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Les Amants du Pont-Neuf
A homeless addict (Denis Lavant) and a young painter (Juliette Binoche) with failing eyesight forge a bond on the streets of Paris.
Director: Léos Carax
Overview
Set against Paris’ oldest bridge, the Pont Neuf, during its closure for repairs, this story follows a street performer and a young painter living as on the city’s margins. Alex, dependent on alcohol, meets Michèle, who is losing her sight and reeling from a failed relationship. As her vision fades, she becomes increasingly reliant on him, and amid their hardship an unlikely love begins to grow.
In his third feature, idiosyncratic director Léos Carax (Holy Motors), channels his trademark mix of raw realism and grand romanticism. Les Amants du Pont-Neuf is a litmus test for Carax’s cinema – either you see it as wild, incoherent posturing, or surrender to its intoxicating highs and devastating lows. Denis Lavant and Juliette Binoche deliver performances of astonishing emotional range, while the film’s visual bravura - Binoche water-skiing down the Seine amid Bastille Day fireworks, or a metro tunnel engulfed in flames – cements it as one of cinema’s most breath-taking love stories.
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