Lulu on the Bridge

Plot synopsis:
Jazz saxophone player Izzy Maurer (Harvey Keitel) is shot in the chest during a performance at a jazz club by a deranged man. Izzy survives the seven-hour operation, but loses his left lung, ending his music career. A young aspiring actress named Celia Burns (Mira Sorvino) walks into the Chez Pierre restaurant in New York City where she works as a waitress. She and her boss talk about the shooting. Later she purchases Izzy's latest CD.
Following his recovery, Izzy stays to himself and avoids his friends. Gradually he ventures outside and adapts to his new life. His former girlfriend Hannah (Gina Gershon) invites him to a dinner attended by a retired famous actress, Catherine Moore (Vanessa Redgrave), who is now a successful film director, and her film producer friend, Philip Kleinman (Mandy Patinkin). For the first time in a long time he has a good time. Catherine is looking for a young actress to play the part of "Lula" in her upcoming film version of Pandora's Box. Walking home that night Izzy discovers a dead body, finds a bag lying nearby, and rushes home in fear. Later he examines the contents of the bag and finds a small box containing a stone with a red mark. As he examines the stone he hears voices speaking in foreign tongues.
That night, as he lay awake in bed, the stone emits a strange blue light and elevates above the nightstand. The next morning he calls the number written on a napkin he found in the bag and Celia picks up the phone just as she's listening to Izzy's CD. He asks to meet, and she invites him over. When he arrives he demands to know what she knows about the dead man, Stanley Mar (Greg Johnson), and the strange rock. He turns out the lights and shows her the rock's mysterious blue light. Drawn to the rock, Celia touches it and encourages him to touch it too. "It's the best thing, it really is. It's like nothing else," she says. They feel elated by the experience, which makes them feel more connected to everything around them. He tells her, "The way I feel now, I could spend the rest of my life with you." After he leaves, Celia runs after him and invites him back to her apartment where they make love. In the coming days, they fall deeply in love. She gets him a job at her restaurant, but when a customer comes on to her, Izzy causes a scene and they both get fired.
Celia is up for a part in Catherine's film, Pandorah's Box, and with Izzy's help and connections, she gets the part of Lulu. Izzy plans to meet Celia in Dublin, where the film is being shot. Shortly after she leaves, Izzy is attacked by men in his apartment demanding to know why he killed Stanley Mar. He is taken away and held prisoner. He meets a mysterious Dr. Van Horn (Willem Dafoe) who tells Izzy how disappointed he is in him. Izzy has no idea what he's talking about, but Van Horn seems to know details about Izzy's past—his real name, childhood incidents, and catching fireflies with his brother at their summer house on Echo Lake. When Van Horn begins to delve into Izzy's relationships with his father and brother, Izzy responds, "Don't do this to me." When reminded that he refused to play music at his father's funeral, he breaks down in tears. One night, Van Horn storms into Izzy's cell and tell him, "You're not worthy. You've lived a bad dishonest life." Having learned about Celia, Van horn now demands that Izzy reveal her whereabouts. Izzy refuses to acknowledge that he even knows her. As he leaves, Van Horn says, "May God have mercy on your soul."
Meanwhile, Celia is unable to reach Izzy and she suspects that something is very wrong. She fears that Izzy has abandoned her. One night she takes out the rock and the blue light appears, but now it only produces in her an overwhelming sadness. Distressed, Lulu takes the rock and walks to Ha'penny Bridge, where she drops the stone into the dark river below. The following day, Van Horn and his men find Celia in Dublin and attempt to kidnap her. They chase her through the streets to Ha'penny Bridge where she had dropped the stone. As they close in, she jumps into the river.
Back in New York, Izzy finally manages to escape his prison. He learns from the producer of Celia's disappearance and nearly collapses. The producer gives him a videotape of some of Celia's scenes. Later at a jazz club, he asks his friends, "Am I a good person or a bad person?" Back at his apartment he watches the videotape of Celia and weeps.
After being shot at the jazz club by the deranged man, Izzy is taken away in an ambulance. On the way to the hospital, his heart stops and Izzy Maurer dies, just as the ambulance passes a young aspiring actress named Celia Burns. She sees the ambulance pass and makes the sign of the cross.

Tags: romantic, murder, flashback

Review:
This is mainly a two-actor film with Harvey Keitel playing a low-key (at least for him!) character and Mia Sorvino playing his young girlfriend.
I could not have imagined where the story finally ended up, but it requires a lot of imagination to understand it (think, "Where does the mind go when it loses consciousness?
Izzy's state of consciousness during the film is simply a device -an interesting one- to tell a story.Seeing Dafoe and Keitel working together again (first time since Last Temptation of Christ?) was a delight.
