I got the chance to see this film for the second time after a very kind fellow IMDb user sent me a copy of it and I must say that my opinion of it has improved with the re-watch. I guess once you accept what it is and what it isn't, it becomes much easier to appreciate. It seems to have been one of those films whose making-of story was perhaps more dramatic than the film itself. It took three years to make and went three times over budget. In fact, it was the most expensive French film of its day which was caused in a large part because the delays in production meant that the period in which the film-makers were allowed to film on the Pont-Neuf ran out, leading to the construction of a huge replica bridge and surrounding buildings to exactly mimic its location in the middle of Paris. When it was released it received lots of critical acclaim but little interest from the general public and it bombed at the box office. This led to its director Leos Carax to make far fewer films (to date, he has directed a mere two others in the intervening 25 years). It reminded me a little of the Francis Ford Coppola film One from the Heart (1981) which was also a romance told in a highly expressive and expensive manner. Funnily enough, that film was also a box office disaster. It seems like very personal romantic-dramas are perhaps more sensibly told in a smaller scale. Nevertheless, for me, this very bold film is Carax best film and the sheer craziness of the production only adds to its overall impact. Set in the middle of Paris the action occurs on the Pont-Neuf bridge which is closed for renovation work, allowing for some homeless people to take up residence on it, this includes two young people who begin a love affair; one an alcoholic street performer, the other an artist who is going blind.This is one of the last films of the cinéma du look movement and is the third film of one of its chief proponents, Carax. As such it showcases his passionate style and with its tale of young love against the odds, was a typical subject from him. While it is a very cinematic movie, the drama works quite well due to a couple of committed performances from Denis Lavant and Juliette Binoche. They are playing very unglamorous characters indeed, which may account for the film being a bit of a hard sell commercially. They are not especially likable either, with Lavant's character in particular being fairly reprehensible in many ways, his obsession with Binoche leads to some highly selfish actions, such as preferring his lover to go blind than to risk the possibility of her leaving him and inadvertently killing a man as part of his quest to achieve this. But like others in the cinéma du look this is a film which places style above substance ultimately. It benefits from good cinematography and great sound design – you really feel like you can feel Paris in this film (all the more impressive when you realise much of it is a giant model!). Perhaps though it is best remembered for some notable set-pieces though. The most famous being the sequence on Bastille Day where the lovers dance across the bridge while fireworks go off, sound-tracked to an amalgam of hip-hop, dance and classical music. This set-piece is followed up with another memorable scene where the lovers water-ski down the Seine. While the film ends with a nod to the influential L'Atlante (1934) with the central couple boarding a barge, and heading out to the sea. Ultimately, in order to fully appreciate this film, you need to surrender yourself to its look and feel and don't concern yourself very much with sense or realism. If you can do that, then there is much to appreciate in this unusual over-the-top romance.

Reading up about the Cinéma du Look movement,I found out that along with Luc Besson and Jean-Jacques Beineix there was a third director,whose name I had not previously connected to Look. Taking a look at Leos Carax's credits,I discovered that one of Carax's titles was the most expensive French film ever made! (at the time) Which led to me getting ready to join the lovers on the bridge.The plot:Using what little cash he makes as a street performer on booze and drugs,Alex lives homeless on the Pont Neuf with old timer vagrant Hans.One day on the bridge,Alex discovers a new person sleeping rough.Going to meet the new stranger,Alex finds out that the new person on the bridge is Michèle,an artist who is going blind. Swept up in the energy surrounding the bridge,Alex and Michèle soon fall for each other.Becoming dangerously obsessed with Michèle,Alex starts to think of ways to make Michèle his own prisoner on the bridge.View on the film:Handling the biggest budget for a an offering from the movement,writer/director Leos Carax & cinematographer Jean-Yves Escoffier conjure up moments of pure Cinéma du Look magic blazing the sky and water in pulp colours as ultra-stylised tracking shots fully display the remarkable set.Focusing on the "alienated youth" of Cinéma du Look, Carax gives the tittle brittle edges which open up youth hostels and also whips up the frenzied romance between Michèle and Alex in decadent whip-pans and razor sharp editing giving the movie an excellent,raw animated atmosphere.Spending most of the film on the bridge,the screenplay by Carax casts a vast odyssey over Alex and Michèle relationship-a relationship which Carax subtly designs to complement each of their flaws,from Michèle gaining full sight at herself and the paintings,to Alex finding an inability to compromise his stay on the bridge.Spanning a period of over 3 years,Carax captures the psychological power play between Michèle (played by a stunningly tough edged Juliette Binoche) and Alex, (played with a real Punk attitude by Denis Lavant)but struggles to build a sense on the passage of time giving a depth to the relationship, due to Caraz threading the romance in an uneven, disjointed manner,as the lovers meet on the Cinéma du Look bridge.

Seems like the streaming format can't do justice to this cult film's visual pyrotechnics (literally, in the case of the famous Bastille Day fireworks/waterskiing sequence(!)), but what really tipped the balance for us was the operatic silliness of the plot. At first it seems like Carax is trying for the kind of bittersweet fantasy about the Parisian underclass that Jean Renoir and René Clair were turning out in the 30s—updated with a "gritty" layer of realism that can be difficult to watch. We didn't much care for the way the script exploits pathology—blindness, depression, dissociation, addiction, pathological jealousy and all-around destructive craziness—as a substitute for character and emotion, which comes across as cynical and pretentious. The over-the-top plot contrivances may make for some effective individual scenes—Michèle fantasizes about hunting down an ex-lover and shooting him, Alex destroys all the "have you seen this girl?" posters that Michèle's parents have put up, Michèle and Alex pose like figureheads on the prow of a barge on the Seine (remind you of anything?)—but none of it seems to add up to much in the end. There's another scene where middle-aged tourists are roofied and robbed by the lovers at an outdoor café; we see them waking up, feeling dazed and abused no doubt. We identified.

Being basically the story of a romance among tramps, this sentimental and drawn-out melodrama is filled with repellent detail (these characters certainly don't emanate from the world of Chaplin or Rene' Clair!) but is held firmly enough together by good performances by the three main actors (particularly Juliette Binoche, who is quite moving as the sketch artist slowly going blind) and the odd moment of inspiration: the lovers walking on the ledge of the bridge against the backdrop of a fireworks display; their putting to sleep the clientele of a café by means of the narcotic previously used by the insomniac boy; the elderly tramp – a sort of father-figure to the boy but who also has an inexplicable aversion to the girl – reminiscing about his manic-depressive wife and the former job he had as the watchman of various cultural sites; the lovers running naked by the sea silhouetted against the horizon (and with the boy's erect penis receiving undue attention!); the boy setting on fire a bunch of posters of the missing girl fixed on the walls of an underground station.