Blu-Ray Review: Louis Malle’s ‘Zazie Dans Le Metro,’ ‘Black Moon’

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CHICAGO – The Criterion Collection recently inducted two of beloved French filmmaker Louis Malle’s most surreal works, a great double feature given their thematic commonalities and the chance to view how a notorious director changed and challenged himself at two distinctly different points in his career. Neither are among Malle’s best work, but both films feature something most modern directors for hire don’t have the chance to do — playing with the limits of the form and their own ability. Both “Zazie Dans Le Metro” and “Black Moon” are now available on Criterion Blu-ray and DVD.

“Zazie Dans Le Metro” (1960)

HollywoodChicago.com Blu-Ray Rating: 4.0/5.0
Blu-Ray Rating: 4.0/5.0

Synopsis: “A brash and precocious eleven-year-old (Catherine Demongeot) comes to Paris for a whirlwind weekend with her rakish uncle (Philippe Noiret); he and the viewer get more than they bargained for in this anarchic comedy from Louis Malle, which treats the City of Light as though it were a pleasure island just waiting to be destroyed. Based on a popular novel by Raymond Queneau that had been considered unadaptable, Malle’s audacious hit Zazie Dans Le métro is a bit of stream-of-conscious slapstick, wall-to-wall with visual gags, editing tricks, and effects, and made with flair on the cusp of the French New Wave.”

Zazie Dans Le Metro
Zazie Dans Le Metro
Photo credit: Courtesy of the Criterion Collection

Watching one of Malle’s breakthrough films over half-a-century after it was released, the first thing one notices is how the French surrealism at play in it seems to have influenced notable filmmakers of today, particularly the work of Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Amelie could be a descendant of Zazie, the tomboy troublemaker who comes to hang out with her uncle in the city of lights. The resulting film, based on a popular novel, is a sugar-high of frenetic, surreal activity, the modern city at the turn of the cultural revolution as seen through the eyes of a pre-teen.

After two massive international hits in “Elevator to the Gallows” and “The Lovers,” “Zazie Dans Le Metro” was a notable departure for Malle and it still feels like such an odd little picture. Is it a kids movie? Not really, as its adult sense of humor and cultural references rule out that audience. Are we supposed to read into the surreal touches symbolically? Is it a film about a girl losing her innocence or bringing it to our worldview through film? Is it a commentary on the growing role of the female in society? All of the above? However you want to interpret “Zazie,” it’s a fun, adrenalin-shot of French culture at a crucial turning point in the last century. Check it out.

Special Features:
o Archival video interviews with director Louis Malle, novelist Raymond Queneau, actress Catherine Demongeot and screenwriter Jean-Paul Rappeneau
o New audio interview with director and photographer William Klein, artistic consultant on the film
o Le Paris De Zazie, a 2005 video piece featuring assistant director Philippe Collin
o Original theatrical trailer
o Booklet featuring an essay by film scholar Ginette Vincendeau

“Black Moon” (1975)

HollywoodChicago.com Blu-Ray Rating: 3.0/5.0
Blu-Ray Rating: 3.0/5.0

Synopsis: “Louis Malle meets Lewis Carroll in this bizarre and bewitching trip down the rabbit hole. After skirting the horrors of an unidentified war being waged in an anonymous countryside, a beautiful young woman (Cathryn Harrison) takes refuge in a remote farmhouse, where she becomes embroiled in the surreal domestic odyssey of a mysterious family. Evocatively shot by cinematographer Sven Nykvist, Black Moon is a Freudian tale of adolescent sexuality set in a postapocalyptic world of shifting identities and talking animals. It is one of Malle’s most experimental films and a cinematic daydream like no other.”

Black Moon
Black Moon
Photo credit: Courtesy of the Criterion Collection

If “Zazie” is a child’s dream, “Black Moon” is a teenager’s nightmare. Fifteen years later, Malle decided to experiment with surrealism again with another tale of a girl on the edge of adulthood but with much darker tones. “Moon” is a futuristic nightmare that the filmmaker reportedly made as a challenge to make a successful piece of work without dialogue. There is a bit of it in “Moon” but most of the film consists of nature sounds, as a girl finds herself in a surreal animal world in the middle of nowhere.

“Black Moon” opens with disturbing scenes of an undefined war between men and women. Our heroine escapes from it to a more primal form of being where animals rule the landscape instead of vile humans. The film is a bit too experimental for its own good and it doesn’t draw me in like my favorite surrealism, but it’s still culturally interesting, especially since it marks Malle’s transition into the legendary late chapter of his career (where he would make “Pretty Baby,” “Atlantic City,” “Murmur of the Heart,” and more). Like “Zazie,” “Black Moon” features a talented director playing with his own limitations through themes that interested him (the development of female sexuality was a common Malle theme). It may not be a smashing success, but it is certainly an interesting piece of work.

Special Features:
o Archival video interview with director Louis Malle
o Gallery of behind-the-scenes photos
o Original theatrical trailer
o Booklet featuring an essay by film scholar Ginette Vincendeau

“Black Moon” and “Zazie Dans Le Metro” were both written and directed by Louis Malle. Criterion Edition Blu-ray and DVDs were released on June 28th, 2011.

HollywoodChicago.com content director Brian Tallerico

By BRIAN TALLERICO
Content Director
HollywoodChicago.com
brian@hollywoodchicago.com

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