Harvey Keitel delivers a home run of a lead performance as Izzy Maurer, a renowned jazz musician who loses his ability to play after he is shot by a lunatic gunman (Kevin Corrigan) while he is performing his music in a cafe.
The phone number leads him to Celia Burns (the ever excellent and under estimated Mira Sorvino), an aspiring actress who's fallen just south of the success line, and has a taste for Izzy's music.
Izzy is held captive and Celia chased by a mysterious man claiming to have a doctorate in anthropology who wants the magical stone.
It starred Harvey Keitel, whom I especially like and wanted to watch it because of him.
Paul Auster's film is nothing short of genius, both in its unconventional structure and its intelligent examination of a 'life that might have been' through its main character, 'Izzy' and his idyll, 'Celia'.
'Lulu' should appeal to viewers interested in thoughtful stories that work on a number of intellectual and emotional levels.
Paul Auster has earned himself a good reputation for making films about everyday people.
The film continued to haunt me, in a very positive sense, for the next day, and I started to appreciate its qualities: genuine acting, believable characters, and, if you believe in magic (it's everywhere, you just have to look for it), there's a good dose of that, too.
Harvey Keitel, Mira Sorvino, and, of course, Willem Dafoe, carry this film, but let us not forget the supporting cast of Vanessa Redgrave (she's always wonderful!), Mandy Patinkin, and Gina Gershon.
I rented this movie on a whim because I like Harvey Keitel and Willem Defoe...I found it somewhat reminiscent of Kieslowski's Colors trilogy, or The Double Life of Veronique, and fans of these movies will definitely like this one.
The movie's ending (which I won't give away) turns what you think is an interesting set of plot twists into a dreamy, allegorical tale that stays with you for a while.
Needless to say, the script is superb and Paul Auster shows to be a modern master of the literary genre, excelling as much on the screen as he does on paper (the scenes with Dafoe and Keitel are stunning, Dafoe telling the firefly story is memorable): this movie is all about reality and exactly because it feels so real it couldn't care less about realism.
It has NOTHING to do with "Little LuLu" or kids for that matter.This is a deeply disturbing, involving, dark, mysterious mystery/romance/thriller with some fantasy elements, but totally without glitz or pretension, beautifully filmed and acted, with a twist ending right out of Ambrose Bierce.
she goes through a myriad of hairstyles and styles of clothing, everything from bed-wear (lingerie), to around-town casual, to elaborate film costuming (she acts in a film towards the end of _this_ film), and she is totally convincing, believable, and riveting.Harvey Keitel delivers an absolutely gut-wrenching performance - as good as anything I've ever seen him do..
In viewing the great sculpture of The Thinker, this movie was sculptured with caring hands/thought and designed by a true thinking and uniquely creative artist.One area of imperfection here is that the sex scenes could have been lessened and shortened as I felt it took much away from the movie's fine craft(iness).
After viewing, I asked myself how could the title have been made better, but the symbolism involved of the one scene makes the title appropriate and yet carved with a slight Mona Lisa grin.Harvey Keitel's character was unique and I can't imagine anyone else being able to pull it off as he managed to do.
I watched the movie as it unfolded each new particle of new thought to bridge to another, leaving me with using my own skills to fill in pieces and parts ..
The story is complete, you don't have the feeling to be puzzled as in Lynch's movies and that you're missing the biggest part.This movie had a weird effect on me, some weeks ago (seven years after having seen it), I needed to begin playing saxophone and some days after, a story about a stone such as the one in the movie obsessed me, I'm going to write a novel based on it.I don't really know why but this movie, and only this movie, changed my life.The actress is so beautiful she'll hardly come out of my head too, and I find Harvey Keitel very good in this movie, he fits his role perfectly..
I haven't seen for a long time an american movie I wouln't be able to guess the ending.
LULU tells the same story - how lonely we are on this planet.Second impression - the movie is similar to "The Sixth Sense" in matter of post mortem life.
It's hard to guess what is real, and what is imagination.Great movie for thinking people.
Being an eager fan of Paul Austers writing I was very excited to get a chance to watch a film which he had both written and directed.
The whole story, the script, and especially the pretentious acting made the watching of this film a semi-horror.
Sorry to say, my idol, Paul Auster obviously has achieved a master degree in writing novels, while the form of a movie script seems to suit him all too badly.My hopes for the future are twofold: either Mr. Auster learns from this experience how to do better movies or, simply, he'll stick to what he does best: writing novels!As for all of you who have only seen this film and not read any of his novels: go now!
