Subway [DVD]

After a typically wild and funny car chase from French master Luc Besson, the protagonist heads underground into the Paris Metro, never to emerge for the duration of the picture. And, after being chased by thugs, he then heads behind-the-scenes, as it were, to the non-public areas of the vast system where he meets the denizens of a complex subterranean culture. This is the premise of Besson's wonderful early film, Subway.Mr. Besson sets the stage in this one for his action series, Taxi, complete with loveable characters, villains, fast edits, fast action, great actors working in ensemble. First among these is Christophe Lambert, fresh off his success as Tarzan so he is suitably athletic, young and achingly handsome in a blonde punk haircut. His character, Fred, has fallen for Isabelle Adjani as Elena -- and who can blame him? Her slow entrance, down a staircase in the subway in a glorious cocktail dress of gray silk, is full of portent for the fun to come. Elena had invited Fred to her house for a party, where he promptly blew the safe (because he 'can't stand safes'), stole papers, and he is now pursued by her not-so-nice husband and his henchmen.Other inhabitants of the underground world include Jean-Hugues Anglade as a thief on skates, Jean Reno as a drummer in the band Fred wants to manage, and a host of recognizeable French character actors obviously delighted to work with Besson.Mr. Lambert's French is perfect, though born American, because he was raised in Switzerland by his diplomat father. He was a French star before the Highlander film made him an American megastar. It is wonderful to see such actors in their youth, looking so beautiful, and having such a good time. This is a hallmark of a Besson film and the fun is infectious.

I like the film and my husband, for whom I bought it, loves it. He saw the film many years ago and it has stayed with him. He's thrilled to have it on the shelf and we watch it regularly.

When this came out in the mid-'Eighties, it felt smart, slick, knowing and utterly of its times. It was a New Romantic paeon to a generation leaving the spiritual and material poverty of a bourgeous society of the second-half of the 1970's in which there was nothing to do or consume on a Sunday and precious little for the rest of the week. It was also quintessentially French: Peugeot 205 driven faster than its chasis ideally allowed; an exquisitely exotic and beautiful French actress wearing diamonds with back-combed hair descending the steps of a metro station in an evening dress; music literally played Underground by pop artists re-discovering their souls through pop music. France, then, still had cultural swagger and was also happy putting its own cultural problems front-of-picture. At the time, only 50% of the French young were self-identifiably happy with their social context and prospects; 25% were self-declared rebels and 25% were unemployed and, in some cases, possibly happier with that badge than not. This meant 50% of the French young didn't 'buy in' to the coming consumerist revolution. This was a generation that was still non-materialistic, still troubled by the ghosts of existentialism and looking for a haircut that expressed it. 'Iroquois'. The 'ennui' of Arquette's character... But make no mistake, this is movie with whale corset-bones of classic filmmaking, too. The cast is impeccable. The police commissioner is superbly borrowed from a salty, dusty, cynical fag-end of the '70's and is brilliant as such. Christophe Lambert, on his way from one planet to another, offers a James Bond-like figure for the stateless and abandoned. There are others who come right out Central Casting from the mid-1980's. This was a society on the cusp of falling out of love with socialism but still with visceral hatred of capitalism. It is still Revolutionary, but, for this moment, lost Underground and whimsical, wistful and supremely lyrical with it. A masterpiece.

I saw this film when it was first released at the Camden Plaza (now a video shop, sadly, but back in 1985, it showed all of the Artificial Eye and other foreign and arthouse releases) uncountable times and though I haven't seen it since, it made an indelible mark on my consiousness and there are sections which I can still quote and smile over.It is about a man, Fred played by Christopher Lambert, who loves birthdays and hates safes and who, while hiding out in the Paris Metro, meets an assortment of oddball characters and falls in love with Isabelle Adjani and who wouldn't!It is simple, funny, sweet and innocent in a sort of post punk way and is quite the best thing that Christpher Lambert has ever done IMHO.It is also a must for anyone who melts into mush at the sound of Rickie Lee Jones' dulcet tones. The setting of 'Lucky Guy' is just gorgeous.It is a perfect film for all the incurable romantics out there and anyone who wants an escape from the toils of everyday life into a fairy tale world that never existed, will never exist but wouldn't it be lovely if it did.

This trendy Luc Besson thriller has a flashy 80's feel, and a terrific sense of atmosphere. The performances and the theme are definitely forced, but Adjani and the production design are so hot, you can stand it. Eric Serra's score is really the high point of the picture, so it's really a shame that it's presented in LPCM 2.0 that matrixes to mono 1.1 sound using Dolby Pro-Logic. The frequency range is fine, but the stereo separation from the standard DVD prints has vanished.The blu-ray image is very true to the original theatrical presentation and surpasses all previous releases. Hopefully an NTSC blu-ray version from Sony will rectify the Optimum error with the Dolby Stereo soundtrack.

Zany art film, will cheer and madden.Treat yerself...

Good film, a little surreal and vague. The film finished leaving me with more questions than answers, highly enjoyable and thoroughly recommended.