Things must be very, very different in Paris compared to where I live. True, it is an ancient city where they speak another language, but that isn't what I mean.
In the several U.S. cities where I have encountered or observed homeless people, it seems to me that they spend the bulk of their time securing food and a safe place to sleep. If however, one is to believe the goings on in this film, called The Lovers on the Bridge in its U.S. video release, the homeless are able to shave and bathe regularly, have unlimited supplies of wine and drugs, oh and don't forget, look like Juliette Binoche (The English Patient.)
Okay, Juliette Binoche with an eye-patch, and in dire need of a haircut. But still.
Here is the storyline of the 1991 film in a nutshell: two grubby and disturbed young people meet, fall in love, and live on the streets, or more accurately, on a bridge in Paris. They love, they lose, they love again. (the end)
We see: A series of astonishing, lush, breathtaking images.
We think: These situations are absurd.
Binoche is Michele, an apparently deranged-by-lost-love artist who is rapidly going blind (thus the eye-patch.) Her lover, protector, and virtual jailer, Alex (played by a feral-looking Denis Lavant) is a self-mutilating, alcoholic drug addict who earns money doing fire-eating street performance.
The two meet and settle down to live in the open on the Pont-Neuf, Paris' oldest bridge, which in the film is closed for repairs in preparation for an upcoming celebration of the Centennial of the French Revolution.
We see: Michele and Alex dancing on the bridge in ecstasy against a backdrop of cascading sparks from the fireworks display. Binoche in particular is full of raw energy, running, leaping, pirouetting in time to the raucous score like some lithe amphetamine angel.
We think: But just a minute ago they were both crawling-on-the-ground-drunk, shouting slurred nauseous jibberish into the night sky. Now they are not only standing upright, but dancing... running... twirling in mid-air, never missing a step much less falling flat on their faces?
Originally, director and writer Léos Carax had permission to use the real Pont-Neuf, which was to be closed for the filming. Unfortunately, several delays in the shooting schedule caused him to lose that permission, and he ended up building a replica of the landmark bridge on a lake near Montpellier, France. This, along with other excesses on his part, made The Lovers on the Bridge the most expensive French film ever produced, a gallic Waterworld if you will.
We see: Michele skillfully water-skiing at midnight on the River Seine using a stolen police boat. Alex, at the helm, is racing the small craft at dizzying speeds on the mysteriously deserted river. Wave after wave of fireworks explode as giant water spouts on the shore shoot multi-colored plumes through the seemingly endless pyrotechnic display.
We think: Wait a minute. Just moments before they commandeered the boat, Michele was falling-down drunk, about to puke her guts into the gutter. Now she is successfully water-skiing at top speed down a narrow urban river?
Binoche had told director Carax (her then lover) that she did not want to play any more "madonnas." Be careful what you wish for, Madamoiselle; this role is definitely an "anti-madonna."
Her performance as the half-crazed, slowly faltering artist swings between breathtakingly intense and breathtakingly annoying, such as the scene in which she rolls around on the ground, cackling drunkenly for so long that it begins to really grate on the nerves.
We see: Back on the bridge, after they have finished water-skiing, but just before they crack open yet another bottle of their apparently inexhaustible supply of wine, Alex is drying Michel's hair (awww, isn't that romantic?) with a big fluffy white towel.
We think: What the? So did they steal that spotlessly clean towel from the local homeless people's health club?
Later in the story, our beautiful young couple has gone on holiday to the seashore using money stolen from men they drugged in outdoor cafes using their also apparently inexhaustible supply of free drugs. Hey homeless people need to go on vacation too, you know!
We see: The lovers cavort naked on the beach in silhouette against a magnificent sunset. They run on and on, brimming it seems, with health and energy. Gone is that nasty cough that had been plaguing especially Michele until now. Alex in particular seems to be, er, enjoying himself.
We think: Oh my. Is that really him do you suppose, or is he wearing some sort of strap-on device? Looks like there is a future for that boy in porn films, if the homeless fire-eater gig doesn't work out...
It is true, there are many astonishing and compelling images in the film: a metro station with every poster in flames, a long shot of the redeemed couple walking through a snowstorm, and Michele peering at a museum painting by candlelight.
In the end, though, all of the pretty pictures that both Carax and Binoche herself create, do not make up for this insulting and unrealistic portrayal of homelessness, mental illness, or even the despair of feeling unloved.
Martin Scorsese presents The Lovers On The Bridge, starring award-winning actress Juliette Binoche is a uniquely uplifting story of two social misfits...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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