You can see true love, the one, the best, the last.(Great actors!!!) And all of the magical stuff is just an allegory to the"love at first sight" and the intangible way of falling in love:Izzy isn't handsome...(well, Harvey is full of charisma, but...) Celia is divine(Who couldn't fall in love with her when she smiles?) They are forevermore in love....
I realized it was a film with "Mira Sorvino" so I thought "Ok, this could be good".I quickly realized I was entering the realm of films like "Memento", where you really aren't quite sure what's going on...
I've been impressed with everything I've seen of Harvey Keitel's work; I've only seen Mira Sorvino in this film but so far so good; she was right up to par with Keitel.
As the viewer, you sense, for better or worse, that the characters are inexorably moving toward an end, traversing both love and loss on their journey.
I never thought it was going to be so great,  I thought it would be like Smoke but this one is so much better,  it is a really magical love story,  Izzy makes up this girl while he´s dying but you don´t know if she´s real or if she ever met him,  it is really a nice movie.
If you want to see good movies at theaters do not come to Chile because you´ll only see blockbuster films,  such as 13 Warriors or Titanic..
Like Julian Schnabel, a painter turned film director, Paul Auster seems to be a logical candidate for bringing his stories to the screen, but as proved by this effort, one hopes he keeps his day time job.The large, talented cast of "Lulu on the Bridge" can't overcome some of the problems the film presents.
The mixture of a thriller with esoterica sounds like an intriguing idea for a film, but as one witness the movie unfolds it's clear these elements don't mix well together under the director's guidance with the screen play he wrote.
The film has moments in which it transcends and shows a promise of working, but in the end, it's too contrived for its own good.Even an intense performer like Harvey Keitel is bogged down by a character that doesn't awake much interest in the viewer.
As much as I like Harvey Keitel, I gave LuLu a run because John Lurie and Richard Edson have a way of ending up in cool off beat films (with the subtle caveat that Edson has done a ton of trash but usually not with Lurie in tow).
That is good that Paul Auster adapted his own movie.
A fine little gem.A Noirish love story with magical overtones that works on many levels.The reference to the classic silent film Pandora's Box with Louise Brooks is fascinating.One thing-On the DVD version there are several "deleted scenes".One has Mira Sorvino as a prostitute in a shabby apartment with two male characters not in the final cut.Where would this have been intended?.
Even trying to complete the story after the end of the film proved almost impossible.
The performances, especially by Harvey Keitel and Mira Sorvino, are truely exceptional and the mystical mood of the film is compelling.The weak spot is the screenplay, which has as many plot holes as a hunk o' swiss cheese.
If you need an example of how a director and script can make excellent actors perform flatly, this is the movie for you.Excellent actors Keitel, Dafoe, and Sorvino have their performances ruined by an indecipherable script and lousy direction.Save your money and your time..
**SPOILERS** Strange little movie that has to do with a man who's forced to see himself for who he really is not who he want's people, as well as himself, to think what's he's really not.
At his apartment Izzy finds that the stone has these strange magical powers that he just can't phantom and then calls the phone number on Mar's napkin to find that it belongs to a Celia Burns, Mira Sorvino.
It's only when Izzy explains to Celia about the stone, that emits a bright and soft blue light and levitates as well as shows her it's strange powers that she realizes, like he did, that it's something beyond the forces of nature!
Celia a struggling young actress who supports herself as a waitress working gets a major part, in fact the leading role, in the movie "Pandoras Box" playing the role of it's star Lulu.
Traveling to Dublin Ireland to do the movie Celia tells Izzy to keep in touch by phone and come visit her but as the days go by there's no word at all from Izzy.
Celia shooting the movie "Pandora's Box" is a sensation on the set but at the same time is worried about her love Izzy who she hasn't heard from since she left New York.
Izzy sobbing and in a state of complete depression sits alone in his apartment watching the out-takes, that Philip gave him, of the movie "Pandora's Box" with Celia in them.
It's then that the biggest surprise of all in the movie "Lulu on the Bridge" is about to come and hit the audience with the force of a sledge hammer right between their eyes!
In Lulu on the bridge, Paul Auster show how simple and incredible things are in our lives all the time.
The cast is game and quite watchable, especially Harvey Keitel and Willem Dafoe, but the story is so convoluted that the viewer (at least this one) is left confused and disappointed..
Harvey Keitel plays a jazz musician sidelined by a gunshot wound who hooks up with waitress/actress Mira Sorvino by chance.
After taking part on "Smoke" and directing "Blue in the face" Paul Auster kept on feeding his cinematographic interests with this "Lulu on the Bridge".
He count one more time on his friend Harvey Keitel who plays a jazz musician whose life gets shattered because of a shot.
