CALIFORNIA MOVIE JOURNAL (January 2022)

[Chris Knipp]

ZAZIE DANS LE MÉTRO (Louis Malle 1960). Bosley Crowther of the Times wrote in his original review: "The trouble (a gentle word for it!) with his picture simply is that there is no rhyme nor reason in it, no statement, no purpose and no point. It is strictly anarchism with a camera, crazy images created for the images' sake. And when it all winds up in a riot of food throwing and destruction of a cafe, one gets the uncomfortable feeling that it is actually a little depraved." It's mainly just a string of "zany" visual gags, an anarchical "caper" flick running around Paris. I like old cars in movies and there are lots of them, because a Métro strike is forcing everybody out on the road. Little Zazie swears like a truck driver, which was radical at the time, but that joke wears out. Now I see why I avoided this film up to now. Louis Malle was a very scattered artist. This came right after Elevator to the Gallows and The Lovers and soon after he made The Fire Within, Murmur of the Heart, Lacombe, Lucien and then a string of American movies (very good ones), including My Dinner with André. It makes no sense. Another current Criterion Channel "Nouvelle Vague" offering.