Subway

Plot synopsis:
Having stolen some compromising documents from a powerful and successful entrepreneur/gangster at a party, a man known as Fred (Lambert) escapes from the police and takes refuge in the underground world of the Paris Métro stations and tunnels. There he joins the dwellers and befriends several colourful characters, including others who are living under the subway to avoid police arrest. While the gangster's henchmen try to find Fred, he develops a romance with the gangster's young trophy wife Héléna (Adjani). She had originally invited Fred to the party featured at the opening of the film, and is bored with her gilded-caged life.
Fred forms a pop band with some of his friends, such as "The Drummer" (Reno) and Enrico (Serra), who compose the songs. While Fred is working on this project, Héléna's powerful husband pressures the police to find the fugitive. One of Fred's sidekicks, The Rollerskater, who has been wanted by the police for a long time, is captured by Commissioner Gesberg (Galabru). Fred and his friend The Florist rob a train carrying money; The Florist escapes, leaving Fred with the loot.
Fred uses money from the robbery to pay off a band scheduled to perform in the subway station. His new band replaces them but, at their performance, Fred is searched for by both the police and a henchman of Héléna's husband. The henchman shoots Fred just as Héléna was about to reach and warn him of danger. The film ends with Héléna kneeling beside Fred, who is lying on his back, looking content and singing along with the band. They are playing and being applauded by the audience in the background.

Tags: revenge, cult, murder, romantic

Review:
At the time, a huge box-office hit in its native France - and as a result of the rising popularity of lead actors Christopher Lambert and Isabelle Adjani, something of a cult film in the UK - Subway (1985) was seen as a companion piece to Jean Jacques Beineix's earlier art-house classic, Diva (1981).
Together, these two films can be seen as both the development and the continuation of the concerns and preoccupations of the then-newly dubbed "cinema du look" movement; a brief cinematic resurgence in French cinema that saw a younger generation of filmmakers looking back to the days of Godard, Truffaut and the Nouvelle Vague, and combining that sense of playful experimentation with elements of early 80's pop culture.
It would be the film that finally introduced director Luc Besson to a wider commercial audience outside of the confines of the French art-house, and really - when looked at as part of the natural progression of his career - seems light years away from his first film, the wordless science fiction parable, Le Dernier Combat/The Last Battle (1983).The characteristics of the cinema du look movement involved preoccupations with doomed love and alienated Parisian youth, applied to a plot that was both cool and iconic.
This can be seen quite clearly in Subway, with its mixture of film noir conventions, pop music, subterranean youth-culture, action and broad attempts at humour.
As others have previously noted, the film and the style that it employs are very much of their time; presenting a very 80's take on listless youth replete with a central character that looks like Sting, a synthesiser heavy soundtrack that manages to work-in two specially composted New Wave pop songs, some shocking fashion choices (though most of these are admittedly back in vogue) and that general unique, indescribable feeling that you often get from many French films from this era; in particular Buffet Froid (1981), One Deadly Summer (1983), The Moon in the Gutter (1983), First Name: Carmen (1983) Hail Mary (1985), Betty Blue (1986), Mauvais Sang (1986), Jean de Florette/Manon des Sources (1986) and Besson's own subsequent picture, Le Grand Bleu (1988).
Subway doesn't necessarily have much in common with these particular films in terms of style or content, but it does have a similar languid feeling, bizarre eclecticism or eccentricity, and an atmosphere that feels very much true to the country and the time it was produced.Overall, the film could be seen by many viewers as something worryingly lightweight; with the knockabout plot, colourful caricatures and continual bombardment of cinematic style perhaps being seen as a smokescreen to the thin plot and ironic characterisations.
The opening car chase and initial descent into the bowels of this subterranean underworld hidden deep beneath the Parisian Metro system seem to suggests that the film will be all high-style and high-energy.
Subsequent scenes however take a step back, giving us some cool, neo-noir like interaction between Lambert's laconic safe-cracker and Adjani's bored trophy wife, while the opposing forces of police and gangsters begin closing in around them.
