ZAZIE DANS LE METRO
(directed by Louis Malle, 1960)
**** (out of 5)
.
> I am such a big fan of French director Louis Malle, it is a real pleasure to find films from his career I have overlooked. This one was a blast.
. At the center of this wild ride is petulant young Zazie, a challenging young spitfire who accompanies her lusty mother to Paris, so she can have a liaison with her latest lover. Precocious young Zazie is left with her Uncle Gabby, but she quickly proves too much for him to handle. Obsessed with the idea of riding the Paris Metro, she escapes from his auspices only to discover all the stations shuttered due to yet another Parisian transportation strike. As Gabby attempts to track her down, they begin a series of looney misadventures very much like what you’d expect to find in a cartoon or a madcap silent comedy.
. It’s a satirical mash-up of cultural touchstones, sight gags, sly wordplay and social lampoons- many of which will be invisible to the non-French, with the occasional foray into near surrealism. True, there are a ton of “in-jokes” that only the French will get, but there is plenty here to delight the casual world viewer.
– ZAZIE is just a bunch of silly fun. I’m down with that!
*
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