The girl on the bridge (1999)

In some films, a pretentious streak can be forgiven (arguably, this is the case in Theo Angeloupolous' slowest films). However, some films are unforgivably pretentious. Patrice Leconte's Girl on the Bridge has one or two things that speaks for it, but really, this is über-romantic trash that annoyed me from almost the first moment to the last. A girl stands on a bridge, ready to jump. An introductory monologue prepares us with one or two facts about her life. This girl, we are to think, is troubled. By chance, she meets a man on the bridge. She jumps. The man saves her. They run off from hospital together. The man is a knife-artist. The girl on the bridge is his partner in new circus tricks. The message: these people Need Each Other. Their business depends on luck to a great deal, but even luck has a relation to - love. Even though I didn't exactly enjoy this film, I found its depiction of erotic thrill - unconventional. This film lacks graphic sex scenes. Sex, here, is something different than most Hollywood films present it to be. Of course the story is augmented by black-and-white, frenzy & very French, cinematography. Well, Girl on the bridge is a parody of every cliché about "European movies". A rule of thumb: does the film contain one single circus scene? JUST DON'T WATCH IT!