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As a general rule, I am not easily influenced by advertisements. But in the winter of 1985, I vividly remember strolling through, if I may say, decoratively the complex tunnels of the London Underground and coming to a standstill in front of an advertisement for a movie by a director that I did not even know of. On it was the picture of a blonde-haired punk, foreigner, who was clad in tuxedo while powerfully gripping a neon tube. This is when Christopher Lambert was still credited as Christophe a year after Greystoke, which I had not viewed, but good few months before Highlander turned him into a star. Lambert was not a household name yet, but I clearly remembered being captivated by his unique face. Everything about this image was contradictory and surreal, a piece of art with vast potential all lacking of anything useful and speaking the title did nothing to illuminate. This is what worked for me. This was for me as an inquisitive movie buff, the first hook of Subway. I am coming to the second one in a minute.
The film begins in a similarly enigmatic manner with the same suit wearing Lambert so engrossed in looking for suitable car music that at first he does not understand that the vehicle is being repeatedly smashed into by four similarly dressed thugs in a mercedes that has pulled up behind him. In a gag related to the director’s first film, Le Dernier Combat, the incredibly selected music begins, but then comes to a stuttering halt when the tape is chewed up. These men will remain unidentified for some time, as well as the reason why they are pursuing a young man who happens to go by the distinctly non-Français name, Fred. To try and lose them, he goes into the metro and later on into the molten sow of one of the underground stations and therein he stumbles upon and later on becomes a member of a team of wretched refugees who have made this place their home.
This brings us to the second hook. I have always had this fascination for the subway system, which I suspect comes from my childhood expeditions to London where I was adamantly convinced that there could be anything and everything alive somewhere in those eerie depths. I touched on this strange obsession of mine while presenting my review of the incredibly funny Hungarian thriller Kontroll, and returning after a few years to Besson’s second film, I was a bit delighted to learn that the idea of an underground society of socially neglected people survived, which also formed a good basis for an original and unusual entertainment. Whether the movie fulfills this original expectation is something entirely different, and is even more definitely a question of each viewer’s individual perspective.
It does appear appealing but is rather unimaginable. This is an urban fantasy, one in which subway dwellers appreciate a civilized and orderly way of life, where they amuse themselves by playing music and dancing around a well-lit station and savagely pillaging the bar after the workers leave, only to later doze off without the fear of waking up to a rat invasion or arrest. For a peek at the stark contours of such an existence, have a look at Marc Singer’s strange documentary Dark Days, where stories of rat-infested slums have no existence within the cinema du look, and whose flagship film chased its main character into the Paris Metro, Jean Jacques Beineix’s 1981 Diva.
The community members are an entertaining group of people, yet similar to Le dernier combat’s exterior apocalypse wasteland dwellers, they are categorized mostly on what they participate in and not who they truly are. Therefore, there is a quick-on-his-feet purse stole scened as The Roller aka Jean-Hugues Anglade, a drumstick-drumming hulk cast as The Drummer Jean Reno (who else?) and an opportunistic florist who has been shuffled as, you guessed it, The Florist. Only three key characters are given names, Fred’s fellow leads are the elegant yet difficult Héléna Isabelle Adjani and world-weary transport police officer Inspector Gesberg Michel Galabru who openly hates the two junior officers and mockingly refers to them as Batman and Robin, the nicknames that they have accepted. Initially, no idea of Fred’s goings on was known by Gesberg. His priority was simply capturing the illusive Roller (an aspect that Kontroll based into serial asset catcher Bootsie), at least until he was approached by Héléna whose Fred a professional safe-cracking thief recently robbed and us now blackmailing her using key documents attained in the robbery.
This system is interestingly managed since the back story is reaveled to the audience in pieces alongside conversational snippets. A noteworthy scene shows Fred trailing one of the Rollers’ victims to a security room where she, indifferent to him, stands and lodges her complaint. His body posture and facial expression, which were extremely cheerful, misled the two officers into thinking that he was the influence behind her complaint. This is an artifice that Hitchcock first staged in his fab Mr. and Mrs. Smith of 1941 but it’s much better achieved here in Lambert’s jovial performance.
The characters and the fanatical underworld that Besson has established is fantastic, however, some detail seem out of place. Although it is safe to assume that Héléna and Fred will end up together, Helen’s abandonement of her husband’s societal status seems disingenuous. This forces her rebellion during the dinner party scene to lack any depth since it is not satisfying. Meanwhile, Fred censors his volatile nature and unites the underground musicians into a rock band. His aim is to have them play a substitute show for Brahms, which is in itself a traditional way of showcasing dissent. His whole approach, as expected, makes even the most rigid of old-timers dance in delight. Of course, while accomplishing this, the audience has to enjoy the Euro-rock tunes that the band plays. The underlying issues in the lyrics are more glaring when the audience speaks English, especially when they are delivered so poorly – just imagine what a headpiece to such climactic ideals looks like: an assassin aiming at a love-struck innocent, and the band crooning in the background “People don’t kill people. Guns do!” Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?
Even with its second year doubts, Subway is a pleasant and at times lively piece of work in which the Besson style that hogher in the world is entirely adrift, especially in the emphasis on characters existing outside the social order’s core. The use of effective wide angles, tracks, steadicam shots, some clever cuts, and the great edit which I love the most, the perfect cut from blowing the birthday candles to a mesmerizing front-of-train view into the station where it all begins. While this may be the one early Besson film that, for sake of my money, doesn’t entirely fit, it’s definitely creative, highly entertaining, and rather clever. And for this, I am more than grateful it never got churned out by Hollywood.
Even though Sub Way is a more recent work than Le dernier combat, it appears to fare slightly poorer in it’s high-def conversion. While discussing the Optimum release, it is clear that the collection of Besson’s works are dis usa-cd out as thus are inspired from the french distributor Gaumont, and these appear to be shifts in picture quality amongst the blu-ray releases. Regarding my point on weaker, I most blatantly disservice the transfer as it is not up to standard, however, the panorama is good which is why I use on my best is a lovely thing to ahold of, unlike the saturation on the stations and bathrooms, I do appreciate the color blue which the trains have brings forth legitimate contrast, deep black ranges, solid black levels, and at best the color is sharp and detailed. While this definitely is not as good as the Le dernier combat, it still is a noticeable improvement from the mediocre DVD transfer.
I might be barking up the wrong tree, but that shouldn’t be a problem.
Oddly enough, the PCM 48 French version is encoded with 2-channel mono, which is likely how it was intended to be heard upon release. But, there is no cause for concern because just as everyone else, I have no objections, since the power and clarity are fine and frankly, exceed from many later released stereo and even surround mixes, especially the music. That’s good if you are a fan of the tracks.
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