The Girl on the Bridge

When many people are faced with the proposition of a French film, they immediately run screaming from what they expect to be incomprehensible art-house puffery with subtitles and some nice photography. That is, of course, their loss. Because while they may indeed have long cornered the market in stylised and intelligent cinematic experimentalism, the French also know how to come up with mainstream movies that manage to be crowd-pleasing while offering far more depth and character than anything coming out of mainstream Hollywood. And, of course, Hollywood ends up remaking these films for a “global audience�, completely destroying everything that was good about them in the process. They did exactly that to Luc Besson’s Nikita, and they’ll cheerfully take random hit French comedies and do American versions with Tom Selleck in them. Maybe they’ve learned a valuable lesson by now, though. Because while Patrice Leconte’s The Girl on the Bridge (La Fille sur le Pont) is prime fodder for the Hollywood machine to chew up and spit out, to date they haven’t dared to try. Hopefully that day will never come.

Adele prepares for a spin on the Knife Wheel O'Death

If you’ve ever wondered how knife throwers get hold of Lovely Assistants to throw sharp objects at, The Girl on the Bridge offers a possible explanation. Adele (Vanessa Paradis) is in utter despair, seeing her entire life as a succession of failures and disappointments, and convinced that it would be best if she simply ended it all. Standing on a bridge trying to convince herself to jump off, she is confronted by Gabor (Daniel Auteuil), a travelling knife-thrower who is in need of a new Lovely Assistant. His recruiting method makes sense - find girls who have nothing to lose, and offer them a job where they might die, which after all is what they want to do anyway. Adele - after jumping anyway and being rescued by Gabor - decides to take on the job as a human target. But it soon becomes clear that when Adele and Gabor are together, both of their lives are transformed by the most remarkable good fortune and luck. If only Adele wasn’t busy sleeping with every man she came across…

It all sounds like such dark subject matter, but Leconte and writer Serge Frydman paint this story as a deliciously funny, light-toned comedic story which still carries emotional weight. The film never stops to try and answer the big questions, nor does it pontificate on the greater meaning of existence. It’s about the unusual relationship two people who happily hold conversations with each other even when separated by continents, a story of love, trust and the wild card of luck. Beautifully shot by Jean-Marie Dreujou in widescreen black and white and winningly acted by the two leads, it’s a fun, stylish film which has wide audience appeal. That’s probably why it was a huge box office hit in France on its release in 1999; if you’re scared of subtitled movies, this one might be a good opportunity to conquer that fear once and for all.

"See, the edge of the Panavision frame is over here..."

Such a visually stylish film needs a crystal-clear video transfer to be effective, and Madman has come to the party with a gorgeous 16:9 transfer at the theatrical 2.35:1 ratio. It’s the same transfer used on European DVD releases of the film (French-authored subtitles and all!) and it has been expertly compressed onto a single-layer disc for this Australian release. The film’s short running time helps in that department, but even with occasionally very low bitrates being used here, there are no compression artefacts to be found. About the only problem, really, is a slight over-use of digital sharpening in a handful of scenes, but that’s a very minor complaint. Shadow detail is superb, reflecting the film’s intentions perfectly (this is a film which often uses deep shadow to great advantage). This transfer has all the wonderful tonal depth of great black and white still photography, and fans of the movie will be more than happy.

The English-language subtitles are on by default, but can be turned off if desired (the way it should always be done). To help them stand out from the monochrome background (a reported problem on US theatrical prints of the film) they are coloured yellow.

The theatrical Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is included here, which will be a revelation for those who’ve only ever seen this film on television. Crisp and accurate throughout, the mix is restrained but hugely detailed and immersive, and makes full use of the five main channels. The LFE track isn’t used, something that’s not surprising as this is hardly the kind of film that warrants subwoofer excesses.

Gabor tests his luck.

Only one minor problem can be found with the audio, and that’s when a '60s song starts playing at around the 70 minute mark; the “extreme stereo� of the song’s mix appears to cause some encoding problems in the left channel, which manifests itself as a kind of electronic clicking in time with the music. It’s brief, and won’t both most people, but it’s there. We’re unable to confirm whether this unusual occurrence is on overseas DVD releases.

We get the same extras seen on European releases of this film - namely, a theatrical trailer (one made for the export market), this time a non-anamorphic transfer letterboxed at 2.35:1. There’s also the usual “Madman Propaganda�, this time including trailers for The Closet, Monsoon Wedding, Rain, Satin Rouge and Swing.

As with all Madman-authored discs, DVD Text and an encoded jacket picture a provided for those with players that support such things.

A masterful bit of fun from veteran director Leconte, The Girl on the Bridge is an inventive, original romance that never takes itself too seriously, but at the same time has something to say about its characters. The film’s sumptuous visuals and rich soundtrack are, fortunately, done full justice by Madman Entertainment’s excellent DVD.