big sets to capture the real Paris as close as possible, emotional layers, stunning visuals and yet the feeling of something out of the ordinary in all the misery. Binoche and Lavant´s performances are of high class and Carax gives them all the space they want to perform and go under the skin of their characters. The main pillars are obsession, addiction, violence and love in a roller coaster mix. Then again Carax ask several questions on what is love during the film. Alex and Michèle cling to each other, abuse each other, possess each other and are ultimately unable or unwilling to fight their way out of their humiliation. I was a bit doubtful during the first half, but the story and the magnificent performances from Denis Lavant and the always lovely Juliette Binoche won me over in the end even if I think the film has some "artsy fartsy" vibes at times. It´s still a magnificent piece of film. Trivia: Leos Carax was originally given permission to use the real Pont-Neuf bridge in Paris and have it closed for filming but delays in filming meant the permission expired and he had to reconstruct the whole thing on a lake near Montpellier, France. The construction of a new version of the Pont-Neuf - and its surrounding buildings in Paris - helped make the film of the most expensive French films ever made.

I should just give up on trying to understand French films, because over and over again they strike me as obnoxiously boring pretentiousness.