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Rating: I am writing because I was really so favorably impressed by this film, and for this reason, I want to insist that people watch this film, which is called "Zazie in the Metro," original French title "Zazie dans le métro" by the French director Louis Malle.
I've had it for a long time, prominently displayed among others, always sacrificed to phrases like "I'll watch it next weekend" or "I'll come home early tonight to watch it" and finally, to triumphantly reach the fateful moment of watching it, it took a day of feigned illness from work. After watching it, I immediately watched it again, and a few days later I showed it to two friends, watching it a third time. As I talk about it now, I feel like watching it again since it's been two weeks since the last time I saw it, but I'm writing, and it would be distracting to watch it, even though the distraction would then be the topic I'm discussing, and it would thus be a distraction with the opposite effect, a distraction useful to total concentration.
The film is very messy, and it messes me up just talking about it, but in the end, the plot is very simple when you think about it carefully. There's a little girl named Zazie, and she's special (in a positive and fun way, I would say). She goes to Paris with her mother because the latter (who no longer has a husband, and you'll discover the reason during the film, inevitably soiling yourself with oyster sauce) has to spend two days with the lover who makes her dizzy. So the little girl is entrusted to her Parisian uncle named Gabriel, very well played by a young Philippe Noiret. The uncle is also quite a character, with a charming wife who embodies kindness, has a lot of quirky friends— I don't want to spoil anything for anyone, so I won't talk much even though "I HAVE THE PRESSURE TO CONFESS...," a great taxi driver, hoteliers (perhaps, but in the end, they could be many other things), a cobbler with very long gray mustaches, a strange house, a pub downstairs, and a street in front of the house. Uncle Gabriel is an artist, a Spanish dancer, and the charming wife is naturally a delightful and potential artist. Zazie (who is wild and genuinely rude) absolutely wants to see the metro, but unfortunately for her, there is a strike, and everything is closed. Consequently, the little girl goes crazy and runs away. The uncle chases her but has a show in the evening.
Zazie meets incredible people during her day of wandering, including an Italian actor whom I would describe as fantastic, of whom I had never seen or heard anything before. In the film, he's called "Pedro the leftover," but I think that's made up, I think it's not true, and then it's a bit difficult to reason because the film goes slow then fast then slow then fast again... and then the music: another gem, I think of another Italian, maybe Piovani, the music is fun, urgent, deafening, perfect.
Ah, the name of the Italian actor is Vittorio Caprioli great, very great, Zazie is Catherine Demongeot, then some others, and you'll discover them because they are wonderful characters, they are Mr. Deschamps, Miss Marlier, Antoine Roblot, Jacques Dufilho, and Mrs. Yvonne Clech. Finally, everyone, and I don't want to add more, gathers, all the characters, at Gabriel's final performance and the resounding, definitive dinner that closes the curtain. Marvelous.
A film from 1960 that experiments visually and sonically and you will notice because I have no more time. Dialogues never seem trite, everything is grotesque. Based on the book of the same name by a certain Raymond Queneau. The film's reviews say the film doesn't match the book. I haven't read the book and I don't care, actually, I will read it soon. It's Malle's third film, it's a cult but one of his less regarded films.
Well, I hope I've convinced someone.
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