Subway (film)
| Subway | |
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| Directed by | Luc Besson |
| Produced by | Luc Besson François Ruggieri |
| Written by | Luc Besson Marc Perrier |
| Starring | Isabelle Adjani Christopher Lambert Michel Galabru Jean-Hugues Anglade |
| Music by | Éric Serra |
| Cinematography | Carlo Varini |
| Distributed by | Island Pictures US Gaumont France |
| Release date(s) | 1985 |
| Running time | 104 min |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
| Box office | € 26,488,295 |
Subway is a 1985 French film directed by Luc Besson, starring Isabelle Adjani and Christopher Lambert and is part of the Cinema du look movement.
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[edit] Plot
Having stolen some compromising documents, a man known as Fred (Lambert) takes refuge in the underground world of the Paris Métro. While the henchmen of the gangster owner of the documents chase him, Fred develops a relationship with the gangster's young trophy wife Héléna (Adjani) who is bored with her gilded-caged life.
Fred decides to form a band and perform in the subway. Among the band members are the Drummer (played by Jean Reno) and the Bass Player (Éric Serra).
At a performance with the newly formed band (where Fred has paid off the actual performers at an announced concert with money from a robbery and put his band in their place) he is shot by the henchmen of Héléna's husband before she can reach him to warn him of the approaching danger. The film ends with her kneeling beside him, Fred lying on his back looking content and singing along to the band playing in the background. The ending is left open as to what actually happens in the growing love relation between Fred and Helena — and to whether he survives.
[edit] Cast
- Isabelle Adjani - Héléna
- Christopher Lambert (as Christophe Lambert) - Fred
- Richard Bohringer - Le fleuriste/The Florist
- Michel Galabru - Commissaire Gesbert/Commissioner Gesberg
- Jean-Hugues Anglade - Le patineur/The Rollerskater
- Jean Bouise - Le chef de station/The Station Master
- Jean-Pierre Bacri - Insp. Batman
- Jean-Claude Lecas - Robin
- Pierre-Ange Le Pogam - Jean
- Jean Reno - The Drummer
- Éric Serra - Enrico (bassist)
[edit] Reception
Subway was the third most popular French film in France in 1986, after Trois Hommes et un Couffin and Les Specialistes. It attracted 2,920,588 cinemagoers.[1][2] Christopher Lambert won a César Award for best actor.[1]
The film holds an 86% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on seven reviews.[3] Janet Maslin of The New York Times praised the film's "highly energetic visual style" and "the sheer fun of staging domestic scenes, musical interludes and roller-skate chases in the underground" but added that "[the] characters and situations [are] so thin that they might as well be afterthoughts."[4]
[edit] Soundtrack
Éric Serra's score and other musical pieces from the soundtrack, such as Fred's band's song "It's Only Mystery" (also written by Serra) were released on vinyl and cassette in 1985. The soundtrack was not available on CD until the RCA/BMG France reissue (UPC 766485280541) in 2003.
[edit] English-language releases
The film was produced and released in two English-language variants. One uses English overdubbing, with both Lambert, Adjani and possibly Anglade performing their own English dialogue, has several Americanized script differences (e.g. a reference to "Custer at the Little Big Horn" instead of "Napoleon at Waterloo"), and a number of very loose translations from the original French dialogue. This has been by far the more common version in North America. The French-audio, English-subtitled version is identical to the French cinematic release, and has more accurate dialogue translations. Long unavailable except on rare alternative VHS copies, it was re-released on the 2001 reissue version of the U.S. (NTSC, Region 1) DVD (ISBN 076786557X, UPC 043396063310), along with the English-dubbed audio track and a new Spanish subtitles option. It is also available on a 2009 region-free Blu-ray release. Earlier region 1 DVDs (1997, UPC 084296400973), the laserdisc (ca. 1988, UPC 086162606069) and almost all NTSC VHS copies (1986, UPC 086162696930, reissued as a shortened 98-minute cut with new cover art in 2001, UPC 043396063396) have only the dubbed version.
[edit] Film references
Fred's shooting is based loosely on the ending of Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless (1960) The opening car chase scene is a reference to Besson's first feature film, 1983's Le dernier combat.[5]
[edit] References
- ^ a b French Cinema - Powrie & Reader
- ^ http://www.jpbox-office.com/fichfilm.php?id=6390
- ^ Subway reviews, Rotten Tomatoes
- ^ Review, Janet Maslin, The New York Times, November 6, 1985
- ^ Larek, S. (6 September 2009). "Dans le metro: A UK Blu-ray review of Subway". DVD Outsider – Beyond the Mainstream. UK: DVD Outsider Ltd. http://www.dvdoutsider.co.uk/bluray/reviews/s/subway.html. Retrieved 17 June 2010.
[edit] External links
- Subway at the Internet Movie Database
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