The beginning of the movie, when Izzy (Keitel) and Celia meet is much more interesting and moving than the final parts, which are a little bit confusing.Auster demonstrates his talent behind the camera and his good taste choosing actors and music.*My rate: 7/10.
Whereas I agree with many critical voices stating the script would be a bit unlikely, I just loved the mood and atmosphere of the movie.
Ignore the dreck comments about this movie, and especially anythingwhich connects LULU to JACOB'S LADDER, a film whose ending so completely and utterly sucked that you could feel the wind for miles.
But enough about JACOB'S LADDER.LULU is written by a writer, directed by a writer, and features a male character, a directionless Jazz sax player whose life is scum-slathered, gray rest-rooms beneath dungeon-like clubs in NY; one night he sees the photograph of a beautiful woman he does not know taped to a wall while taking a leak.
This young woman captures the hard face of Keitel in her hands and is fulfilled by him, a man like him with nothing to equal what she is, not even his music; in fact, his music means nothing, it is merely how he is able to elevate himself out of the thick dirty rest-room so that this woman can see him and (through a transcendental mutual encounter with a glowing rock, about the only way a man like Keitel might have a chance to be with her: by pure coincidence) love him for his kindness and total devotion and loyalty.Auster's a novelist; he writes damn fine movies.
LULU ON THE BRIDGE is a poignant, believable, and wrenching story of adoration for a woman who seems to drop down like a UFO, all mystery and the unknown (as the connection is made to Louise Brook's dark mistress from PANDORA'S BOX) to abduct Keitel and show him things he'd never know, in his lonely night world.
There is not one superfluous word, but many beautiful close-ups, and all is framed by an engaging story about a musician who has lost his gift of music, an actress who goes to Dublin to play Lulu, and a mysterious stone..
i can think of no movie that better captures an incredibly powerful love between two people.
Beautiful film even if you don't look for Auster's deeper meanings.
And Auster's script is what makes this interaction and the whole mood of the movie possible.Unfortunately people who are not accustomed to Auster's style may find the movie full of plot holes and loose ends which are actually what Auster leaves to his audience to think about and sometimes fill in by themselves, according to themselves.Even for the 'plot holes' and ambiguities, this film is worth watching just for the acting and the mood.
Not that I don't like to work, but this movie has too many loose ends to warrant the praise heaped upon it.
I also think that the first thought is the film is a rather boring piece, but it's true that some of the scenes hit soundly and live in your mind for months, and that the last minute make the rest of the movie more interesting.
I love the many references to Louise Brooks and her film Pandora's Box. Sorivino, in the way miss Brooks was a femme fatale without knowing it, did the same thing with the same sense of innocence.
the cast of character is great: Harvey Keitel, Mira Sorvino, Gina Gershon, Sophie Auster, Vanessa Redgrave, Willem Dafoe & Lou Reed (as not Lou reed;).
exspecially Harvey keitel & Mira Sorvino are 'extraordinary' good.
the movie refers to Frank Wedekinds drama 'Die Büchse der Pandora' which the man from Izzy's ex wife wants to film new with the title: lulu on the bridge.
like any other stuff from auster the movie works on more than one level.
besides that the movie of course tells a story about the L word, bittersweet.
i don't think that the plot is confusing, in my opinion it is quiet simple, if you learn from auster to watch behind the things and see the obviously hidden.the plot (SPOILER!) - of course simplified:jazz musician Izzy gets shot on a concert.
in the night the stone is glowing blue (a naughty little beggar who things of austers earlier movies smoke/blue in the face;).
she tells him about an upcoming audition she's going to have for a movie: lulu on the bridge (see above).
not the end.if you think this is a sad story, don't forget, it's just a movie, it never really happened.
and if that makes you sad, you may watch a funny movie to cheer you up or better, simply fall in love.
and we can touch it & feeling much better after wards......as you may have recognized, I like the movie, so watch it, if you get the chance!.
I understand the connection but what makes Lulu On The Bridge a better film (in my opinion of course) is that it's not only about Harvey Keitel's character but also about Mira Sorvino's and her longing for someone she can be in love with.
I think the combination and interaction of these two characters makes this film much more intense than Jacob's Ladder.
There are many many hints throughout the film (maybe too many actually) to make sure you understand that it's all just taking place in the head of Harvey Keitel's character.
It's a bit sickening to see that a shallow movie like The Sixth Sense with Bruce Willis is considered as being more subtle than this when it's just as predictable but also much emptier.I'm really looking forward to seeing Paul Auster's next film !.
Too bad it didn't have a better script, it could have been a real good movie and a hit.
I wanted to like this movie more than I did.