The Lovers on the Bridge

«The hymn of love anarchy,» «the great urban expressionist fantasy,» is a romance about two homeless Parisian lovers.

The story of how this film came to be is as ruthless in its madness as the plot, characters, and personality of Leos Carax himself. Can you believe it? The director bankrupted and almost buried one of his producers and nearly repeated this trick with the second one; luckily, he came to his senses in time, terminated the contract, and got away with losses. Failing to shoot on the real New Bridge while there was still a chance (the bridge was under repair at that time) and missing out on the grand fireworks in honor of the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution, Carax, finding a new source of money, built grandiose sets with a bridge, the Seine, and the facade of the famous «Samaritaine» department store, as well as recreated a fireworks display, which cost him half of the budget.

The film was a resounding failure at the box office. However, the critics applauded: for example, a special issue of the magazine «Cahiers du Cinema» was entirely dedicated to «one of the most stylish films of the 90s.» Gradually, year after year, the film found its audience, ready to shed tears in the cinema, whether out of sympathy for the two lovers or because of their own unhappiness, being in love with this bridge, these characters, and the director. Glory to the madmen!