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Review
Subway was the film that brought fame and international notoriety to French film
director Luc Besson. It is a psychedelic, electrically charged excursion into 1980s
punk surrealism, echoing the style, if not the substance, of Beineix’s hugely popular
1981 thriller Diva.
Although thin on plot (indeed what little plot there is seems only to spoil the film), Subway is a stunning cinematographic experience. It offers a gruelling visual feast which hooks the spectator from the start (which includes a spectacular car chase across Paris). The scenes in the metro are captured with an artistic brilliance, providing the film with its most memorable moments, sometimes highly comical, sometimes deeply disturbing. This is a film which tackles conventional films from a most unconventional perspective. As in much of Besson’s cinema, the story is the least important ingredient of the film. What matters most is how that story is conveyed, and Bresson’s focus is, as ever, the visual side, exploiting to the full the most powerful side of the cinematic medium. This is a tale about exclusion and rebellion, about freeing yourself from the chains of conformity and attaining self-fulfilment. This is reflected clearly in the lead characters Fred and Helena, but it can also be seen in the increasingly desperate behaviour of the police chiefs who are hunting Fred. Despite its quirky surface impression, Subway is actually quite an intelligent film, which says a surprising amount about human nature. As with many of Besson’s subsequent films, Subway was decried by the critics but proved to be hugely popular at the box office. The film not only defined Besson’s unique style of film-making but also crystallised our view of Besson as the rebel who would not allow conformity to compromise his outlandish artistic principles. © James Travers 2000 Write a review for this film...User Comments
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Director:
Luc Besson
Starring: Isabelle Adjani, Christopher Lambert, Richard Bohringer, Michel Galabru, Jean-Hugues Anglade Synopsis
Helena, the beautiful young wife of a wealthy businessman, invites a stranger Fred to
her party. Fred repays her by stealing compromising documents from her husband’s
safe, with the aim of blackmailing the couple. Pursued by police and the henchmen
of Helena’s ruthless husband, Fred goes on the run, taking refuge in the Paris metro.
Here, he meets other social misfits, including a roller-blader the police have been hunting
for several months. Whilst Helena realises that she has fallen in love with Fred
and makes every attempt to contact him, Fred occupies himself with forming a band by recruiting
buskers. Meanwhile, the police and Helena’s husband are getting closer to their
target...
Credits
 More French Drama  More French Romance |
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