Review for Le Pont Du Nord

Le Pont du Nord (The North Bridge) may take a while to get going but once it ignites it turns into an excellent movie by just about any yard-stick you choose to wave at it. I hadn't heard of it before now but I’m a sucker for moody French film like this and instinctively knew this one would be a corker. I wasn't wrong. 

The film opens in early eighties Paris. Notably it’s a film without music rather relying on an almost documentary approach and it’s a somewhat surprising cacophony of noise, including a helicopter, traffic and the general buzz of a busy city. As the film develops there is a growing sense of being watched by some unknown but official force, not merely paranoia but in actual fact. 



Director Rivette is known for favouring a Parisian setting for nearly all of his films though this one is a rather bleaker portrayal, focusing less on its beauty (though there is plenty of that) and more on its impersonal concrete vistas. It’s a city with endless possibilities for those prepared to tread its streets as well as its historic buildings, the metro, the sewers and parks.


The focus of the narrative, it transpires, is a pretty middle-aged lady, Marie (played by Rivette regular Bulle Ogier) who befriends a strange moped riding youth, Baptiste (played by her real life daughter Pascale Ogier), who is fiercely independent, wearing a leather jacket, white T-shirt and jeans and who appears to be almost autistic in the way she communicates. As a surrealistic quirk she consistently cuts the eyes from billboard posters with a large knife, the first of many nods to the increasing and justifiable paranoia that builds throughout the film.

She literally runs into Marie on her moped which she then abandons and after bumping into Marie a further two times, decides they are destined through fate to be together and a strange kind of companionship is formed. Cleverly, Baptiste becomes the perfect foil for Marie to tell her tale. She has recently left prison for some unknown misdemeanour and has travelled to Paris to find her former lover, Julien. (Pierre Clementi). 



When Marie finally hooks up with Julien, it’s clear that he is involved in some dark and unspecified work which will soon be over. As Marie and he kiss Baptsite looks on and sees that they are being followed by another man. The plot unfolds in a surreal, almost David Lynch-like way, where we are never quite clear who is after what. Julien clutches a briefcase and it’s clear that someone wants it.
Eventually Baptiste steals it and she and Marie find a map inside (amongst other stuff) which precipitates a snakes and ladders style journey through the city – always just a step ahead of the mysterious men who ‘watch our every move’.

The game leads them to the North Bridge and the culmination of their quest. Though it sounds like a proto-type Thelma and Louise, the film is not as straight-forward as that. The relationship between the women is a distant one with Baptiste always seeming as if she just along for the ride. Marie on the other hand is only interested in her relationship with Julien, caring little for Baptiste. And yet they remain together, as if by fate.


With the current vogue for Nordic slow thrillers, and even French TV series like ‘The Returned’, maybe this will find a whole new and appreciative audience. Whilst a little slow to start with , by the end of the movie I felt as if I had watched something really quite special. For days after viewing it, it remained with me, filling my thoughts.

The transfer on the DVD version looked fine though the film has a low contrast, pallid look throughout, a style popular at the time. The grain suggests it might even have been shot on 16mm though I can’t be 100% sure of this.

There are no extras.

All in all a fascinating and utterly bewitching movie with two fine actors who happen to be mother and daughter. Highly recommended.