The subway by Luc Besson
I wanted to take a moment and list a few thought I had while watching this piece of art. A film about the underground of Paris. Featuring the strongest woman I’ve ever seen in a movie and a cool skater.
Watching this piece isn’t hard, there Are so many streams without porn advertisement to skip or viruses to catch, it seems like the internet doesn’t really care about movies from the 80s.
As a film student we get thought to anlyze every aspect to its finest detail. But taking a film out of context doesn’t work sometimes.
In blurred green color-graded matté aesthetic with 80s bass funk acting as the soundtrack, this film has everything to mix the badassness of an entertaining film and the artistically aspects of a Cannes winner (will in this case nominated) film. IMDb still gives it 6.6 out of 10. Come on people. It might be that it is to artsy for the erntertainment comedy audience and to legeré for the sophisticated..
And yes, French nouvelle vague long shots of the arthouse Cinema very well do belong here. The cinematography is enough thought through. Luc besson might not be everybodies favorite (I personally don’t like the sci-fi stuff) but I love a few of his bei realistic/fantasy influenced works (Angel-A, subway and those films). What is even more important.. he always finds the talented new comers. At this point I have to worship his genius to cast Isabelle adjani. For me one of the most fascinating actresses of our time. I saw her the first time in possession, a very difficult movie which, If i had only read the script i would have deemed to fail. But she plays the role so scarily good that you have to remind yourself it is a role. As a psycho- maniac she is really convincing. What i loved about her role in this piece is her power. She simply domantes every single man in the movie, literally. From being bluntly honest at a fancy dinner party while wearing a iroquese, to speaking with the police director… she has the saying, and intimidates every man. Her character is the most important in the movie in my opinion.
In the end, apart of being stunned by her appearance and enjoying the movies aesthetic in combination with the soundtrack, it gives you a little bit of fantasy that beneath the metropole there could really be another world without rules…