This vivid, visceral journey through the vagabond experience is one of the classics of early 90s French cinema.

Pont Neuf, the oldest bridge in Paris, provides the setting for this alternative love story that comprises Leos Carax's third film. Indeed, the problems that plagued the director in obtaining access to the area became infamous in the industry, influencing his handling of the surreal, spectacular events that unfold.

Starring Carax's frequent collaborator Denis Lavant (also in Boy Meets Girl and Holy Motors, both screening in this retrospective) as a fire-eating tramp and Juliette Binoche as a half-blind runaway, Lovers on the Bridge dallies with those often unseen by society. With the action occurring in an unpredictable homeless community beneath the titular structure, the film takes audiences on an aesthetic, elemental journey of drifting and desperation, blending the beautiful and the bizarre.

“It has grand gestures and touching moments of truth, perched precariously on a foundation of horsefeathers.” - Roger Ebert

Rated M

D/S Leos Carax P Christian Fechner WS Institut Français L French w/English subtitles TD 35mm/1991

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