Subway by Luc Besson (1985)
Some films can get by on their style alone, and heaven knows that Subway certainly tries. As one of the leading exemplars of the “cinéma du look” movement, Subway is often filled with visuals that I just wanted to pause and admire. One shot in particular, of Isabelle Adjani’s perfect face bathed in neon light, struck me as particularly rapturous. But all of that style serves only to reveal the hollow-ness of the movie’s story about a reckless thief (Christopher Lambert) who escapes into the Paris subway system, the various misfits and eccentrics that he encounters down there, and his infatuation with the woman he tried to rob (Adjani). Luc Besson, who also co-wrote the film, had no lack of plots, and he crams every single one of them into the film’s 104 minutes. But he does absolutely nothing to develop any of them beyond a mere sketch or idea, trusting, it seems, in the film’s vibrant visuals and anarchic spirit to carry it through. Which it does, but only so far, and not far enough.
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