Zazie dans le Métro (1960)

A visual cartoon. It's colorful, filled with speeded-up action and absurdities, sometimes almost frantic, and seems to combine M. Hulot with Richard Lester's treatment of the Beatles yet to come.There's nothing much to the story. Nine year old Zazie, a shrill little girl, meets odd people in Paris and impossible things happen. As shocking as it must have seemed at the time, it's more charming than amusing now, after the technique has been anatomized and splayed across the screen so often since then.And to think this comes from Louis Malle, director of quiet, sensitive, understated tales with an abundance of humanity. Also Candace Bergen as a wife.Of all the silly characters, Philippe Noiret is the most appealing. He was the same mope then that he is now except so much younger.It occurs to me that if you're fond of silent comedies with Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd, you'll probably like this. It goes beyond the silent comics into the absurdist ionosphere but still --

I saw "Zazie" in Paris in 1962, and my French at that time was rudimentary. Nevertheless, for sheer manic energy, wonderful visual comedy, and performances that transcended the language barrier, I loved it. I've seen it since and still love it. Among its other virtues for me, this film introduced me to the marvelous actor Philippe Noiret. Malle proved to be a director with virtually unlimited range with respect to style and mood. Consider some of his other fine films: "Lacombe, Lucien," "Atlantic City," "Murmur of the Heart," and "My Dinner with Andre," to name only a few. I guess what Richard Lester did with the Beatles might be close to this when it comes to sheer antic charm, but I think "Zazie"still stands alone. Unless you have zero tolerance for whimsy and insist on Deep Meaning in your movies, I think that you're likely to enjoy this one...if you can find it.

A product of the French New Wave, this movie is more than 40 years old, but it still has the powers to make you leave your mouth open, either to laugh or just to be in awe. Extremely different from anything you can find on the screens today, "Zazie" is able to entertain you even without a coherent plot or a bunch of lines that make sense. A dark-short-haired witty little girl goes around an extremely colorful Paris meeting unusual and funny people. Does this remind you of anything? Actually "Zazie" had already gone beyond the borders of the land that would be explored by "Amelie" 40 years later. Maybe this means that the future is behind our backs? It is time to turn around.

This movie is not only not funny, but clumsy, stupid, and irritating. We have found, however, that it does serve one purpose: we use it as a way to get our son to behave, by threatening to make him watch it.