It is the kind of film that will definitely appeal to a certain kind of viewer, perhaps a more mature audience who are open minded to cult European art cinema, or perhaps maybe a dedicated audience interested in seeing how the director of such highly acclaimed action thrillers, such Nikita (1991) or Leon/The Professional (1994), started out.After first seeing the film a few years ago I wrote "This has no heart.
It is an experiment in cinematic formalism; obsessed with technicality but also consumed by the self-indulgence", which to some extent still stands, but I think, with repeated viewings, I've come to enjoy the film and see more of an allure and attraction to the characters of Fred and Héléna, who, quite clearly, struggle throughout to maintain face and make the right decisions in a world that neither of them truly understands.
Like his first film, Le Dernier Combat, and the recent Angel-A (2005), it shows Besson at his most inventive and experimental, sampling from a variety of different genres and producing something that is chic and stylish, without ever being truly captivating.
This is a pure exercise in style from the Luc Besson school of film making.
The trouble is that head honcho Fred has fallen in love with the pretty but stroppy wife of one of his BCBG victims, and strife ensues below the streets of gay Paree.Christopher Lambert is amazing as the stylish rebel gangster with a heart, Fred; Isabelle Adjani is pretty but, as always, deeply annoying -- she just exudes arrogance from the bottom of her dainty little heart.
It's amazing how Besson brings together great style, action, fun, pace, acting, dialogue and amazing characters.
The film starts with a heated heart-to-heart between Fred and pretty Héléna, and since we are aware that their affair can't end but unhappily (albeit in an incredibly chic way), the suspense is exactly zero.
Like many Luc Besson films, this one is over the top from the get-go, a crazy ride to nowhere, surreal, perhaps, but a bit obtuse at times with its eye-rolling symbolism.
all the movie (if you catch it in its widescreen edition) is filmed geometrically and Besson uses all the length of the field to capture emotions, moments, visions in a film that refuses to take itself seriously, and only wants to amuse people...
if you're looking for the typical Besson movie, watch this one: style-breathing, visionary, gripping and good-humored.
But it left me feeling like I'd missed something.The film included shady denizens of the Paris Metro, but I'm not sure it focused on them as much as I expected.
An unidentified main character having stolen mysterious "papers" from the unknown rich husband of some random woman he happened to meet on the street.I'm not sure what the movie was trying to get at, but I think it was leaning toward inspiring spontaneousness in all things and the consequences that brings.
It really didn't ring any bells of resemblance for me with any of Besson's newer movies (Léon, Fifth Element), even though it had a score by Eric Serra and Jean Reno made an appearance.
Truly I had no clue about what was going on in French director Luc Besson's offbeat, but terribly jerky story involving a sly safe cracker fleeing to the underground Paris Metro, after stealing some important documents off a millionaire that he would try to ransom off to.
Strange, but Lambert's early and best roles in "Subway" and Marco Ferreri's "I love you" are crossed out by his later films.
Talking about "Subway", this movie stands in a row of other films of the middle and the end of the 80-ies that were last before the sunset of european cinematograph and the wind of pan-american influence.
The opening scene with the car chase really gets the movie going and it just keeps up the speed and at the same time remains ironic and tongue-in-cheek.
'Subway' is one of them.The film opens in the midst of a car chase, and from there, Fred, the protagonist, finds himself sifting through the underground maze of the Paris Metro (or the subway).During his escape from the authorities, he meets all sorts of colourful characters.
I just purchased the Besson Movie set and watched Subway for the first time.
a skill so seldom seen in today's pathetic movie making "attempts".It's so refreshing to see a director not afraid to use the film medium so efficiently to foretell a story..
This film is about an upper class woman falling in love with a thief, who lives an alternative lief in the underground passages of the subway.I was hoping this film would be as exciting or suspenseful as the "Leon", "The Fifth Element" or "Joan of Arc".
When I saw Subway, I wanted to see mostly the talent of Isabelle Adjani, one of my favorites.As this movie starts, it seems promising with the dark Paris Metro atmosphere, which is a bit similar to our Subway system in Montreal.
And by the middle of the movie, mostly the last half hour, it is boring.Too bad for a story which started so well with such a offbeat caracter like Christophe Lambert (in blond, clad in a dark trenchcoat and bearing a neon stick) falling in love with a rich, sultry woman like Isabelle Adjani...See it for curiosity only....
