Zazie Dans Le Metro (1960)

[Small Man Big Horse]

It's weird because I absolutely love Louis Malle's Vanya On 42nd Street but I've only seen a couple of his other films, and tied in to that was my looking for a batshit crazy film yesterday, and after finding this on a list on Mubi that included a lot of movies I really admire I thought it was high time I checked it out, with it instantly becoming a film I adore an enormous amount.

Based on a book but apparently fairly different to it (with Malle wishing to capture it's spirit rather than take on a straight adaptation),
Zazie is a young girl who's dumped on her Uncle for a couple of days while her Mum fucks her new beau, and Zazie's a right cheeky little shit and then some, albeit a very funny one who causes chaos when she buggers off one morning and takes a wander through Paris on her lonesome all the while sardonically commenting on proceedings. It's a playfully shot slice of absurdity as the kid desperately wants to ride on the metro but a strike prevents her from doing so, and the men try and find her but get easily distracted.

It contains an amazing chase sequence early on which breaks the rules of reality with gay abandon as some dodgy bloke is chasing her and at times there's more than one of her, an old lady version, and then the kid's suddenly driving a car and throws a bomb at her pursuer in some of the less outlandish moments, it really has to be seen to be believed, and not that long after there's a vertigo inducing scene on the Eiffel Tower which is also a joy, before her Uncle is kidnapped and the roles are reversed as Zazie tries to track him down.

Throw in to this madness a fantastic cameo from Sacha Distel, the Uncle's abductees being four adoring women, a rather desperate woman looking for love in all the wrong places, and a finale with a

Spoiler alert

beautifully orchestrated orgy of violence

[close]

and it's one of those "Where have you been all my life?" kind of films, an exhilarating ride that I loved to pieces and rated 8.8/10, and my enemies will know how rarely I rate a film over 8.2.  A great article about the film can be found here:
https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1906-zazie-dans-le-m-tro-girl-trouble which filled me in on the back story and is a fascinating insight in to it in general, and well, yeah, I love this film and recommend it to anyone who fancies watching something that will not only make them laugh an enormous amount but also fascinate and intrigue and other words along those lines.

[Sin Agog]

Great film that really set the tone for so much '60s cinematic anarchism, though I'm surprised you liked it quite that much as I think you've said that sassy chillen would be lining the walls of your own personal room 101, and Zazie is about as sassy as they come.

[chveik]

read the book man, it's a good 'un

[Egyptian Feast]

Timely thread, SMBH! I was planning to watch this delirious gem of a movie again soon (I watched Une Femme est Une Femme the other night and it reminded me of Zazie), but your excellent review has bumped it up to the top of the list. It took me long enough to catch it in the first place, after becoming instantly intrigued by this poster in one of my dad's old books, but it was so worth the wait. It's such a riot of colour and energy, it may be sixty years old but it'll never grow up.

I think the only other Malle film I've seen is Atlantic City , which was great, but obviously not at all similar.

[buttgammon]

read the book man, it's a good 'un

Yes, definitely do this! Queneau is sometimes considered one of those writers whose work is lost in translation (it's very dependent on French wordplay) but this really works in English.

[RicoMNKN]

The book introduced me to the idea of adding grenadine to milk, which I still do sometimes.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Great film that really set the tone for so much '60s cinematic anarchism, though I'm surprised you liked it quite that much as I think you've said that sassy chillen would be lining the walls of your own personal room 101, and Zazie is about as sassy as they come.

Ah, I probably exaggerate my hatred of children for comic effect (I do teach the fuckers for three hours a day for one thing) and it's more than I don't want any of my own rather than thinking all should be set on fire. And Zazie's mockery of existence just worked really well for me, though I imagine she'd be exhausting to know in real life!

read the book man, it's a good 'un

Yes, definitely do this! Queneau is sometimes considered one of those writers whose work is lost in translation (it's very dependent on French wordplay) but this really works in English.

I ordered it last night as I loved the film so much, and as the article I posted in the opening post suggested it was very different to the film, while still being an absolute delight.

