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GIRL ON THE BRIDGE Send This Review to a Friend
Daniel Auteuil is a consummate actor who brings intensity and conviction to whatever role he plays. Vanessa Paradis is a beautiful charmer who lights up the screen. Director Patrice Leconte pairs them most entertainingly in his fairy tale love story between a knife-throwing circus performer down on his luck and the woman he rescues and puts in his act. "Girl on the Bridge" is a most unusual French import enlivened by these two fine performers and their colorful, sometimes erotic relationship.
We meet Adele (Paradis) when she matter-of-factly recounts the disappointments of her life, unlucky as she sees it, in what would appear to be a therapy session. She has gone from man to man, not hesitating to sleep with whomever she fancies, never to rewarding results beyond the sexual pleasure that she admits enjoying. Gabor (Auteuil) meets her when she is poised to leap off a bridge in despair. He makes a habit of frequenting the bridge, he says, because it is a good recruiting place for women who have nothing to lose and therefore wouldn't mind being the target in his risky knife-throwing act. So begins their saga.
Adele submits to the danger and at time seems to derive erotic pleasure from giving herself to him in that way. Their relationship is otherwise platonic on the surface, and he fumes at the way she goes off to have random sex with guys she meets. Obviously, he is developing a dangerous attachment to her, not the best way for a knife-thrower to stay steady. Screenwriter Serge Frydman and Leconte infuse the film with comic moments as well as strange romanticism, plus the ability of Gabor and Adele to telepathically communicate when they are apart.
I suspect some women will be offended by the idea of the willingness, even enjoyment, on the part of a woman having a man throw knives at her, and in particular at a scene in which Gabor acquires a substitute and losing his touch, hurls a knife that pins her where there may be excessive symbolism. Otherwise, that scene is gruesomely funny, given the circumstances.
No question, "Girl on the Bridge" is bizarre and requires suspension of disbelief, but it is entertaining, fresh and captivating for those who become enamoured of its stars and this oddball relationship. A Paramount Classics release.
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