But what is good about this movie is that it is an example of Besson's style, a mix of the French style of moviemaking and the American style.
Before I saw this movie, I was pretty excited because Luc Besson is one of my favorite directors since "Leon" and Isabelle Adjani is my favorite French actress.
The idea of people living under the subway station was great and I liked the car chasing scene at the first sequence but the plot was predictable and boring.
The romance between Christoper Rambert and Isabelle Adjani seems too quick and not reasonable enough and I was confused by the very ending scene.I assume that this movie was Besson's practice before making "Nikita" and "Leon"..
Subway is Luc Besson's finest hour; it is one of those movies the self-proclaimed experts of cinematography love to hate for the very same reason aged rock critics hated Kraftwerk and Depeche Mode in the eighties because they didn't play guitars.
Writing it off as pure junk is like writing off instrumental music because there's no singing.Subway is, in many ways, an eighties postmodern fairytale where our young new wave hero, Fred, sets out to get the girl of his dreams, Helena.
What follows, though, is exactly that, a dream, made of dark, underground labyrinths, cold neon light and electro-funk sounds courtesy of Eric Serra who, by the way, stars in the movie as himself, producing the music which is the soundtrack of the feature.
Subway is not pretentious at all but delves instead into style, humour and something which can best be described as sheer industrial aesthetics; quite frankly this is the movie that will make you love all the cold, neon-lit underground corridors in the world.
This film throws you into an unfamiliar world filled with quirky characters, all of which are involved in some sort of shenanigans deep in the depth of a Paris subway station.
The films main actors include Isabelle Adjani (Helena) and Christopher Lambert (Fred).
I think many people will enjoy this film, because Luc Besson has created something different from the norm.
To hide from the people of her influential husband, he goes to the Paris subway, where they live bright unusual characters.
Lambert played the role of eccentric romance with the ultra cool hairdo like his girlfriend in the film Adjani.
If you want an early-80s French film that looks good and has a perceptible plot, try DIVA instead of this eye-popping failure.I agree that Besson has a wonderful visual sense, and he obviously loves the Metro (as I do too, having visited Paris not long after this film was made).
(Jeunet figured this out and made MICMACS, a much better film about quirky characters who live at the fringe of society.) There's a wonderful car chase at the opening and then it's literally downhill from there.
Luc Besson directs a galaxy of French film stars playing truant in Parisian metro..
If there is a director in the realm of French cinema who can challenge American films in terms of content,narration,presentation,style etc,it is Monsieur Luc Besson.His cinematographic vision is so grand that even ordinary spectators from USA hold his films in high esteem.Most of his films like Subway,Leon,The Big Blue,The Fifth Element have fared well at American box office.Subway is a film that will always be remembered for its inventiveness.There are no so many directors who can film an impossible love story in Parisian metro,which is considered to be one of the most busiest areas in Paris.It is hard to tell who is the real star of this film ?
Is it Subway's central character Fred the burglar (Christopher Lambert) who is in love with bourgeois Héléna (Isabelle Adjani) or Parisian metro which is home to many oddball characters ?
The film depicts the 'underground culture' of the metro, where Fred meets many colourful characters, many of whom do not serve the plot, but bring humour to the film.
Subway is one of the first Luc Besson's movies, and one of his best too.It features a string of actors who are superstars in France (Galabru, Reno, Bohringer, Bacri, Adjiani, Lambert, Anglade), some of whom will later on get international recognition.
and a true love story.The script comes across quite well in English, but some of the humor gets lost along the way.This is cult movie from the 80s.
Director Luc Besson (La Femme Nikita, The Professional, The Fifth Element) originally wanted Sting for the role of Fred but couldn't do so Lambert got it...and luckily so.
The film is set inside a Parisian subway train station where dwellers (including Lambert's character) conduct their own activities and it involves a woman, Helena, played by Isabelle Adjani, who is classy and mysteriously hires Fred to steal her personal files.