Timely thread, SMBH! I was planning to watch this delirious gem of a movie again soon (I watched Une Femme est Une Femme the other night and it reminded me of Zazie), but your excellent review has bumped it up to the top of the list. It took me long enough to catch it in the first place, after becoming instantly intrigued by this poster in one of my dad's old books, but it was so worth the wait. It's such a riot of colour and energy, it may be sixty years old but it'll never grow up.

I think the only other Malle film I've seen is Atlantic City , which was great, but obviously not at all similar.

I hope you enjoy it as much as you previously did, I feel really surprised it's not mentioned more often as an absolute classic (though I did a CaB search and saw it recommended a good few times as being something damn special), I love this kind of anarchic cinema to pieces and really hope the opening post leads to others checking it out as it really is a gem of a movie. And I've not watched Une Femme est Une Femme yet, I have mixed feelings when it comes to Godard, sometimes loving him and sometimes struggling, but from the imdb reviews I skimmed through and your recommendation it definitely seems like my cup of tea so I'm obtaining it now.

As for Malle, as well as Vanya I've seen Damage and Au Revoir les Enfants but both were a long time ago, and though I liked them I think I prefer him when he's being more playful than serious.

[the science eel]

Saw this a few weeks ago for the first time and loved every minute. Some of the visual gags were a joy.

[the science eel]

Malle was all over the shop, style-wise, wasn't he? I've got this in a box with Lift to the Scaffold, which is sometimes hailed as one of his best but which has very little in common with Zazie. I'll probably watch it soon, anyway.

[Egyptian Feast]

I hope you enjoy it as much as you previously did, I feel really surprised it's not mentioned more often as an absolute classic (though I did a CaB search and saw it recommended a good few times as being something damn special), I love this kind of anarchic cinema to pieces and really hope the opening post leads to others checking it out as it really is a gem of a movie. And I've not watched Une Femme est Une Femme yet, I have mixed feelings when it comes to Godard, sometimes loving him and sometimes struggling, but from the imdb reviews I skimmed through and your recommendation it definitely seems like my cup of tea so I'm obtaining it now.

I'm sure I'll still love it. I'm certainly in the mood for a bit of childish anarchy. The highlights of recent awkward Zoom calls with family have always been when the kids get bored and start acting up, disrupting our tedious discussions about politics with chaotic nonsense, unknowingly satirising the complete and utter garbage their elders are spouting. I mean it, you should hear my brother droning on about "that poor man" Trump. A child suddenly yelling 'YAH-YAH-YAH-YAH-YAH-YAH-YAAAAH" makes a hell of a lot more sense than that shit.

I hope you enjoy Une Femme... I've had mixed feelings about Godard myself, but I've only seen his debut and a few of his later 60s movies previously, so I'm going through his early flicks. Breathless is the one that always gets cited, and it's great and all, but this is arguably more influential (and fun) - I was reminded of so many British films I love from later in the decade, so it must've been a smash over here.

I had a good time reading through the imdb reviews, especially the person who tried listening to it on their headphones and was completely done in by the jarring soundtrack. I was blasting it through the soundbar and it was brilliant, one inappropriately loud cue even made me drop a ciggie I was rolling. I can totally understand why it would get on anyone's tits (my partner didn't take to it), but I had a lot of fun with it.

As for Malle, as well as Vanya I've seen Damage and Au Revoir les Enfants but both were a long time ago, and though I liked them I think I prefer him when he's being more playful than serious.

I wonder did he do anything else as playful as Zazie, or is it a complete one-off. I can't say I know much about his filmography, I'd even forgotten he did those two.

[dissolute ocelot]

I wonder did he do anything else as playful as Zazie, or is it a complete one-off. I can't say I know much about his filmography, I'd even forgotten he did those two.

Malle had an amazingly varied filmography, but I haven't seen anything else like Zazie (which I love). A lot of his films are brilliantly dark and evil and unpleasant in various ways (Lancombe, Lucien about a French boy who collaborates with the Nazis and switches allegiance on a whim; Pretty Baby about prostitution; Damage about infidelity), so it's almost like in Zazie he channelled all the cynicism and absurdism into wild comedy rather than brutal cynicism and irony and violence. Later he became kind of sentimental; its hard to square the tasteful, prestige filmmaking of Au Revoir with either Zazie or Lancombe).