Free Movie Screening Event - The Lovers on the Bridge

Vincent Gallery and Artbook, 91 Tran Quoc Toan, Hoan Kiem, respectfully introduce to customers the movie:

LES AMANTS DU PONT-NEUF (ĐÔI TÌNH NHÂN TRÊN CẦU PONT-NEUF, PARIS), 1991

1. Time: 20:30 PM, Sunday, August 27, 2023

(Duration: 125 Minutes, FULL HD 1080P, Vietnamese subtitles)

2. Venue: Vincent Gallery and Artbook, 91 Tran Quoc Toan Str., Hoan Kiem Dist., Hanoi

(Large roads with free car parking)

3. Free Entry.

Vincent does not accept reservations. Please come directly to the shop at the movie screening.

Please order drinks before watching movie.

Vincent's customers please arrive on time to fully enjoy the cinematic work.

Vincent Gallery and Artbook, 91 Tran Quoc Toan, Hoan Kiem, Hanoi

Cordially invited.

The film tells the story of Alex, a street performer addicted to alcohol and tranquilizers who falls in love with the painter Michèle, who is suffering from a disease that makes her vision increasingly impaired. A passionate love between two vagrants at the oldest bridge in Paris, the Pont Neuf, took place. At first glance, this seems to be a simple romantic movie, but if that's the case, "Lovers on the Pont Neuf Bridge" would not have entered the Top 10 of the best films about Paris. Although the work has been 30 years old so far, no one has said it is an old story.

In "Lovers on the Pont Neuf Bridge" people not only love, but people also love with real heartbreak.

The first footage of the work made the audience shudder by the naked truth about the Parisians, including Alex. Small, ramshackle, rarely awake by the effects of alcohol and tranquilizers, Alex was created to be a completely unbeautiful, even ugly image. He considers himself unable to live in peace if he leaves the Pont Neuf bridge, one of the oldest bridges in the city, where a barricade is being erected for repair.

It seems, you are only at peace when you are in what others consider "Danger" - dangerous - like a sign stretched across the road to a bridge. There, no one will be able to disturb or hurt you. Many times in the movie, in his few lines, Alex repeats the phrase "back to the bridge" as the feeling of being back home. It was there that he met Michèle, and for the first time he saw himself in her sketches, with his face of horror, panic and contortion when he was in a car accident due to high drugs and Michèle entered love is a witness. The sketch made him run after her, feeling a strange connection to this wandering artist.

Then, Alex accidentally discovered the letter in Michèle's body when she fainted. From here, he learned about Michèle's background, family and old love, a cellist named Julien.

In "Lovers on the Pont Neuf Bridge", people like the contrast between the old bridge and the bright and luxurious buildings. People liked the way Alex worked, in the night, there was no sound but the sound of him spewing oil from his mouth and the sound of a fire burning.

The European Film Award for best actress went to Juliette Binoche as Michèle, but for many, Denis Lavant made Alex come alive and free. Denis Lavant may not be a flashy, handsome, attractive Alex. Absolutely not. Why be a person with a beautiful appearance if deep inside, you have a beautiful soul? Just the little details… when Alex steals a fish to make Michèle sushi, earns money to take better care of her, does crazy things to make her happy like attacking a police officer to get it. The canoe took her to surf in the middle of the night or simply used a towel to dry her hair and told "don't let your head get wet when you go to sleep".

From the beginning of the film, Alex is built as a bad guy, constantly drunk and high on drugs, it is only when the scene of him performing fire-breathing takes place that people seem to see another Alex. Alex's quick shots, quick pans, detailed passages, close-ups of nimble hands, soft feet with a skillful somersault, and a neat cat-like fall pose of Alex all show the qualities of a man. real performer. The strong light, the decisive movements, the talking face and eyes are different from an Alex staggered in the middle of a drunk or high drug. If for Michèle, her choosing to live on the bridge as revenge for the depression because the disease is gradually taking away her sight, then there is absolutely no confiding to explain why, what pushed Alex out into the street with so much frustration and despair. That, just an indescribable brokenness.

The whole movie is like a strange love song with happy, sad, fast and slow songs mixed with color and rhythm. In particular, there are two scenes that leave strong impressions in terms of images, music and acting that anyone who has seen the movie believes they will never be able to forget. It is the scene where Alex and Michèle dance on the bridge in the middle of a spectacular fireworks-lit space. Both the sky and the river Seine glowed indescribably beautiful. The long shot encapsulates their precious moments together, one when the two dance like crazy and the other when they "cruise" on the Seine in a stolen windsurfing canoe. It makes viewers feel like that happiness and joy will last forever, never ending, no one wants it to stop. The strong music spurred passion and the two's faces lit up in each other.
Therefore, the second impressive sequence at the subway station creates a different feeling. Most are short shots, quick panning, shocking. In particular, the cello's voice is both raspy and vibrant, as well as urgent, threatening to create an intense obsession. People see the paradoxical moments of love when Michèle chases Cello to find Julien, the cellist who once loved and left her, and Alex chases Cello because he wants to drive him away before Michèle appeared, not letting the two meet.

Alex is an egoist. Why? Surely it was because he loved Michèle so much, wanted to keep her to himself forever. Love has a very "possessive" character, and Alex is no exception, especially when he thinks he has nothing big and strong enough to hold Michèle. No less than three times in the film, Alex has done everything to hold Michèle before the obsession that she will leave him. The first time is when they have a sum of money together. Michèle was afraid that winter would come on the bridge and they could not continue there. Holding 2000 dong in her hand, she contemplated what to do with it. Since she'd said "love needs a bedroom, not a draft," Alex felt even more threatened. He had purposely made Michèle drop the money herself in the river so that she couldn't dream of a place other than his safe bridge.

The second time, selfishness turns crazier when Alex discovers that Michèle's family has found someone who can cure her and is looking for her. Fear of loneliness and abandonment invaded Alex, in a frenzy, Alex burned the posters posted in the subway station, burned down the minivan of the poster hired worker and made the he was badly burned. And for the last time, at the end of the film, after three years in prison for that crime, Alex meets Michèle again, who is also willing to shove them both into the Seine in the cold of Paris just because she says she is dying. Then, right after that, they panicked again when they couldn't see each other in the cold dark river. Then, together, they stood in front of the barge carrying sand, looking to the future and laughing at the nose of suffering even though they didn't know what color the other future would be.

The pure, human love of Alex and Michèle has been described as so wild that perhaps no other film can do as in "Lovers on the Bridge". The passions, the madnesses, the chases, the laughter and the tears all contain passion and pain. But happiness is something that is very difficult to define and name, because in any pain, when people still feel happy together, people will find each other.

 

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Cre: Vincent Gallery and Artbook - 91 Trần Quốc Toản

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