Film Review: "Subway" (1985)Even though performers Isabelle Adjani and Christopher Lambert make a beautiful as stylish match, director Luc Besson's debut feature stays in emotional, restraining darkness of missing a point of living within the Parisian "Metro", when thrills are limited alongside supporting characters, portrayed by Richard Bohringer as the best scenes-giving "Le fleurist" and Michel Galabru (1922-2016) as Commissaire Gesberg always on the rush to catch leading character Fred as actor Christopher Lambert keeps the cool but in retrospective has not been tested enough by 25-year-old Luc Besson, who just uses an cinematic kaleidoscope of infinite ideas, clashing them, within never-seen-the-light-of-day scenes as "Subway" concludes at a slowly-received close to a 100-Minute-Editorial by editor Sophie Schmit, which then Luc Besson wisely exchanged to promoted editor Olivier Mauffroy, departing from life in 2013, for his first great motion picture "Le gran blue"; in reminiscene staying the opening spectacle of Cannes 1988.Copyright 2018 Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC.
Luc Besson was one of the leading directors of the French cinema movement which was to go on to be referred to as cinéma du look.
Consequently, this isn't really a film for showcasing acting, with Christopher Lambert certainly looking the part at least and Isabelle Adjani doing as much as she can with the material.
But ultimately, Subway is a film that never relies on its paper-thin characters and ropey story-line; its appeal is in its stylisation and quirks.
The camera-work is often very good and some of the action-oriented sequences such as the opening car chase and the various pursuits through the Métro are handled very well indeed and are an early indicator that Besson was a great director of stylised action, which he perfected later in the likes of Nikita (1990) and Léon (1994).
Fred (Christopher Lambert) escapes from gangsters stealing some important papers and crashes into the Paris Metro.
Roller has a gun and a scheme to rob the weekly subway money transfer.This is full of the Euro-fun style of Luc Besson.
It changed my life-I fell in love Christopher Lambert, car chases, foreign film and the buwaunwaun of the bass.
the kwirkyness of the story and characters blended with the atmospheric soundtrack creates a fun modern day twisted fairytale - a rare movie.
While it lacks some of the colour and punch of Luc Besson's later work (Fifth Element) it delivers complicated, though integrated plots by the dozen.On the surface it is a love story; that of a wannabe musician with a fetish for blowing up safes (Fred played by Christophe Lambert) and a bored socialite/housewife who feels trapped in a loveless marriage (Helena played by Isabelle Adjani).
When Fred decides to grab some important papers from Helena's safe after inviting himself to her birthday party, it leads to a merry chase through the streets of Paris and down into an alternate world...that of the Metro.Here we meet an eclectic group of people who, for whatever reason, choose to live in an underground society.
The movie starts with a car chase through the streets of Paris and then never lets you see the light of day again.
The characters are just too cool for words, the idea of an entire culture living in the subway system is too cool, the way Luc Besson manipulates the camera and the timing of the film is just too cool.
Some of the shades of character shown by the actors are quite intriguing - Lambert's slight insecurity, wisecracking (ha!) laugh and sob story; Adjani's impetuousness; Hugues-Anglade's nervy energy; Reno's nonchalance, percussive rattling and love of coffee; Galabru waxing philosophical with Bohringer about blind violence; Alexandov's nonchalance ("If you don't like me so much, get a divorce!"), etc.People are pretty much right when they say the film has no plot.
An enjoyably quirky early film from Luc Besson.
While this is going of the authorities are looking for Roller and the gangster's men are still searching for Fred.The way this early film from director Luc Besson opens is clearly a hint of things to come; the car chase might not be as intense as those in the 'Transporter' and 'Taxi' films but shows a similar style and is a lot of fun.
Once Fred is in the tunnels of the Paris Metro the characters he meets are as interesting as they are varied.
The cast did a fine job, most notably Christopher Lambert, who is on good form as Fred, but also Isabelle Adjani, as Héléna; Jean-Hugues Anglade as the Roller; Richard Bohringer as the florist and Jean Reno as the drummer amongst others.
Overall I'd certainly recommend this to fans of Luc Besson; it is good stylish fun.These comments are based on watching the film in French with English subtitles..
The movie has a terrific pace and the direction fun by Luc Besson, a director of talent.